For if the message given through angels [the Law given to Moses] was authentic and unalterable, and every violation and disobedient act received an appropriate penalty,

how shall *we* escape if we are indifferent to a salvation as great as that now offered to us? This, after having first of all been announced by the Lord Himself, had its truth made sure to us by those who heard Him,

Wherefore I was sore vexed with this generation, and said, Always err they in their heart; - howbeit, they, learned not my ways:

So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

We are partakers of Christ, if we keep sure unto the end the beginning of the first substance,

But, with whom, was be sore vexed forty years? Was it not with them who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the desert?

And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?

For we who have believed do enter into that rest; even as he hath said, As I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

Though I say this, beloved, I feel sure you will take the better course that means salvation.

For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,

he swore by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.

For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.

Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;

And as he was not [constituted] without swearing,??21 for they were made priests without swearing, but he with swearing by him who says to him, The Lord swore, and he will not change, You are a priest forever;??22 by so much is Jesus the pledge of a better covenant.

(For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:)

Further, if he were still on earth, he would not be a priest at all, for there are priests enough provided to offer the gifts the Law prescribes??5 though the service they engage in is only a shadow and imitation of that in heaven. For when Moses was going to make the tent of worship he was warned, "Be sure to make it all just like the pattern you were shown on the mountain."

Let us seize and hold tightly the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is reliable and trustworthy and faithful [to His word];

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see.

For he was looking for the City with the sure foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

and all chastening for the present, indeed, doth not seem to be of joy, but of sorrow, yet afterward the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those exercised through it -- it doth yield.

Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”

[You should] obey your leaders [Note: This probably refers to church elders] and submit to their oversight, for they look out for [the welfare of] your souls as men who will give an accounting [for your spiritual progress]. [Be obedient], so that they will be able to do this joyfully and not with sorrow, for that would be unprofitable to you.

Keep on praying for us; for we are sure that we have clear consciences, and we desire to live nobly in every respect.