whose house are we--Paul and his Hebrew readers. One old manuscript, with Vulgate and Lucifer, reads, "which house"; but the weightiest manuscripts support English Version reading.
the rejoicing--rather, "the matter of rejoicing."
of the hope--"of our hope." Since all our good things lie in hopes, we ought so to hold fast our hopes as already to rejoice, as though our hopes were realized [Chrysostom].
firm unto the end--omitted in Lucifer and Ambrose, and in one oldest manuscript, but supported by most oldest manuscripts.
7-11. Exhortation from [Psa 95:7-11], not through unbelief to lose participation in the spiritual house. Seeing that we are the house of God if we hold fast our confidence ... ([He 3:6]). Jesus is "faithful," be not ye unfaithful ([He 3:2], ). The sentence beginning with "wherefore," interrupted by the parenthesis confirming the argument from [Psa 95:7-11], is completed at [He 3:12], "Take heed," &c.
Holy Ghost saith--by the inspired Psalmist; so that the words of the latter are the words of God Himself.
To-day--at length; in David's day, as contrasted with the days of Moses in the wilderness, and the whole time since then, during which they had been rebellious against God's voice; as for instance, in the wilderness ([He 3:8]). The Psalm, each fresh time when used in public worship, by "to-day," will mean the particular day when it was, or is, used.
hear--obediently.
his voice--of grace.
12. Take heed--to be joined with "wherefore," [He 3:7].
lest there be--Greek (indicative), "lest there shall be"; lest there be, as I fear there is; implying that it is not merely a possible contingency, but that there is ground for thinking it will be so.
in any--"in any one of you." Not merely ought all in general be on their guard, but they ought to be so concerned for the safety of each one member, as not to suffer any one to perish through their negligence [Calvin].
heart--The heart is not to be trusted. Compare [He 3:10], "They do always err in their heart."
unbelief--faithlessness. Christ is faithful; therefore, saith Paul to the Hebrews, we ought not to be faithless as our fathers were under Moses.
departing--apostatizing. The opposite of "come unto" Him ([He 4:16]). God punishes such apostates in kind. He departs from them--the worst of woes.
the living God--real: the distinctive characteristic of the God of Israel, not like the lifeless gods of the heathen; therefore One whose threats are awful realities. To apostatize from Christ is to apostatize from the living God ([He 2:3]).
13. one another--Greek, "yourselves"; let each exhort himself and his neighbor.
daily--Greek, "on each day," or "day by day."
while it is called To-day--while the "to-day" lasts (the day of grace, [Lu 4:21], before the coming of the day of glory and judgment at Christ's coming, [He 10:25], ). To-morrow is the day when idle men work, and fools repent. To-morrow is Satan's to-day; he cares not what good resolutions you form, if only you fix them for to-morrow.
lest ... of you--The "you" is emphatic, as distinguished from "your fathers" ([He 3:9]). "That from among you no one (so the Greek order is in some of the oldest manuscripts) be hardened" ([He 3:8]).
deceitfulness--causing you to "err in your heart."
sin--unbelief.
14. For, &c.--enforcing the warning, [He 3:12].
partakers of Christ--(Compare [He 3:1], ). So "partakers of the Holy Ghost" ([He 6:4]).
hold--Greek, "hold fast."
the beginning of our confidence--that is, the confidence (literally, substantial, solid confidence) of faith which we have begun ([He 6:11]; ). A Christian so long as he is not made perfect, considers himself as a beginner [Bengel].
unto the end--unto the coming of Christ ([He 12:2]).
15. While it is said--connected with [He 3:13], "exhort one another ... while it is said, To-day": [He 3:14], "for we are made partakers," &c., being a parenthesis. "It entirely depends on yourselves that the invitation of the ninety-fifth Psalm be not a mere invitation, but also an actual enjoyment." Alford translates, "Since (that is, 'for') it is said," &c., regarding [He 3:15] as a proof that we must "hold ... confidence ... unto the end," in order to be "partakers of Christ."
16. For some--rather interrogatively, "For WHO was it that, when they had heard (referring to 'if ye will hear,' [He 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 [He 3:17], , are interrogative: (1) the beginning of the provocation, soon after the departure from Egypt, is marked in [He 3:16]; () the forty years of it in the wilderness, [He 3:17]; () the denial of entrance into the land of rest, [He 3:18]. Compare Note, see on [1Co 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?" ([Ex 17:1], 2).
by Moses--by the instrumentality of Moses as their leader.
17. But--Translate, "Moreover," as it is not in contrast to [He 3:16], but carrying out the same thought.
corpses--literally, "limbs," implying that their bodies fell limb from limb.
18. to them that believed not--rather as Greek, "to them that disobeyed." Practical unbelief ([De 1:26]).
19. they could not enter--though desiring it.
Chapter 4
He 4:1-16. The Promise of God's Rest Is Fully Realized through Christ:
Let Us Strive to Obtain It by Him, Our Sympathizing High Priest.
1. Let us ... fear--not with slavish terror, but godly "fear and trembling" ([Php 2:12]). Since so many have fallen, we have cause to fear ([He 3:17-19]).
being left us--still remaining to us after the others have, by neglect, lost it.
his rest--God's heavenly rest, of which Canaan is the type. "To-day" still continues, during which there is the danger of failing to reach the rest. "To-day," rightly used, terminates in the rest which, when once obtained, is never lost ([Re 3:12]). A foretaste of the rest Is given in the inward rest which the believer's soul has in Christ.
should seem to come short of it--Greek, "to have come short of it"; should be found, when the great trial of all shall take place [Alford], to have fallen short of attaining the promise. The word "seem" is a mitigating mode of expression, though not lessening the reality. Bengel and Owen take it, Lest there should be any semblance or appearance of falling short.
2. gospel preached ... unto them--in type: the earthly Canaan, wherein they failed to realize perfect rest, suggesting to them that they should look beyond to the heavenly land of rest, to which faith is the avenue, and from which unbelief excludes, as it did from the earthly Canaan.
the word preached--literally, "the word of hearing": the word heard by them.
not being mixed with faith in them that heard--So the Syriac and the Old Latin Versions, older than any of our manuscripts, and Lucifer, read, "As the world did not unite with the hearers in faith." The word heard being the food which, as the bread of life, must pass into flesh and blood through man's appropriating it to himself in faith. Hearing alone is of as little value as undigested food in a bad stomach [Tholuck]. The whole of oldest extant manuscript authority supports a different reading, "unmingled as they were (Greek accusative case agreeing with 'them') in faith with its hearers," that is, with its believing, obedient hearers, as Caleb and Joshua. So "hear" is used for "obey" in the context, [He 4:7], "To-day, if ye will hear His voice." The disobedient, instead of being blended in "the same body," separated themselves as Korah: a tacit reproof to like separatists from the Christian assembling together ([He 10:25]; Jude 19).