¹¹ Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.

¹³ All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. ¹⁴ Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. ¹⁵ If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. ¹⁶ But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

⁶ So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord.

⁹ Jacob replied, “I have traveled this earth for 130 hard years. But my life has been short compared to the lives of my ancestors.”