Letter to the Hebrews 4

¹ Be careful, then: the promise of reaching the place of rest he had for them still holds good, and none of you must think that he has come too late for it.

² We received the Good News exactly as they did; but hearing the message did them no good because they did not share the faith of those who listened.

³ We, however, who have faith, shall reach a place of rest, as in the text: And so, in anger, I swore that not one would reach the place of rest I had for them. God’s work was undoubtedly all finished at the beginning of the world;

⁴ as one text says, referring to the seventh day: After all his work God rested on the seventh day.[*a]

⁵ The text we are considering says: They shall not reach the place of rest I had for them.

⁶ It is established, then, that there would be some people who would reach it, and since those who first heard the Good News failed to reach it through their disobedience,

⁷ God fixed another day when, much later, he said ‘today’ through David in the text already quoted: If only you would listen to him today; do not harden your hearts.

⁸ If Joshua had led them into this place of rest, God would not later on have spoken so much of another day.

⁹ There must still be, therefore, a place of rest reserved for God’s people, the seventh-day rest,

¹⁰ since to reach the place of rest is to rest after your work, as God did after his.

¹¹ We must therefore do everything we can to reach this place of rest, or some of you might copy this example of disobedience and be lost.

¹² The word of God is something alive and active: it cuts like any double-edged sword but more finely: it can slip through the place where the soul is divided from the spirit, or joints from the marrow; it can judge the secret emotions and thoughts.

¹³ No created thing can hide from him; everything is uncovered and open to the eyes of the one to whom we must give account of ourselves.

¹⁴ Since in Jesus, the Son of God, we have the supreme high priest who has gone through to the highest heaven, we must never let go of the faith that we have professed.

¹⁵ For it is not as if we had a high priest who was incapable of feeling our weaknesses with us; but we have one who has been tempted in every way that we are, though he is without sin.

¹⁶ Let us be confident, then, in approaching the throne of grace, that we shall have mercy from him and find grace when we are in need of help.