Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

3 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the apostle and chief priest of our profession, Christ Jesus,

² being stedfast to Him who did appoint him, as also Moses in all his house,

³ for of more glory than Moses hath this one been counted worthy, inasmuch as more honour than the house hath he who doth build it,

⁴ for every house is builded by some one, and He who the all things did build [is] God,

⁵ and Moses indeed [was] stedfast in all his house, as an attendant, for a testimony of those things that were to be spoken,

⁶ and Christ, as a Son over his house, whose house are we, if the boldness and the rejoicing of the hope unto the end we hold fast.

⁷ Wherefore, (as the Holy Spirit saith, `To-day, if His voice ye may hear --

⁸ ye may not harden your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of the temptation in the wilderness,

⁹ in which tempt Me did your fathers, they did prove Me, and saw My works forty years;

¹⁰ wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, Always do they go astray in heart, and these have not known My ways;

¹¹ so I sware in My anger, If they shall enter into My rest -- !')

¹² See, brethren, lest there shall be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in the falling away from the living God,

¹³ but exhort ye one another every day, while the To-day is called, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of the sin,

¹⁴ for partakers we have become of the Christ, if the beginning of the confidence unto the end we may hold fast,

¹⁵ in its being said, `To-day, if His voice ye may hear, ye may not harden your hearts, as in the provocation,'

¹⁶ for certain having heard did provoke, but not all who did come out of Egypt through Moses;

¹⁷ but with whom was He grieved forty years? was it not with those who did sin, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?

¹⁸ and to whom did He swear that they shall not enter into His rest, except to those who did not believe? --

¹⁹ and we see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.

4 We may fear, then, lest a promise being left of entering into His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short,

² for we also are having good news proclaimed, even as they, but the word heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard,

³ for we do enter into the rest -- we who did believe, as He said, `So I sware in My anger, If they shall enter into My rest -- ;' and yet the works were done from the foundation of the world,

⁴ for He spake in a certain place concerning the seventh [day] thus: `And God did rest in the seventh day from all His works;'

⁵ and in this [place] again, `If they shall enter into My rest -- ;'

⁶ since then, it remaineth for certain to enter into it, and those who did first hear good news entered not in because of unbelief --

⁷ again He doth limit a certain day, `To-day,' (in David saying, after so long a time,) as it hath been said, `To-day, if His voice ye may hear, ye may not harden your hearts,'

⁸ for if Joshua had given them rest, He would not concerning another day have spoken after these things;

⁹ there doth remain, then, a sabbatic rest to the people of God,

¹⁰ for he who did enter into his rest, he also rested from his works, as God from His own.

¹¹ May we be diligent, then, to enter into that rest, that no one in the same example of the unbelief may fall,

¹² for the reckoning of God is living, and working, and sharp above every two-edged sword, and piercing unto the dividing asunder both of soul and spirit, of joints also and marrow, and a discerner of thoughts and intents of the heart;

¹³ and there is not a created thing not manifest before Him, but all things [are] naked and open to His eyes -- with whom is our reckoning.

¹⁴ Having, then, a great chief priest passed through the heavens -- Jesus the Son of God -- may we hold fast the profession,

¹⁵ for we have not a chief priest unable to sympathise with our infirmities, but [one] tempted in all things in like manner -- apart from sin;

¹⁶ we may come near, then, with freedom, to the throne of the grace, that we may receive kindness, and find grace -- for seasonable help.

5 For every chief priest -- out of men taken -- in behalf of men is set in things [pertaining] to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins,

² able to be gentle to those ignorant and going astray, since himself also is compassed with infirmity;

³ and because of this infirmity he ought, as for the people, so also for himself to offer for sins;

⁴ and no one to himself doth take the honour, but he who is called by God, as also Aaron:

⁵ so also the Christ did not glorify himself to become chief priest, but He who spake unto him: `My Son thou art, I to-day have begotten thee;'

⁶ as also in another [place] He saith, `Thou [art] a priest -- to the age, according to the order of Melchisedek;'

⁷ who in the days of his flesh both prayers and supplications unto Him who was able to save him from death -- with strong crying and tears -- having offered up, and having been heard in respect to that which he feared,

⁸ through being a Son, did learn by the things which he suffered -- the obedience,

⁹ and having been made perfect, he did become to all those obeying him a cause of salvation age-during,

¹⁰ having been addressed by God a chief priest, according to the order of Melchisedek,

¹¹ concerning whom we have much discourse and of hard explanation to say, since ye have become dull of hearing,

¹² for even owing to be teachers, because of the time, again ye have need that one teach you what [are] the elements of the beginning of the oracles of God, and ye have become having need of milk, and not of strong food,

¹³ for every one who is partaking of milk [is] unskilled in the word of righteousness -- for he is an infant,

¹⁴ and of perfect men is the strong food, who because of the use are having the senses exercised, unto the discernment both of good and of evil.