Nielsen’s Nook

Translation and Commentary on Hebrews 3:15-19

Translation work done prior to January 1, 2010 was corrupted when bringing non-English texts over to our new system. We are working to manually replace the corrupted texts. Thank you for your patience.

15 as it is said:

Today if you should hear[1] his voice, Do not harden your hearts as during the rebellion.[2]

16 For who were those who heard and rebelled? Was it not everyone who came out from Egypt by means of Moses? 17 And with whom was he[3] angered for forty[4] years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the desert? 18 And to whom did he swear they would not enter his rest,[5] if not those who disbelieved?[6] 19 So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.[7]

[1] Plural "you".

[2] This seems to be a reference to Psalm 95:7b-11, where there is a more detailed description of the rebellion during the time of the Exodus that precipitated the forty year wilderness wandering.

[3] i.e., the Lord.

[4] There is a slight spelling difference in the Byzantine Text (????????????) from the NA27 (????????????).

[5] ?????????? c.f., Hebrews 3:11.

[6] ??????? literally to disobey God or his commands. For early Christians "the supreme disobedience was a refusal to believe". This use of ??????? to mean disbelieve is not found outside biblical literature and is disputed (BAGD, 82). Hebrews 3:19 seems to argue for the sense of disbelief here.

[7] ???????? unbelief, ? + ??????.