Verse (Click for Chapter) New International Version Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. New Living Translation So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall. English Standard Version Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Berean Standard Bible Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same pattern of disobedience. Berean Literal Bible Therefore we should be diligent to enter into that rest, so that no one should fall by the same example of disobedience. King James Bible Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. New King James Version Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. New American Standard Bible Therefore let’s make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience. NASB 1995 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. NASB 1977 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience. Legacy Standard Bible Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall into the same example of disobedience. Amplified Bible Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for ourselves], so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience [as those who died in the wilderness]. Christian Standard Bible Let us, then, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience. Holman Christian Standard Bible Let us then make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience. American Standard Version Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, that no man fall after the same example of disobedience. Aramaic Bible in Plain English Let us take pains, therefore, to enter that rest, lest we fall in the manner of those who were not persuaded. Contemporary English Version We should do our best to enter the place of rest, so none of us will disobey and miss going there, as they did. Douay-Rheims Bible Let us hasten therefore to enter into that rest; lest any man fall into the same example of unbelief. English Revised Version Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, that no man fall after the same example of disobedience. GOD'S WORD® Translation So we must make every effort to enter that place of rest. Then no one will be lost by following the example of those who refused to obey. Good News Translation Let us, then, do our best to receive that rest, so that no one of us will fail as they did because of their lack of faith. International Standard Version Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fail by following their example of disobedience. Literal Standard Version May we be diligent, then, to enter into that rest, that no one may fall in the same example of the unbelief, Majority Standard Bible Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same pattern of disobedience. New American Bible Therefore, let us strive to enter into that rest, so that no one may fall after the same example of disobedience. NET Bible Thus we must make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the same pattern of disobedience. New Revised Standard Version Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs. New Heart English Bible Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience. Webster's Bible Translation Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Weymouth New Testament Let it then be our earnest endeavour to be admitted to that rest, so that no one may perish through following the same example of unbelief. World English Bible Let’s therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience. Young's Literal Translation May we be diligent, then, to enter into that rest, that no one in the same example of the unbelief may fall, Additional Translations ... Audio Bible Context The Sabbath Rest…10For whoever enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His. 11Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same pattern of disobedience. 12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.… Cross References Hebrews 3:18 And to whom did He swear that they would never enter His rest? Was it not to those who disobeyed? Hebrews 4:6 Since, then, it remains for some to enter His rest, and since those who formerly heard the good news did not enter because of their disobedience, 2 Peter 2:6 if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly; Treasury of Scripture Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Let. Hebrews 4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. Hebrews 6:11 And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: Matthew 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: lest. Hebrews 3:12,18,19 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God… unbelief. Acts 26:19 Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision: Romans 11:30-32 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: … Ephesians 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Jump to Previous Admitted Desire Diligence Diligent Disobedience Earnest Effort Endeavour Enter Example Fall Following God's Orders Perish Rest Sort Strive Strong Unbelief UseJump to Next Admitted Desire Diligence Diligent Disobedience Earnest Effort Endeavour Enter Example Fall Following God's Orders Perish Rest Sort Strive Strong Unbelief UseHebrews 4 1. The Sabbath-Rest for Christians is attained by faith.12. The power of God's word. 14. By our high priest Jesus, the Son of God, 16. we may and must go boldly to the throne of grace. (11) Labour.--Rather, give diligence, strive earnestly. It is the necessity of watchful and constant faithfulness that is enforced. Hence the words that follow: "Lest any one fall into (or, after) the same example of disobedience" (Hebrews 4:6; Hebrews 3:18).Verse 11. - Let us therefore do our diligence (σπουδάσωμεν, so translated in A.V. 2 Timothy 4:9, 21) to enter into that rest, lest any one fall after the same example of disobedience (ἀπειθείας: not ἀπιστίας, which means "unbelief"). It is a question, though not at all affecting the general sense of the passage, whether ἐν τῷ αὐτῶ ὑποδείγματι πέσῃ should not he translated "fall into the same example." Πίπτειν ἐν has undoubtedly the sense of "to fall into," and is frequently so used in the LXX., and the subordinate position of πέσῃ in the sentence - between ὑποδείγπατι and τῆς ἀπειθείας - is against its being used absolutely as the emphatic word. If so, the meaning will be "fall into the same exemplar of disobedience," i.e. the kind of disobedience of which that of the Israelites was a sample. This interpretation of the phrase, being that of the Vulgate, is supported by Alford, Davison, Lunemann; though most modern commentators (Bengel, Bleek, De Wette, Tholuck, Delitzsch, Wordsworth), with Chrysostom, take πέσῃ absolutely, as in Romans 11:11 (ruat, Bengel), and ἐν τῷ αὐτῶ ὑποδείγματι as meaning, "so as to present the same (i.e. a like) example of disobedience," the ἐν, according to Delitzsch, being the ἐν of state or condition. The warning is next enforced by a vivid representation of the penetrating and resistless power of the "Word of God." The question arises whether "the Word of God" is here to be understood in St. John's sense of the Hypostatic Word, i.e. the Second Person of the holy Trinity, who became incarnate in Christ. It is so understood by the Fathers generally; and the fact of this Epistle being tinged generally with the thought and terminology of Philo (whose use of the word λόγος, derived from the Platonic philosophy in combination with Jewish theology, seems to anticipate in some degree, however vaguely, the doctrine of St. John) gives some countenance to the view. But against it are the following considerations: - (1) Christ is not elsewhere in this Epistle designated as "the Word" but as "the SON." His eternal relation to the Father, though otherwise plainly intimated, is not expressed by this term, as it was by St. John. (2) The description of the Word, as "sharper than any two-edged sword," is not suitable to the Hypostatic Word himself, but rather to the utterance of his power. Thus in Revelation 1:16, "the Son of man," and in Revelation 19:15, "he whose name is called the Word of God," has a "sharp two-edged sword proceeding out of his mouth." The sword is not himself, but that which "came forth out of his mouth." Cf. Isaiah 11:4, "He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked;" cf. also Ephesians 6:17, "The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." Hence, notwithstanding the prevailing view of the Fathers, it seems best to understand the term here as meaning generally the Divine utterance, without definite reference to the Hypo-static Word. It was the Word of God, in this sense, that debarred the ancient Israelites from their rest, and doomed them in the wilderness; it is the same Word which still more, as being uttered in the Son, is so searching and resistless now. True, it is through the Hypostatic Word that the Godhead has ever operated, of old as well as now, being God's eternal utterance of himself: the only question is whether this truth is here intended to be expressed, or, in other words, whether λόγος has here the personal sense in which St. John uses the term. It is possible that the writer passes in thought to a personal sense in the ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ of ver. 13, where αὐτοῦ μαψ refer to ὁ λόγος preceding, rather than to τοῦ Θεοῦ. But certainly at the beginning of the passage this specific sense does not seem to be suggested either by the context or the language used. Ver. 12. - For living is the Word of God, and powerful (or, effectual; cf. Philemon 1:6; 1 Corinthians 16:9), and sharper than any two- edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Observe how the predicates form a climax. The Word of God is, first, living, instinct with the life of the living God who utters it, itself a living power (cf. λόγια ζῶντα, Acts 7:38); then, not only so, but also operative, effective of its purpose; then, in this its operation, more keenly cutting than any sword; cutting so as to perpetrate through and through - through the whole inner being of man to its inmost depths; then, in doing so, discerning and opening to judgment all the secrets of his consciousness. This description of the power of the Word of God is given as a reason fur the warning, σπουδάσωμενα etc., "Let us give diligence," etc.; for, if we slight the Word of God, we can have no escape from its irresistible operation; we shall be thoroughly exposed and inevitably judged. The view of the Word of God having a sharply cutting operation is found in Philo, from whom Bleek cites a series of passages cognate to this in the Epistle. Cf. especially one in the treatise, 'Quis Rerum Divinorum Haeres.:' Τῷ τομεῖ τῶν συμπάντων αὐτοῦ λόγῳ ὅς εἰς τὴν ὀξοτάτης ἀκονηθεὶς αὐτοῦ λογῳ ὅς οὐδεπους λήγει τὰ αἰσθητὰ πάντα ἐπειδὰν δὲ μέχρι τῶν ἀτόμων καὶ λεγομένων ἀμερῶν διεξέλθῃ, etc. And for the comparison to a sword, cf. (as above referred to) Ephesians 6:17; Revelation 1:16; Revelation 19:15; and Isaiah 11:4. The true reading of the part of the sentence, "of soul and spirit," etc., is ψυχῆς καὶ πνεύματος ἁρμῶν τε καὶ μυελῶν, the τε of the Textus Receptus after ψυχῆς being ill supported. The second τε, after ἁρμῶν, is therefore most naturally taken, and so as to give the best sense, in the sense of "both," not "and;" i.e. the second clause is not to be taken as denoting a further dividing - of the bodily parts as well as of the soul and spirit, but as expressing, by recurrence to the figure of a sword, the thoroughness of the division of soul and spirit. Further, the division spoken of is surely not of the soul from the spirit, as some have taken it. Delitzsch, e.g., explains to this effect - that in fallen man his πνεῦμα, which proceeded from God and carries in itself the Divine image, has become, "as it were, extinguished;" that "through the operation of grace man recalls to mind his own true nature, though shattered by sin;" "that heavenly nature or' man reappears when Christ is formed in him;" and thus the Word of God "marks out and separates" the πνεῦμα in him from the ψυχὴ in which it had been, "as it were, extinguished." Then, taking the clause, ἁρμῶν τε καὶ μυελῶν, to express a further process of dissection, he explains by saying that the Word of God "exhibits to man the fact that ungodly powers are working also in his bodily frame, which has now in every joint and chord and marrow become the seat of sin and death, and so "goes on to scrutinize" his bodily as well as his spiritual part," and "lays bare before the eyes of God and before his own the whole man thus described." But the idea of the separation, in the above sense, of the πνεῦμα φρομ the ψυχὴ, even if tenable, is certainly far-fetched, and that of the corporeal dissection supposed is hardly intelligible. Further, the "dividing" of the bodily parts spoken of in the text (whether an illustration or a further process) does not suggest the separation of one part from another, since a sword does not divide the joints or the limbs (whichever be meant by apathy) from the marrow, though it may penetrate both. We may explain thus: It is well known that St. Paul divides man's complex nature into body, soul, and spirit - σῶμα ψυχὴ πνεῦμα (1 Thessalonians 5:23). His bodily organization (σῶμα) is not apparently here under consideration, except in regard to the figure of the sword; the ψυχὴ is his animal life or soul, the seat (so to speak) of his sensations, and of his natural affections and desires; his πνεῦμα is the more Divine part of his nature, in virtue of which he has a conscience, aspires after holiness, apprehends spiritual mysteries, holds communion with God, and is influenced by the Divine Spirit. The idea, then, is that, as a very keen sword not only cuts through the joints dividing bone from bone, but also through the bones themselves into the marrow within them, so the Word of God penetrates and discloses not,, . only. the ψοχὴ but the πνεῦμα too, "piercing through soul and spirit, yea [with reference to the illustration used] through both joints [or, 'limbs'] and marrow." Ebrard, taking ἁρμῶν in the sense of "limbs" (a sense in which the word is used, though that of "joints" is its proper and more usual one), regards these and the "marrow" as corresponding respectively to the ψυχὴ and the νεπῦμα: the ψυχὴ being understood as "something lying deep in man, the πνεῦμα lying still deeper." Thus as a very trenchant sword cuts through, not only the limbs, but also the marrow within them, so the Word of God penetrates, not only that part of human consciousness which is expressed by ψυχὴ, but also that deeper and more inward part which is expressed by πνεῦμα. But the general sense of the passage is plain enough without our supposing this strict analogy to have been intended. Expositors, in their analysis of the meaning of passages, may often detect more than the author thought cf. On κριτικὸς ἐνθυμήσεων (translated "a discerner of"), cf. 1 Corinthians 14:24, 25, where the effects of the Word of God, brought to bear through the gift of prophecy on one without the gift entering into a congregation of prophesying Christians, are thus described: "he is convinced of all, he is judged [rather, 'examined,' 'scrutinized,' ἀνακρίνεται] of all; the secrets of his heart are made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you [or, 'among you'] of a truth." So searching and judicial is the power of the Word of God, that it reaches and discloses the inmost depths of a man's consciousness - discloses them to himself, and, though he should resist, leaves him without escape, exposed and judged. Greek Let us, therefore, make every effortΣπουδάσωμεν (Spoudasōmen) Verb - Aorist Subjunctive Active - 1st Person Plural Strong's 4704: To hasten, be eager, be zealous. From spoude; to use speed, i.e. To make effort, be prompt or earnest. to enter εἰσελθεῖν (eiselthein) Verb - Aorist Infinitive Active Strong's 1525: To go in, come in, enter. From eis and erchomai; to enter. that ἐκείνην (ekeinēn) Demonstrative Pronoun - Accusative Feminine Singular Strong's 1565: That, that one there, yonder. From ekei; that one (neuter) thing); often intensified by the article prefixed. rest, κατάπαυσιν (katapausin) Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Strong's 2663: From katapauo; reposing down, i.e. abode. so that ἵνα (hina) Conjunction Strong's 2443: In order that, so that. Probably from the same as the former part of heautou; in order that. no μὴ (mē) Adverb Strong's 3361: Not, lest. A primary particle of qualified negation; not, lest; also (whereas ou expects an affirmative one) whether. one τις (tis) Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun - Nominative Masculine Singular Strong's 5100: Any one, some one, a certain one or thing. An enclitic indefinite pronoun; some or any person or object. will fall πέσῃ (pesē) Verb - Aorist Subjunctive Active - 3rd Person Singular Strong's 4098: A reduplicated and contracted form of peto; probably akin to petomai through the idea of alighting; to fall. by [following] ἐν (en) Preposition Strong's 1722: In, on, among. A primary preposition denoting position, and instrumentality, i.e. A relation of rest; 'in, ' at, on, by, etc. the τῷ (tō) Article - Dative Neuter Singular Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the. same αὐτῷ (autō) Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Dative Neuter 3rd Person Singular Strong's 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons. pattern ὑποδείγματι (hypodeigmati) Noun - Dative Neuter Singular Strong's 5262: (a) a figure, copy, (b) an example, model. From hupodeiknumi; an exhibit for imitation or warning. of disobedience. ἀπειθείας (apeitheias) Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular Strong's 543: Willful unbelief, obstinacy, disobedience. From apeithes; disbelief. Links Hebrews 4:11 NIVHebrews 4:11 NLT Hebrews 4:11 ESV Hebrews 4:11 NASB Hebrews 4:11 KJV Hebrews 4:11 BibleApps.com Hebrews 4:11 Biblia Paralela Hebrews 4:11 Chinese Bible Hebrews 4:11 French Bible Hebrews 4:11 Catholic Bible NT Letters: Hebrews 4:11 Let us therefore give diligence to enter (Heb. He. Hb) |