Hebrews 3

1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heauenly vocation, consider the Apostle and high Priest of our profession Christ Iesus:

Therefore, Christian Brothers, you who, all alike, have received the Call from Heaven, fix your attention on Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our Religion.

2 Who was faithfull to him that hath appointed him, euen as Moses was in al his house.

See how faithful he was to the God who appointed him, as Moses was in the whole House of God.

3 For this man is counted worthy of more glory then Moses, inasmuch as he which hath builded the house, hath more honour then the house.

He has been deemed worthy of far higher honour than Moses, just as the founder of the House is held in greater regard than the House itself.

4 For euery house is builded of some man, and he that hath built all things, is God.

For every House has its founder, and the founder of the universe is God.

5 Now Moses verely was faithfull in all his house, as a seruant, for a witnesse of the thinges which should be spoken after.

While the faithful service of Moses in the whole House of God was that of a servant, whose duty was to bear testimony to a Message still to come,

6 But Christ is as the Sonne, ouer his owne house, whose house we are, if we holde fast that confidence and that reioycing of that hope vnto the ende.

the faithfulness of Christ was that of a Son set over the House of God. And we are his House — if only we retain, unshaken to the end, the courage and confidence inspired by our hope.

7 Wherefore, as the holy Ghost sayth, To day if ye shall heare his voyce,

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says — ‘If to-day you hear God’s voice,

8 Harden not your hearts, as in the prouocation, according to the day of the tentation in the wildernes,

harden not your hearts, as when Israel provoked me On the day when they tried my patience in the desert,

9 Where your fathers tempted me, prooued me, and sawe my workes fourtie yeeres long.

Where your ancestors tried my forbearance, And saw my mighty deeds for forty years.

10 Wherefore I was grieued with that generation, and sayde, They erre euer in their heart, neither haue they knowen my wayes.

Therefore I was sorely vexed with that generation, And I said — “Their hearts are always straying; They have never learned my ways”;

11 Therefore I sware in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest.

While in my wrath I swore — “They shall never enter upon my Rest.”’

12 Take heede, brethren, least at any time there be in any of you an euill heart, and vnfaithfull, to depart away from the liuing God.

Be careful, Brothers, that there is never found in any one of you a wicked and faithless heart, shown by his separating himself from the Living God.

13 But exhort one another dayly, while it is called to day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulnes of sinne.

Rather encourage one another daily — while there is a ‘To-day’ — to prevent any one among you from being hardened by the deceitfulness of Sin.

14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we keepe sure vnto the ende that beginning, wherewith we are vpholden,

For we now all share in the Christ, if indeed we retain, unshaken to the end, the confidence that we had at the first.

15 So long as it is sayd, To day if ye heare his voyce, harden not your hearts, as in the prouocation.

To use the words of Scripture — ‘If to-day you hear God’s voice, Harden not your hearts, as when Israel provoked me.’

16 For some when they heard, prouoked him to anger: howbeit, not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.

Who were they who heard God speak and yet provoked him? Were not they all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses?

17 But with whome was he displeased fourtie yeeres? Was hee not displeased with them that sinned, whose carkeises fell in the wildernes?

And with whom was it that God was sorely vexed for forty years? Was not it with those who had sinned, and who fell dead in the desert?

18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but vnto them that obeyed not?

And who were they to whom God swore that they should not enter upon his rest, if not those who had proved faithless?

19 So we see that they could not enter in, because of vnbeliefe.

We see, then, that they failed to enter upon it because of their want of faith.