NIV 1984 Edition

3:1 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.

3:2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house.

3:3 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself.

3:4 For every house [God’s covenant people, not merely a physical structure; the community of people who belong to Him] is built by someone [can refer to establishing and ordering a household], but God [God is the source and sovereign architect of everything] is the builder of everything [everything involved in God’s household and redemptive plan].

3:5 “Moses was faithful [trustworthy or dependable; read Numbers 12:7] as a servant [from the Greek word thereupon; this particular word for servant only occurs in this reference in the New Testament’ the word can describe an attendant, helper, or honored servant who renders personal and willing service] in all God’s house [refers primarily to a household—the people of God; Moses served among and over God’s covenant people],” bearing witness [Moses faithfully delivered what God gave him, but his ministry pointed beyond itself] to what would be spoken by God in the future [points especially toward the revelation fulfilled and proclaimed through Christ].

3:6 But Christ is faithful [does not contrast an unfaithful Moses with a faithful Jesus; both were faithful; contrast concerns their relationship to God’s household] as the Son [Jesus serves as Son, not merely as another servant] over [Moses was a servant “in” God’s house; Christ is the Son “over” God’s house] God’s house. And we are his house [refers to the community of people who belong to Him; see Ephesians 2:19; 1 Timothy 3:15; 1 Peter 2:5], if indeed [or “provided that” or “if in fact”] we hold firmly [deliberate, continuing perseverance] to our confidence [not confidence in ourselves; confidence that Christ’s work gives us secure access to God] and the hope [confident expectation grounded in God’s character and promises] in which we glory [means to speak about it openly, celebrate it confidently, and build one’s life upon it].

3:7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice,

3:8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness,

3:9 where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did.

3:10 That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’

3:11 So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”

3:12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

3:13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

3:14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.

3:15 As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”

3:16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?

3:17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness?

3:18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?

3:19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.