Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁷ Therefore as the Holy Spirit says: Today if you hear his voice, ⁸ harden not your hearts, as in the rebellion in the day of trial in the wilderness, ⁹ where your fathers tried me, proved me, and saw my works forty years long. ¹⁰ Therefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do ever err in their hearts; they have not acknowledged my ways. ¹¹ So I swore in my wrath that they would not enter into my rest.

¹² Take heed, brethren, that there be in none of you an evil heart in unbelief, that he should depart from the living God; ¹³ but exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you grow hard-hearted through the deceitfulness of sin.

¹⁴ We are partakers of Christ if we keep sure until the end the first confidence, ¹⁵ as long as it is said: Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as when you rebelled. ¹⁶ For some, when they heard, rebelled – though not everyone who came out of Egypt under Moses. ¹⁷ But with whom was he displeased for forty years? Was he not displeased with those who sinned, whose bodies were overthrown in the desert? ¹⁸ To whom did he swear that they would not enter into his rest, but to those who did not believe? ¹⁹ And we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

The Sabbath or rest of the Christian. The punishment of unbelievers. The nature of the word of God.

4 Let us fear, therefore, lest any of us, forsaking the promise of entering into his rest, should seem to come behind. ² For to us it has been declared as well as to them. But it did not profit them to hear the word, because they who heard it did not couple it with faith. ³ But we who have believed do enter into his rest, while contrariwise he said to the others: I have sworn in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest.

And he spoke this long after the works were made and the foundation of the world laid. ⁴ For he spoke in a certain place about the seventh day this way: And God did rest on the seventh day from all his works. ⁵ And then again in this place: They shall not come into my rest. ⁶ We see therefore that it follows that some will enter into his rest, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter in due to unbelief. ⁷ Again, speaking in David, he appointed a certain present day after so long a time, saying as mentioned above, this day, if you hear his voice, be not hard-hearted.

⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, then he would not afterward have spoken of another day. ⁹ There remains therefore yet a rest for the people of God. ¹⁰ For the person who has entered into his rest does cease from his own works, as God did from his.

¹¹ Let us exercise ourselves therefore to enter into that rest, lest anyone should fall into unbelief after the same example.