⁵⁶ Your father Abraham^(A) rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it^(B) and was glad.”

⁸ Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”^{[a](A) 9} So those who rely on faith^(B) are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.^(C)

Warnings From Israel’s History

10 For I do not want you to be ignorant^(A) of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud^(B) and that they all passed through the sea.^{(C) 2} They were all baptized into^(D) Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³ They all ate the same spiritual food^{(E) 4} and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock^(F) that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.

¹⁵ For this reason Christ is the mediator^(A) of a new covenant,^(B) that those who are called^(C) may receive the promised^(D) eternal inheritance^(E)—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.^(F)

¹³ All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised;^(A) they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance,^(B) admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.^(C)