For who, when they heard, rebelled? Wasn’t it all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? To whom did he swear that they wouldn’t enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient?
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Hebrews 3:16-18 sits inside this longer paragraph.
For who, when they heard, rebelled? Wasn’t it all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? To whom did he swear that they wouldn’t enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient? We see that they weren’t able to enter in because of unbelief.
Parallel Translations
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For who, when they heard, rebelled? Wasn’t it all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses?
With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
To whom did he swear that they wouldn’t enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient?
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For some when they hearde rebelled: howbe it not all that came out of Egypt vnder Moses.
But with who was he despleased.xl. yeares? Was he not displeased with them that synned: whose carkases were overthorwen in the desert?
To whom sware he that they shuld not enter into his rest: but vnto them that beleved not?
Show all 3 translations
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For some when they heard, prouoked him to anger: howbeit, not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
But with whome was he displeased fourtie yeeres? Was hee not displeased with them that sinned, whose carkeises fell in the wildernes?
And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but vnto them that obeyed not?
Cross-references (31)
- Numbers 14:29 (v17) Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were counted of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and…
- Hebrews 4:6 (v18) Seeing therefore it remains that some should enter into it, and they to whom the good news was preached before failed to enter in because…
- Numbers 14:30 (vv16, 18) surely you shall not come into the land concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh,…
- Numbers 14:2 (v16) All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “We wish that we had died in the…
- Deuteronomy 1:34-35 (v18) Yahweh heard the voice of your words and was angry, and swore, saying, “Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the…
Show all 30 cross-references
- Numbers 14:22 (v17) because all those men who have seen my glory, and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten…
- Numbers 14:32-33 (v17) But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall…
- Numbers 26:64-65 (v17) But among these there was not a man of them who were counted by Moses and Aaron the priest, who counted the children of Israel in the…
- Psalms 106:24-26 (v18) Yes, they despised the pleasant land. They didn’t believe his word, but murmured in their tents, and didn’t listen to Yahweh’s voice.…
- Numbers 20:12 (v18) Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you didn’t believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you…
- Numbers 26:65 (v16) For Yahweh had said of them, “They shall surely die in the wilderness.” There was not a man left of them, except Caleb the son of…
- Deuteronomy 1:26-32 (v18) Yet you wouldn’t go up, but rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God. You murmured in your tents, and said, “Because Yahweh…
- Deuteronomy 2:15-16 (v17) Moreover Yahweh’s hand was against them, to destroy them from the middle of the camp, until they were consumed. So, when all the men of war…
- Jude 1:5 (v17) Now I desire to remind you, though you already know this, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward…
- Numbers 14:11 (v18) Yahweh said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have…
- Deuteronomy 1:38 (v16) Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, shall go in there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.
- Deuteronomy 9:23 (v18) When Yahweh sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, “Go up and possess the land which I have given you,” you rebelled against the commandment…
- Psalms 78:17 (v16) Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.
- Hebrews 3:11 (v18) As I swore in my wrath, ‘They will not enter into my rest.’ ”
- Hebrews 4:2 (v18) For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn’t profit them, because it wasn’t mixed…
- Numbers 14:4 (v16) They said to one another, “Let’s choose a leader, and let’s return into Egypt.”
- Numbers 14:23 (v18) surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it.
- Numbers 14:24 (v16) But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him I will bring into the land into which he went.…
- Numbers 14:38 (v16) But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive of those men who went to spy out the land.
- Jeremiah 9:22 (v17) Speak, “Yahweh says, “ ‘The dead bodies of men will fall as dung on the open field, and as the handful after the harvester. No one will…
- 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 (v17) Now I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all…
- Deuteronomy 1:35-36 (v16) “Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land which I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb the son of…
- Romans 11:4-5 (v16) But how does God answer him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” Even so then at this…
- Hebrews 3:9-10 (v16) where your fathers tested me and tried me, and saw my deeds for forty years. Therefore I was displeased with that generation, and said,…
- Joshua 14:7-11 (v16) I was forty years old when Moses the servant of Yahweh sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land. I brought him word again as it was…
30 distinct cross-references across this passage (31 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (21 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv16–17 16 For some, when they had heard, etc. David…
16 For some, when they had heard, etc. David spoke of the fathers as though that whole generation were unbelieving; but it appears that some who truly feared God mingled with the wicked. The apostle mentions this to modify what had been more severely said by David, in order that we may know that the word is preached to all for this end, that all may obey it with one consent, and that the whole people were justly condemned for unbelief, when the body was torn and mutilated by the defection of the greatest part.
But by saying that some provoked, while yet they were by far the greatest part, this object was not only to avoid giving offense, but also to encourage the Jews to imitate those who believed; as though he had said, “As God forbids you to follow the unbelief of the fathers, so he sets before you other fathers whose faith is to be your example”. Thus is mitigated what otherwise might have appeared too hard; that is, had they been commanded wholly to dissent from their fathers. To come out by Moses, means by the hand of Moses, for he was the minister of their deliverance. But there is an implied comparison between the benefit which God had bestowed on them by Moses, and the participation of Christ previously mentioned.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv16–18 16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke:…
16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
Ver. 16. Howbeit not all] Yet all fell in the wilderness save Joshua and Caleb. Good men are oft wrapped up in a common calamity. The righteous perisheth, Isa 57:1, so the world thinketh; "But whether they live, they live unto the Lord, or whether they die, they die unto the Lord," Rom 14:8. The good grain is cut down together with the tares, but to another and to a better purpose.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv16–18 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: this…
For some, when they had heard, did provoke: this is a rational enforcement of the former duty pressed; it being as possible for them to provoke Christ as others, they should look to it, and not harden their hearts; for the greater some, the most of the congregation of Israel, imbittered God’s Spirit by their unbelief and hardness of heart; though Christ spake to them from heaven, as never was before done, and daily by Moses they were hearing counsels by which they might live, yet provoked they him, and would not believe.
Howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses: this rightly interprets the psalmist, and sets a better example of their fathers for them to follow. Let Caleb and Joshua, believers, and obedient to God, be your patterns to imitate. He aggravates the disobedience of the one, and the obedience of the other. They all had equally a clear exemption and deliverance from the place of bondage, and that by Moses, by whom God wrought such miracles as might command faith from any; yet these some, by murmuring and striving with the Redeemer, provoked him: how great is their sin! How suitable and pleasing the obedience of the others to him!
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v17 Observe here, The party grieved, God; the parties grieving,…
Observe here, The party grieved, God; the parties grieving, the people of Israel: The time of both, forty years; the occasion of this grief, sin in general, unbelief in particular, hardness of heart, and final apostasy; the punishment of their sin, their carcases fell in the wilderness.
Learn 1. That sin is the proper object of God’s displeasure, the only thing he is displeased with for itself, and with the sinner for sin’s sake.
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Learn, 2. That public sins, or the sins of societies, are great, very great provocations unto God: It was not for their personal and private sins that God was thus provoked, but for their confederacy in sinning.
Learn, 3. From their exemplary punishment, their carcases fell in the wilderness; that God sometimes makes men who have been wickedly exemplary in sin, to be righteously exemplary in punishment.
The rest here spoken of is the land of Canaan, so called, because God promised it to Abraham, to plant and settle his posterity in it; and because it typified heaven that eternal rest which God has promised for his saints; into this rest the rebellious and unbelieving Israelites must not enter.
God swore the contrary, he swore by himself, he swore in his wrath, he swore to make his sentence irrevocable and immutable.
Lord! thine oath stands as a bar against the Israelites of old, and cuts of all hope of future entrance into thy eternal rest which they have eternally forfeited! To whom swore he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
Learn hence, 1. That unbelief is the immediate root and cause of all provoking sins. Did men believe the happiness of Heaven, they would not neglect it; did they believe the torments of Hell, they would avoid them.
Learn, 2. That the oath of God is engaged against all unbelief, and no unbeliever shall enter into the rest of God, Heb 3:19. We see they could not enter in because of unbelief.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv16–18 But with whom was he grieved forty years?.... As…
But with whom was he grieved forty years?.... As is said in Psa 95:10; see Gill on Heb 3:10,
was it not with them that had sinned; not merely by committing personal iniquities, and particular provocations, which all men are guilty of, but by committing public sins; they sinned as a body of men; they joined together in the commission of sin; every sin is grieving to God, because it is contrary to his nature, is an act of enmity to him, is a transgression of his righteous law, and a contempt of his authority; but especially public sins, or the sins of a multitude, and when they are persisted in, which was the case of the Israelites; they sinned against him during the forty years they were in the wilderness; and so long was he grieved with them: the Alexandrian copy reads, "with them that believed not"; which points out the particular sin these men were guilty of, and which was so grieving to God, and suits well with the apostle's design:
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whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? and so never entered into the land of Canaan. They died in the wilderness; and they did not die common and natural deaths, at least not all of them; their deaths were by way of punishment; in a way of wrath; in a judicial way: the Syriac version renders it, "their bones fell in the wilderness"; they lay scattered and unburied, and exposed to view, as an example of divine vengeance, see Num 14:29.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v16 Were they not all that came out of Egypt…
Were they not all that came out of Egypt - An awful consideration! The whole elect people of God (a very few excepted) provoked God presently after their great deliverance, continued to grieve his Spirit for forty years, and perished in their sin!
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv16–18 Verse 16. For some, when they had heard, did…
Verse 16. For some, when they had heard, did provoke] There is a various reading here, which consists merely in the different placing of an accent, and yet gives the whole passage a different turn: - τινες, from τις, who, if read with the accent on the epsilon, τινες, is the plural indefinite, and signifies some, as in our translation; if read with the accent on the iota, τινες, it has an interrogative meaning; and, according to this, the whole clause, τίνες γαρ ακουσαντες παρεπικραναν: But who were those hearers who did bitterly provoke? αλλ' ου παντες οἱ εξελθοντες εξ Αιγυπτου δια Μωσεως; Were they not all they who came out of the land of Egypt by Moses? Or, the whole clause may be read with one interrogation: But who were those hearers that did bitterly provoke, but all those who came out of Egypt by Moses? This mode of reading is followed by some editions, and by Chrysostom and Theodoret, and by several learned moderns. It is more likely that this is the true reading, as all that follows to the end of the 18th verse is a series of interrogations.
Should it be said that all did not provoke, for Joshua and Caleb are expressly excepted; I answer, that the term all may be with great propriety used, when out of many hundreds of thousands only two persons were found who continued faithful. To these also we may add the priests and the whole tribe of Levi, who, it is very likely, did not provoke; for, as Dr. Macknight very properly remarks, they were not of the number of those who were to fight their way into Canaan, being entirely devoted to the service of the sanctuary. See Nu 1:3; Nu 1:45, and Nu 1:49. And therefore what remained of them after forty years, no doubt, entered Canaan; for it appears from Nu 34:17, and Jos 24:33, that Eleazar, the son of Aaron, was one of those who did take possession of Canaan. Should it be still said our version appears to be most proper, because all did not provoke; it may be answered, that the common reading, τινες, some, is too contracted in its meaning to comprehend the hundreds of thousands who did rebel.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv16–17 Heb 3:16. For some, &c. — As if he…
Heb 3:16. For some, &c. — As if he had said, You have need to attend; be watchful and circumspect. For some — Yea, many; when they had heard — The voice of God in giving the law, and the various instructions which God granted them in the wilderness; did provoke — Literally, bitterly provoke, that is, God, whose voice they heard. By this consideration the apostle enforces his exhortation; when the people, says he, of old heard the voice of God in that dispensation of his law and grace which was suited to their condition, some of them provoked God; and whereas those also may do so who hear his voice in the dispensation of the gospel, it concerns all that hear it to take care that they be not disobedient; for, under every dispensation, dreadful is the consequence of abused mercy. Howbeit, not all that came out of Egypt — In the preceding discourse the apostle had expressed the sin and punishment of the people indefinitely, so as to appear at first view to include the whole generation in the wilderness; but here he makes an exception, which may refer to three sorts of persons. First, Those who were under twenty years of age in the second year after their coming out of Egypt, and who were not numbered in the wilderness of Sinai. See Num 1:1; Num 1:3. For of those that were then numbered, there was not a man left save Caleb and Joshua, but they all died, because of their provocation. Secondly, the tribe of Levi; for the threatening and oath of God was only against them that were numbered, and Moses was expressly commanded not to number the Levites; although it is much to be feared that the generality of this tribe also provoked and fell. Thirdly, Caleb and Joshua are excepted; and indeed seem here to be principally intended. Now the apostle thus expresses the limitation of his former general assertion, that he might enforce his exhortation by the example of them who believed and obeyed the voice of God, and therefore entered into his rest; as well as of those who provoked, and therefore were prohibited from entering it. So that he draws his argument not only from the severity of God, which at the first view seems to be only set forth, but also from his implied faithfulness and mercy.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv16–18 For some - Some of the Hebrews who came…
For some - Some of the Hebrews who came out of Egypt. The truth was that a large proportion of them rebelled against God, and provoked him to indignation. It is somewhat remarkable that though “all” the Hebrews seem to have joined in the provocation - except a very small number - Paul should have used language which would seem to imply that the number which rebelled was comparatively small. Another version, therefore, has been given to this passage by some of the most eminent critics, consisting merely in a change in the punctuation, by which a different view is given of the whole sentence. According to this, it would be a question, and would mean, “But who were they who when they had heard did provoke? Were they not all indeed who came out of Egypt under Moses? And with whom was He angry for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?” This version was adopted by Chrysostom, Theodoret, and others of the Fathers; and is adopted by Rosenmuller, Clarke, Stuart, Pyle, and some others. In favor of it, it may be alleged:
(1)That the Greek will bear it, all the change required being in the punctuation;
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(2)That it avoids the difficulty which exists in the other interpretation of supposing the apostle to imply that but few of them rebelled, when the truth was that it was nearly all;
(3)It thus accords with the remainder of the exhortation, which consists in a series of questions; and,
(4)It agrees with the scope and design of the whole.
The object was not to state that it was not all who came out of Egypt that rebelled, or that the number was small, but that the great body of them rebelled and fell in the wilderness, and that Christians should be admonished by their example. These reasons seem to be so strong as to make it probable that this is the true construction, and the sense then will be, “For who were they that having heard did provoke? Were they not all who came out of Egypt under Moses?”
When they had heard - Had heard God speaking to them, and giving them his commands.
Did provoke - Provoked him to anger; or their conduct was such as was suited to produce indignation; see the note on Heb 3:8.
Howbeit - Αλλά Alla. “But.” This particle “in a series of questions, and standing at the head of a question, means “but, further.” It serves to connect, and give intensity to the interrogation” - Stuart. Paul means to ask with emphasis whether the great mass of those who came out of Egypt did not apostatize? At the same time he means to intimate that there is no security that they who have witnessed - remarkable manifestations of the greatness of God, and who have partaken of extraordinary mercies, will not apostatize and perish. As the Hebrews, who heard God speak from Mount Sinai, revolted and perished, so it is possible that they who witness the mercies of God in redemption, may be in danger of abusing all those mercies, and of perishing. By the example, therefore, of the disobedient Israelites, he would admonish professed Christians of their danger.
Not all ... - According to the interpretation proposed above, “Were they not all who came out of Egypt?” Or “did not all who came out of Egypt?” The word “all” here is not to be taken in the strict sense, It is often used to denote the great body; a large proportion; or vast multitudes. Thus, it is used in Mat 3:5, “Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan.” So in Joh 3:26, “The same baptizeth, and all people came to him.” So Phi 2:21, “For all seek their own;” 2Co 3:2, “Ye are our epistle, known and read of all men.” “In fact” there were two exceptions - and but two - of the adults who came out of Egypt - Caleb and Joshua; Num 14:30. All the others complained against the Lord, and were prohibited from entering the promised land. Of the great multitudes who came out of Egypt, and who murmured, the exception was so small that the apostle had no scruple in saying in general that they were all rebellious.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv16–17 Let us not flatter ourselves with having quitted Egypt…
Let us not flatter ourselves with having quitted Egypt by our baptism, unless we also quit that opposition, and that disobedience of our heart to the laws and maxims of the gospel. The Israelites, under the guidance of Moses, left Egypt for the promised land, and after travelling in the desert for the space of two years, found themselves on the confines of that so much desired country; but the possession of it was denied them, and they were left to perish in the desert, because they distrusted God’s promises, and were incredulous to his word. All that happened to this chosen people, says St. Paul, was a figure of what was to happen to us. Here then we may read our destiny, if, like them, we prove ungrateful to God.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv16–18 For some--rather interrogatively, "For WHO was it that, when…
For some--rather interrogatively, "For WHO was it that, when they had heard (referring to 'if ye will hear,' Heb 3:15), did provoke (God)?" The "For" implies, Ye need to take heed against unbelief: for, was it not because of unbelief that all our fathers were excluded (Eze 2:3)? "Some," and "not all," would be a faint way of putting his argument, when his object is to show the universality of the evil. Not merely some, but all the Israelites, for the solitary exceptions, Joshua and Caleb, are hardly to be taken into account in so general a statement. So Heb 3:17-18, are interrogative: (1) the beginning of the provocation, soon after the departure from Egypt, is marked in Heb 3:16; (2) the forty years of it in the wilderness, Heb 3:17; (3) the denial of entrance into the land of rest, Heb 3:18. Compare Note, see on Co1 10:5, "with the majority of them God was displeased."
howbeit--"Nay (why need I put the question?), was it not all that came out of Egypt?" (Exo 17:1-2).
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by Moses--by the instrumentality of Moses as their leader.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv16–17 16. Some—It is a query (depending on the Greek…
16. Some—It is a query (depending on the Greek accent upon the Greek word for some) whether this verse is affirmation or question. If it be an affirmation, the meaning then is, some provoked, but not all. But the provokers, in fact, were all with an exceptional two—Caleb and Joshua, Nor does the train of thought require a depreciation of the practically all into a some. On the contrary, the force of our author’s strain of warning here is increased rather by emphasizing the all, and overlooking the exceptions. The obvious interpretation, therefore, is to bring the verse into interrogative form, in accordance with the series of five interrogations, of which this verse contains two. Read thus: For who, when they heard, did provoke? Was it not all that came out of Egypt by Moses? The for, then, refers to the danger implied in the if of Heb_3:14; the danger of failing, as the mass of Israel did, of attaining rest in Christ. The for, therefore, introduces the whole drift of the following interrogations.
The series of questions argues that it was the provokers, the all, who sinned, and who believed not, that were the subjects of God’s grief, of his destructive judgment, and his menacing oath. The whole history shows, then, that perdition arises from unbelief as concludingly asserted in Heb_3:19.
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c. Was it not the unbelievers who failed of that rest? Then let us fear, Heb_3:16 to Heb_4:2.
This paragraph is a series of questions impressing upon the Hebrews the fact that the underlying cause of Israel’s destruction in the wilderness was one—unbelief. Heb_3:19. This furnishes basis for an inferential exhortation against apostasy by this same unbelief, commencing with the therefore of Heb_4:1, and extending to Heb_4:16.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv16–18 16. some, when they had heard, did provoke] Rattier,…
16. some, when they had heard, did provoke] Rattier, “Who (τίνες) when they heard, embittered (Him)”? This is the reading of the Peshito. It would have been absurd to use the word “some” of 600,000 with only two exceptions, Num_14:38; Jos_14:8-9.
howbeit not all] Rather, “Nay! was it not all?” (i.e. all except Caleb and Joshua). It is true that the rendering is not free from difficulty, since there seems to be no exact parallel to this use of ἀλλ' οὐ. But it involves less harshness than the other.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv16–18 (16) For.—The connecting link is the thought of “the…
(16) For.—The connecting link is the thought of “the provocation.” A slight change in the accentuation of the first Greek word effects a complete change in the sense: For who when they had heard did provoke? Nay, was it not all that came out of Egypt through Moses? Those who were disobedient were the people whom God, through Moses, had but now delivered from bondage! The two exceptions (Num_14:30) are left out of account in the presence of the multitude of rebels. There can be little doubt that the above translation (now generally received) presents the true meaning of the verse. It will be remembered that the oldest MSS. give no evidence on such points as accentuation, and therefore leave our judgment free. In modern times Bengel was the first to point out the true form of the Greek word; but one of the ancient versions (the Peschito-Syriac), and at least three of the Greek Fathers, are found to give the same interpretation. It will be seen at once that, with this arrangement of the words, the present verse is similar in structure to the two following.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On v16 Vers. 16-19. For who, when they heard, provoked? Nay,…
Vers. 16-19. For who, when they heard, provoked? Nay, did net all those who came out of Egypt by Moses. That both these clauses are interrogative, and not as taken in the A.V, is now the prevalent view. The reasons for thus understanding them are
(1) The analogy of the two following verses, both of which are interrogative, and in the first of which a question is similarly answered by putting another; and
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(2) The sense required. If the clauses were assertions, they could only be meant to express that the provocation was not universal, inasmuch as Joshua and Caleb (and it might be some few others) remained faithful. But to say this is unnecessary and irrelevant to the argument, the drift of which is to warn by "the example of unbelief;" and could tinev ("some") possibly be used to denote the whole congregation with the exception of so few? It is to be observed, too, that the all ou at the beginning of the second clause is a proper Greek expression (equivalent to "nay") in the case of one question being answered by another. (of Luk_17:7, Luk_17:8) This verse, then (gar retaining its usual sense of "for"), begins a proof, put in the form of a series of questions, of the preceding implied proposition, viz. that the retention of Christian privilege is dependent on perseverance, and that the privilege may be forfeited. In order to show this fully, the history of Numbers 14., referred to in the warning of the psalm, is examined in connection with the successive expressions of the warning; and it thus appears that all who came out of Egypt by Moses (the small exception of the faithful spies being disregarded) provoked God, and so forfeited their privilege, and that the cause of their failure was sin, disobedience, and, at the root of all, unbelief. The conclusion is obvious that, as their example is held out in the psalm as a warning to us, we may, all or any of us, similarly forfeit our higher calling. That the psalm is a warning to us, the rest it points to being the rest won for us by Christ, is more fully shown in the following chapter. We observe how the leading words in Psalm 95 are taken in succession in the three successive verses parapikrasmov in ver. 16, proswcyisa in ver. 17, wmosa in ver. 18 and how answers to the three questions suggested by these words are found in Numbers 14 to the first, in vers. 2, 10, etc., all the children of Israel," "all the congregation;" to the second, in vers. 29-34, with citation of the words used; to the third, in vers. 21-24. It is to be observed, further, that it is not simply apistia , but its exhibition in actual sin and disobedience (toiv amarthsasi toiv apeiyhsasi), that is spoken of as calling forth the Divine wrath and the Divine oath. The second of the above words implies more titan "believed not" (as in the A.V); apeiyein differs from apistein in implying disobedience or contumacy. And this view of the case of the Israelites agrees entirely with the historical record, where an actual rebellion is spoken of a refusal to go on with the work they had been called to. It suits also the application to the case of the Hebrew Christians, among whom (as has been said) it was not only wavering of faith, but, as its consequence, remissness in moral duty and in the facing of trial, of which the writer of the Epistle had perceived symptoms, and on the ground of which he warns them to take heed lest growing indifference should be hardened into apostasy. But in both instances, as faith is the root of all virtue, so want of it was the cause, and again the growing result, of moral decadence. And so the argument is summed up in the concluding verse, And we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Ver. 19. The dread disability.
"So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." Our text
I REFUTES SEVERAL ASSIGNED REASONS FOR MAN"S FAILURE TO ATTAIN SALVATION.
If any one does not enter the spiritual rest which God has graciously provided for man, it is:
1. Not by reason of anything in the purposes or predestinations of God.
His purposes are the purposes of a Being of perfect righteousness, and of infinite wisdom and love. He could not ordain an evil thing, or have any intentions which are inimical to the well-being of his creatures; for he is God the Supremely Good. (cf. Eze_33:11 1Ti_2:4-6)
2. Not by reason of any deficiency in God"s redemptive provisions. These are abundant, inexhaustible, and entirely free. The atonement of Jesus Christ, which is perfectly adapted to reconcile man to God, is as efficacious for a million hearts as it is for one. (cf. Isa_55:1, Isa_55:2, Isa_55:6, 7 Mat_22:1-10 Luk 14:16-23Jo Luk_3:14-17 Rev_22:17)
3. Not by reason of any inability to accept God"s redemptive provisions.
The condition upon which salvation is appropriated by man is sincere and hearty faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every sane man can comply with this condition if he will.
4. Not by reason of any deficiency of evidence for the essential truths of Christianity. The Christian religion is founded upon facts, which are as well attested as any facts of history.
II AFFIRMS THE TRUE REASON FOR MAN"S FAILURE TO ATTAIN SALVATION. "They were not able to enter in because of unbelief." This unbelief is not intellectual or theoretical, but practical, and resulting in disobedience. The unbelief of the Israelites here spoken of totally unfitted them for entering the promised land. (see Num_14:1-4, Num_14:22, Num_14:23, Num 14:26-25) Their unbelief had stripped them of hope and of courage, and reduced them to humiliating despondency and cowardice. No one can enter upon any worthy inheritance without the exercise of faith. For the discovery of new countries, for the exploration of unknown lands, for the carrying out of great reformations or ameliorations, for the perfecting of beneficent inventions, for the accomplishment of every worthy and noble enterprise, the possession and exercise of faith is indispensable. The attainment of salvation is impossible apart from faith. Unbelief it is which excludes men from the true rest of the soul. They are "not able to enter in because of unbelief." This is the dread disability, the unwillingness to heartily and practically believe in Jesus Christ. "Ye will not come to me, that ye may have life." If any man is not saved, he alone is to blame. He is diseased, yet he turns aside from the remedy. He is condemned, yet he refuses to accept the offered pardon. He is self-destroyed. W.J.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv16–17 Borne, when they had heard, did provoke
Heb_3:16
Borne, when they had heard, did provoke
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Some but not all bad
I.
MANY HEAR THE WORD OR VOICE OF GOD TO NO ADVANTAGE, BUT ONLY TO AGGRAVATE THEIR SIN. Their hearing renders their sin provoking unto God, and destructive to their own souls. It is, I confess, a great privilege for men to have the Word preached unto them, and to hear it (Psa_147:19-20). But privileges are as men use them. In themselves, they are of worth, and to be prized. But unto us, they are as they are used. Hence the gospel comes unto some a savour of death unto death (2Co_2:16). Yea, Christ Himself, in His whole ministry was a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, a gin and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Isa_8:14; Luk_2:34). And the enjoyment of any part of the means of grace is but a trial.
II. IN THE MOST GENERAL AND VISIBLE APOSTASIES OF THE CHURCH, GOD STILL RESERVES A REMNANT UNTO HIMSELF TO BEAR WITNESS UNTO:HIM AND FOR HIM, BY THEIR FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. This He hath done, and this He will do.
1. To maintain His own kingdom in the world.
2. Should all faith utterly fail in the earth, should all professors provoke God and apostatise from Him, all gracious intercourse between the Holy Spirit and mankind in the world would be at an end.
3. Goal will do this for the work that He hath for some of His in all ages and seasons to do in the world. And this is great and various. He will have some always to conflict with His adversaries and overcome them, and therein give testimony to the power of His grace and truth.
4. God will always have a testimony given to His goodness, grace, and mercy.
5. God will always have a revenue of especial glory out of the world, in and by His worship.
III. GOD LAYS A FEW, OFT-TIMES A VERY FEW, OF HIS SECRET ONES IN THE BALANCE AGAINST THE GREATEST MULTITUDE OF REBELS AND TRANSGRESSORS. They are His portion, His inheritance, His jewels, dear to Him as the apple of His eye, and deservedly preferred unto the greatest heap of chaff and rubbish. (John Owen, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv16–18 16. For some, when they had heard, did provoke.…
16. For some, when they had heard, did provoke. Some in the wilderness heard God, but refused to listen, and did not provoke him. Howbeit not all. There were a few exceptions; Joshua and Caleb, Eliezer, and perhaps some more of the Levites.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v18 When Israel evacuated the brick kilns and mortar yards…
ARGUMENT 2
THE TWO RESTS: REST AND PERFECT REST.
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When Israel evacuated the brick kilns and mortar yards they rested from the toils of slavery and the rod of the taskmaster. When they crossed the Red Sea they escaped forever out of the dominion of Pharaoh. Egypt emblematizes sin; the taskmasters, evil habits; and Pharaoh, the devil. It is said in Deuteronomy, “God led them out that he might lead them in,” i.e., out of Egypt into Canaan. Though the congregations to which Moses preached in Egypt were all “sinners,” the great burden of his preaching was on sanctification. He said very little about the wilderness which they would enter when they crossed the sea, but much about the land flowing with milk and honey, and abounding in corn and wine. The grand incentive and culminating aspiration for which they left Egypt was the land of Canaan. Jesus, in Mat 11:28-30, promises the sinner two rests: first, rest from his burden of guilt; and second, rest for his soul. In Old Testament symbolism the soul is typified by the body. in the emancipation under Moses, Israel rested from slavery and Pharaoh. Still their weary feet and hungry bodies found no rest in the howling wilderness till they crossed the Jordan, where comfortable houses which they had never built, and abundance of old corn which they had not reared, and delicious fruits pendant from trees which they had never planted, saluted them on all sides, and bade them rest from their long and weary wanderings in perfect peace and enjoy all the luxuries heart can wish. Pursuant to this instructive similitude, justification gives us rest from the awful slavery of evil habits and the power of Satan; but it is not the perfect rest for which the heart sighs, while it wanders through the howling wilderness of inbred sin. Old Adam, though conquered and bound, still lives in the deep subterranean jungles of unsanctified affection. He growls and rages like a sore-headed bear, and if we do not constantly watch and pray he will get loose and play sad havoc, again bringing us into bondage. The soul can not enjoy perfect rest so long as it is beleaguered with internal enemies. Entire sanctification crucifies old Adam, puts all of our enemies on the outside, expurgates evil affections from the deep interior of the spiritual organism, and superinduces the perfect rest which we lost in Eden. It is truly, significantly and pre-eminently the soul’s repose, for which the whole world has been roaming, sighing and crying for the last six thousand years. It is a sweet prelibation of the heavenly rest. It is never enjoyed in simple justification, which is the reversal of the condemnatory sentence, and always brings the peace of pardon, but never the peace of purity. Regeneration gives you a new heart, but does not exterminate the hereditary depravity from which all actual sins emanate. The heart of the whole world aches, longs and yearns for this perfect rest, but blinded by Satan they seek it in myriad ways, only to add disappointment, mortification, withered hopes and perished aspirations to the mountains of sin already crushing them into hopeless despair. Millions of blind guides throughout the whole earth raise the hue and cry, “Come this way!” only to plunge you into blacker darkness, eclipsing the last lingering ray of the forlorn hope which has impelled you on, like the ignis fatuus,
“whose delusive ray Lights up unreal worlds and glows but to betray.”
Meanwhile millions of preachers — Protestant, papal, pagan and Moslem — are vociferously clamoring and indefatigably toiling to acquiesce and tranquilize the discontented multitudes, vainly and mournfully looking to them for the great universal desideratum of fallen humanity, which they are painfully conscious of their utter incompetency ever to impart. Hence the carnal clergy of all ages and nations have done their utmost to satisfy their people without this perfect rest; meanwhile it has been their study and labor night and day to persuade them that there is no such thing. Still the insatiable longing of poor fallen humanity will not down. Like Banquo’s ghost, it haunts all nations, semper et ubique. This universal discontentment and longing after soul repose is superinduced by the conviction of the Holy Ghost, who most assuredly would never provoke this soul cry if He were not able and willing to satisfy it. The secular clergy in all ages, whether pagan, Moslem, papal or Protestant, have pertinaciously fought the doctrine and experience of entire sanctification, because it takes the people out of their hands and turns them over to God, thus interfering with their ecclesiastical organizations and enterprises, notwithstanding their utter incompetency to satisfy this universal clamor for soul rest. Their great hobby is theological complicity unscrupulously concocted, simply to effect indefinite postponement. They will have you like the boy, forever running to the rainbow’s end to find the pot of gold, only with weary limb and broken heart to learn at last the same sad lesson over and over, that pursuit and possession are different words.
18. In this verse it is stated that God hath sworn that they never can enter into this rest save by faith alone.
19. “We see that they were not able to enter in on account of their unbelief.” This refers to Israel at Kadesh-Barnea where they made the fatal mistake of all their history. Instead of entering Canaan for which they had left Egypt and traveled through the wilderness, having reached the very border, “holy delight,” they turned back again into the howling wilderness. It is not because they did not desire and intend to possess the land, for this was the great enterprise of their lives; but they felt utterly incompetent to conquer those giants, and take the land by conquest. Hence, they retreat away, thinking to wait till they get in better fix for the arduous enterprise of conquering the country. All this was because they were seeking it by their own works, and not by faith in God. As Wesley well says, “So long as you put it off you are evidently seeking it by works.” God had promised to conquer the giants and give them the land. Hence, their fatal mistake was in seeking it by their own efforts.
1... “Lest some one of you may be made manifest to have failed.” The Greek in this passage reveals an actual failure made manifest, not as the English would indicate, only a seeming failure. There is a fearful liability of actual failure arising from our unbelief.
2. This verse affirms a literal similitude between the ancient and modern Church. They had the Gospel preached to them, but fatally blundered through unbelief, forfeiting Canaan, and bleaching their bones on the burning sand. A similar fate awaits us if, after conversion, we turn back from sanctification like Israel at Kadesh-Barnea. They postponed because they sought it by works. This has been the fatal wooden horse which has brought the cruel Greeks into Israel’s camp in all ages.
3. “For we who believe do enter into rest.” This positive and unequivocal statement of the Holy Ghost outweighs all the gradualistic theologies of all ages. It solves the problem without possible defalcation that we enter into this rest by faith alone. Hence, it is now, and all postponement is dangerous heresy. “As I swore in my wrath: they shall not enter into my rest even though their works being from the foundation of the world.”
Mark this wonderful statement of the Holy Ghost, which you do not have in the old English. He it certifies that God has sworn that you never shall enter this soul rest by works, but by faith alone. H furthermore certifies that if you had begun your good works on Creation’s morn and labored on incessantly all these six thousand years, even then you could not enter this perfect rest by works This is a most important passage, which does not appear in King James’ Version. It sweeps forever from the field the last conceivable apology for seeking sanctification by works. In justification you enter into rest, but enemies, i.e., evil tempers, passions and appetites survive in your heart, ever and anon rising up and disturbing your rest, so the soul can not abide in perfect peace. These enemies are the works of Satan which none but Jesus can destroy. 1Jn 3:8. You may spend your whole life in assiduous toil to exterminate the evil of your nature, and you will never succeed. Remember the climacteric affirmation of the Holy Ghost in this verse, confirmed by the oath of God that, if your works for the sanctification of your heart had begun with creation, and you had lived upon the earth laboring assiduously ever since, your sanctification would be no nearer than when you began. I do not wonder that the Holy Spirit gave us this sweeping and unanswerable affirmation, because He foresaw that the mammoth heresy of all ages would be sanctification by works. This world has two kinds of religion in it. God’s religion offers you salvation by the grace of God through faith, and no other way. Man’s religion, manipulated by priestcraft, couples on indefinite human works, thus vitiating the grace of God, grieving the Holy Spirit, running into idolatry, robbing Christ of His glory and plunging into hell.
4. This verse illustrates soul rest by the rest of God from the work of creation on the seventh day. Of course, God’s Sabbath means perfect rest. Sabbath is a Hebrew word which means rest. Before you get sanctified wholly you are much encumbered with toil, physical, mental and spiritual, to bring about the great desideratum, for which the soul is sighing and the heart crying, i.e., perfect rest. Never does it come till you abandon all your enterprises, smash all your air castles, and commit the work unreservedly and eternally to God, who, in the twinkling of an eye, expels out of your heart all disturbing elements, and fills you with perfect rest.
5. Here we again have God’s oath confirming forever the utter impossibility for us to receive this perfect rest by our own good works, or the intercessions of a thousand clergymen.
6, 7. The Holy Ghost is this moment calling you into His perfect rest, and in these Scriptures importunately pleading and solemnly warning you, lest you reject His call, harden your heart go zigzagging through the howling wilderness of inbred sin and bleach your bones beneath a tropical sky; like old Israel because they turned back from Kadesh-Barnea, despite the positive promises of Jehovah to conquer their enemies and give them the land, and the terrible warnings of castigatory judgments in case of apostasy.
8. “If Joshua had given them rest he would not have spoken concerning another day after these things.” The glorious temporal rest of Canaan into which Joshua led them was not the ultimatum of their hopes and anticipations, but a glorious reminder an adumbration of the heavenly rest to which they aspired.
9. “Therefore a rest is reserved for the people of God.” In all the preceding passages the Greek word for rest is katapausis. In this verse it is sabbatismos, which means sabbatism, or the sabbath, which the soul enjoys in its unutterable and perfect repose in Jesus. Under the law of Moses the Sabbath breaker was punished with death, which is strikingly significant of the iron rule, characteristic of the divine administration in the sanctified experience. Just as every Sabbath breaker was punished with death, so God requires us to inflict death upon every intruder into the soul’s perfect repose. Nothing but sin can ever disturb this perfect rest. God’s method with sin is destruction. Hence He requires the utter extermination of every evil temper and inclination in order that we enter this glorious spiritual Sabbatism. Having entered we are to put on the whole panoply and stand guard, night and day, with glittering sword lifted high, ready on a moment’s warning, which is always faithfully given by the Holy Ghost, to execute summary destruction to every sin, daring to invade this heavenly Sabbatism. Of course this holy Sabbatic soul rest is the heavenly state in prelibation. All of our enemies have been taken out by the great Omnipotent Deliverer. Our Sabbatism is perfect, heavenly and unutterably sweet. So deep, broad, high, delectable and elysian is this rest that it beggars all description.
Amid political and ecclesiastical paroxysms, revolutions, ostracisms and persecutions, it is absolutely imperturbable. Neither poverty, disappointment, denunciation, excommunication, scandal, physical suffering, death nor judgment can disturb this blessed Sabbath of the soul. It will not only abide in this perfect rest, but shout glory amid the awful thunders of the judgment day, the tremendous earthquakes of the resurrection morn, the appalling realities of burning worlds and the precipitate sweep of eternal ages.
10. This verse certifies that the soul rest of the believer is complete as the rest which God enjoyed on the Sabbath following the creation. Of course, everything appertaining to God is perfect. Hence it follows as a legitimate sequence that the soul, in full and complete abandonment of every burden to Jesus, enters into perfect and imperturbable repose. It is pertinent to remember that this is the rest of faith. Therefore the rest can not be perfect unless the faith is perfect. What is perfect faith? It is simply faith utterly free from doubt. The same perfect faith which is the indispensable precursor of this perfect rest must be forever perpetuated in order to the maintenance of the perfect rest.
11. “Therefore let us labor to enter into that rest, lest any one may fall by the same example of unbelief.” Thus the writer holds up before the eyes of the Palestinian Christians the sad example of their ancestors who, through unbelief, turned back at Kadesh-Barnea, lost their inheritance, and found graves in the burning sands, assuring them, as well as the Christians of all ages, that the only available panacea for unbelief, apostasy and death is this perfect rest, which he constantly holds up as the glorious privilege of the Christian. The metaphor in this verse is transcendently forcible. The conception of the writer is that we have become so habituated to, and even enamored of, this toilsome, laborious religion, in which we sweat, sigh and cry, night and day, enduring penances to expiate our guilt, and expurgate our impurity, sanctify ourselves and get ready for heaven, that it becomes the hardest task that we ever did in all our lives just to let go, fold our arms, tilt back, give Jesus the job, leave it forever in His hands, believe without a doubt that He doeth it, and raise the shout of victory. When the rustic, riding along the road, going to mill with a sack with corn in one end and a big rock in the other, was persuaded by the cottager to drop out the rock, lie went on his way rejoicing over the lightness of his load. But on his return, seeing that old smooth rock, which lie had carried twenty years, lying by the roadside, he was moved with compassion for the companion of his toils. Consequently, dismounting, he put his meal in one end of the sack and the old rock in the other, strained it up on his horse again, mounting, went on his way. How extremely difficult to prevail on people to abandon all their burdens to the Good Samaritan! While multiplied thousands, having cast woes, sorrows, troubles and trials on Him, anon take them out of His hands, again piling them on their own shoulders.
12. “The word of God is living and powerful, even sharper than any two- edged sword.”... How pertinently this declaration follows the importunate appeal of the Holy Ghost for our complete and eternal abandonment of all labor and burden to God! The Omnipotent Savior wields this wonderful two-edged sword which is none other than the inspired Word of the Infallible God. Long and hard has been the battle between your poor soul and Adam the first. Terribly have you suffered in this devastating war.
Fast are you wearing out, while the trend of conflict is decisively against you. What a glorious privilege to turn over your incorrigible enemy to another. Adam the Second in His heroic majesty is smiling on you, anxious to take the fight off your hands. The moment you turn over to Him the old man of inbred sin, He draws His glittering sword and hews him all to pieces, like Samuel hewed Agag before the Lord. Oh reader, beware of this wonderful two-edged sword, which is none other than the blessed Bible! But do not forget it has two edges, both sharp a lightning. If you receive the salvation edge, it will cut out all your sins. If you reject the salvation edge, you are bound to receive the damnation edge which will cut out all your hopes of heaven. We live in perilous times when men will not endure sound doctrine. It is almost a rare thing now to find a popular church whose members will receive the truth as it is in Jesus. As a rule, if a man preaches the Bible as it is, fearless of men and devils, he will either soon see a general stampede of the members or himself closed out. This, of itself, is a striking, universal and most obvious fulfillment of the latter day prophecies. In this verse the Holy Ghost clearly discriminates between the soul, or mind, and spirit. This is one of the innumerable Scriptures confirmatory of Biblical trichotomy. Man is a trinity, similitudinous to God, and not a dichotomy, as the great majority of preachers teach. The result of substituting dichotomy for trichotomy in the popular pulpits, is to feed the people on mentalities, instead of spiritualities and actually derail the church from the orthodox gospel track into intellectualism. and materialism. Total depravity, which is fundamental in revelation, does not appertain to mind and matter, but only to spirit. In the fall Adam did not forfeit physical life nor mental perspicacity, but only spiritual life. Hence the feasibility of propagating religion and building up churches indefinitely on material and intellectual lines, with no spirituality in them and, of course, no salvation, is nothing but wholesale delusion — Satan’s greased planks on which to slide people into hell.
13. It is the province of this wonderful sword, the living Word, when honestly received amid the illuminations of the Holy Ghost, to literally dissect the entire spiritual organism, interpenetrating the remotest fibers and fasciculi of the deepest recesses and darkest jungles throughout the fallen spiritual organism, unearthing all the hidden things of darkness and revealing to the illuminated spiritual eye everything in his heart disconformatory to the divine image and will, and simultaneously unveiling the wondrous fountain of radical and complete expurgation. Reader, if you ever expect to live in heaven, begin now to bare your bosom to the glittering sword of God’s infallible Word. Satan will compass you with myriad temptations to evade it. If you do, mark it down, you will land in hell. You will hear people on all sides actually “handling the Word of God deceitfully,” blindly manipulated by Satan for the damnation of all who hear them. Remember, your creed will not be mentioned when you stand before the great white throne. You will be judged by the Bible alone. Look out, for your soul is certainly in imminent peril. So it is the current policy of the popular churches to close out, and even ecclesiastically decapitate, the man who refuses to soften God’s hard truth, and to smooth God’s rough truth, and thus “handle the Word of the Lord deceitfully,” but, true to the Holy Ghost, lifts up the two-edged sword, scores deep and hews to the line, regardless of consequences. If you are too cowardly to preach the Word as it is, regardless of creeds, councils, ostracism and decapitation, God will excuse you, but another more worthy will take your crown. Earth and hell are now combined to handicap the preachers. These are perilous times, which try men’s souls. Few have the courage to stem the popular tide, brook official carnality, and ignore the castigations of the hierarchy. Under these terrible gatling guns of earth and hell, preachers are going down in solid platoons. Yet God is not going to want for voices to cry aloud and spare not. If the cultured clergy will not be true, God will excuse them and fill their places ten to one with the rustic laity, uncouth, from the slums and jungles, washed in the blood, and baptized with fire, filled with the perfect love, which makes them like Gideon’s braves, competent to put to flight one thousand to one. The world must have the Gospel, and will have it speedily. The Lord is nigh, and the King’s business requireth haste. The Holy Ghost wants none to bear His message who will not cry aloud and spare not, giving to saint an sinner his portion. As Paul and Wesley both said, it is only by declaring to the people all the counsel of God that we can be clear of the blood of all men.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v17 Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23").
sinned
Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v16 General Information:
General Information:
The word "they" refers to the disobedient Israelites, and "we" refers to the author and readers. (See: Inclusive "We")
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Who was it who heard God and rebelled? Was it not all those who came out of Egypt through Moses?
The author uses questions to teach his readers. These two questions can be joined as one statement, if needed. AT: "All those who came out of Egypt with Moses heard God, yet they still rebelled." (See: Rhetorical Question)
With whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness?
The author uses questions to teach his readers. These two questions can be joined as one statement, if needed. AT: "For forty years, God was angry with those who sinned, and he let them die in the wilderness." (See: Rhetorical Question)
forty years
"40 years" (See: Numbers)
To whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if it was not to those who disobeyed him?
The author uses this question to teach his readers. AT: "And it was to those who disobeyed that he swore they would not enter his rest." (See: Rhetorical Question)
they would not enter his rest
The peace and security provided by God are spoken of as if they were rest that he can give, and as if they were a place to which people could go. AT: "they would not enter the place of rest" or "they would not experience his blessings of rest" (See: Metaphor)
because of unbelief
The abstract noun "unbelief" can be translated with a verbal phrase. AT: "because they did not believe him" (See: Abstract Nouns)
translationWords
God
rebel
Egypt
Moses
anger
year
sin
desert
oath
rest
disobey
believe
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v16 3:16-19 These verses contain a rapid-fire series of questions…
3:16-19 These verses contain a rapid-fire series of questions and answers, a common rhetorical technique. The three questions follow the progression of ideas found in Ps 95:8-11: The people of Israel rebelled against God, God was angry, and God took an oath that they would never enter his rest. The answers are taken from other Old Testament passages that focus on the Israelites’ rebellion in the wilderness (Num 14; Deut 9; Ps 106). The author drives home the terrible cost of disobedience to God.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.