Hebrews 1-4

Hebrews 1

¹In times past the word of God came to our fathers through the prophets, in different parts and in different ways;

²But now, at the end of these days, it has come to us through his Son, to whom he has given all things for a heritage, and through whom he made the order of the generations;

³Who, being the outshining of his glory, the true image of his substance, supporting all things by the word of his power, having given himself as an offering making clean from sins, took his seat at the right hand of God in heaven;

⁴Having become by so much better than the angels, as the name which is his heritage is more noble than theirs.

⁵To which of the angels did God say at any time, You are my Son, this day I have given you being? or, I will be his Father, and he will be my Son?

⁶And again, when he is sending his only Son into the world, he says, Let all the angels of God give him worship.

⁷And of the angels he says, Who makes his angels winds, and his servants flames of fire:

⁸But of the Son he says, Your seat of power, O God, is for ever and ever; and the rod of your kingdom is a rod of righteousness.

⁹You have been a lover of righteousness and a hater of evil; and so God, your God, has put the oil of joy on your head more than on the heads of those who are with you.

¹⁰You, Lord, at the first did put the earth on its base, and the heavens are the works of your hands:

¹¹They will come to their end; but you are for ever; they will become old as a robe;

¹²They will be rolled up like a cloth, even like a robe, and they will be changed: but you are the same and your years will have no end.

¹³But of which of the angels has he said at any time, Take your seat at my right hand till I put all those who are against you under your feet?

¹⁴Are they not all helping spirits, who are sent out as servants to those whose heritage will be salvation?

Hebrews 2

¹For this reason there is the more need for us to give attention to the things which have come to our ears, for fear that by chance we might be slipping away.

²Because if the word which came through the angels was fixed, and in the past every evil act against God's orders was given its full punishment;

³What will come on us, if we do not give our minds to such a great salvation? a salvation of which our fathers first had knowledge through the words of the Lord, and which was made certain to us by those to whom his words came;

⁴And God was a witness with them, by signs and wonders, and by more than natural powers, and by his distribution of the Holy Spirit at his pleasure.

⁵For he did not make the angels rulers over the world to come, of which I am writing.

⁶But a certain writer has given his witness, saying, What is man, that you keep him in mind? what is the son of man, that you take him into account?

⁷You made him a little lower than the angels; you gave him a crown of glory and honour, and made him ruler over all the works of your hands:

⁸You put all things under his feet. For in making man the ruler over all things, God did not put anything outside his authority; though we do not see everything under him now.

⁹But we see him who was made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, crowned with glory and honour, because he let himself be put to death so that by the grace of God he might undergo death for all men.

¹⁰Because it was right for him, for whom and through whom all things have being, in guiding his sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation complete through pain.

¹¹For he who makes holy and those who are made holy are all of one family; and for this reason it is no shame for him to give them the name of brothers,

¹²Saying, I will give the knowledge of your name to my brothers, I will make a song of praise to you before the church.

¹³And again he says, I will put my faith in him. And again, See, I am here, and the children which God has given to me.

¹⁴And because the children are flesh and blood, he took a body himself and became like them; so that by his death he might put an end to him who had the power of death, that is to say, the Evil One;

¹⁵And let those who all their lives were in chains because of their fear of death, go free.

¹⁶For, truly, he does not take on the life of angels, but that of the seed of Abraham.

¹⁷Because of this it was necessary for him to be made like his brothers in every way, so that he might be a high priest full of mercy and keeping faith in everything to do with God, making offerings for the sins of the people.

¹⁸For having been put to the test himself, he is able to give help to others when they are tested.

Hebrews 3

¹For this reason, holy brothers, marked out to have a part in heaven, give thought to Jesus the representative and high priest of our faith;

²Who kept faith with God who gave him his place, even as Moses did in all his house.

³And it was right for this man to have more honour than Moses, even as the builder of a house has more honour than the house.

⁴For every house has a builder; but the builder of all things is God.

⁵And Moses certainly kept faith as a servant, in all his house, and as a witness of those things which were to be said later;

⁶But Christ as a son, over his house; whose house are we, if we keep our hearts fixed in the glad and certain hope till the end.

⁷And so, as the Holy Spirit says, Today if you let his voice come to your ears,

⁸Be not hard of heart, as when you made me angry, on the day of testing in the waste land,

⁹When your fathers put me to the test, and saw my works for forty years.

¹⁰So that I was angry with this generation, and I said, Their hearts are in error at all times, and they have no knowledge of my ways;

¹¹And being angry I made an oath, saying, They may not come into my rest.

¹²My brothers, take care that there is not by chance in any one of you an evil heart without belief, turning away from the living God:

¹³But give comfort to one another every day as long as it is still Today; so that no one among you may be made hard by the deceit of sin:

¹⁴For if we keep the substance of the faith which we had at the start, even till the end, we have a part with Christ;

¹⁵As it is said, Today if you will let his voice come to your ears, be not hard of heart, as when you made him angry.

¹⁶Who made him angry when his voice came to them? was it not all those who came out of Egypt with Moses?

¹⁷And with whom was he angry for forty years? was it not with those who did evil, who came to their deaths in the waste land?

¹⁸And to whom did he make an oath that they might not come into his rest? was it not to those who went against his orders?

¹⁹So we see that they were not able to go in because they had no belief.

Hebrews 4

¹Let us then, though we still have God's word that we may come into his rest, go in fear that some of you may be unable to do so.

²And, truly, the good news came to us, even as it did to them; but the hearing of the word did them no good, because they were not united in faith with the true hearers.

³For those of us who have belief come into his rest; even as he has said, As I said in my oath when I was angry, They may not come into my rest: though the works were done from the time of the making of the world.

⁴For in one place he has said of the seventh day, And God had rest from all his works on the seventh day;

⁵And in the same place he says again, They will not come into my rest.

⁶So that as it is clear that some have to go in, and that the first hearers of the good news were not able to go in because they went against God's orders,

⁷After a long time, again naming a certain day, he says in David, Today (as he had said before), Today if you will let his voice come to your ears, be not hard of heart,

⁸For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have said anything about another day.

⁹So that there is still a Sabbath-keeping for the people of God.

¹⁰For the man who comes into his rest has had rest from his works, as God did from his.

¹¹Because of this, let us have a strong desire to come into that rest, and let no one go after the example of those who went against God's orders.

¹²For the word of God is living and full of power, and is sharper than any two-edged sword, cutting through and making a division even of the soul and the spirit, the bones and the muscles, and quick to see the thoughts and purposes of the heart.

¹³And there is nothing made which is not completely clear to him; there is nothing covered, but all things are open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

¹⁴Having then a great high priest, who has made his way through the heavens, even Jesus the Son of God, let us be strong in our faith.

¹⁵For we have not a high priest who is not able to be touched by the feelings of our feeble flesh; but we have one who has been tested in all points as we ourselves are tested, but without sin.

¹⁶Then let us come near to the seat of grace without fear, so that mercy may be given to us, and we may get grace for our help in time of need.