^15 (A)For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are ^(B)like a shadow, and there is no abiding.^[a]

¹¹ Beloved, I urge you ^(A)as sojourners and exiles ^(B)to abstain from the passions of the flesh, ^(C)which wage war against your soul.

¹³ These all died in faith, ^(A)not having received the things promised, but ^(B)having seen them and greeted them from afar, and ^(C)having acknowledged that they were ^(D)strangers and exiles on the earth. ¹⁴ For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, ^(E)they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed ^(F)to be called their God, for ^(G)he has prepared for them a city.

⁶ So we are always of good courage. We know that ^(A)while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,

⁴⁵ Then ^(A)he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,