They will be destroyed, but you will remain. And they [i.e., the heavens and earth] will all wear out like an article of clothing.

And you will fold them up like a robe, and they will be changed like an article of clothing. But you will stay the same and your years will never end."

You made him a little bit lower than the angels [i.e., a little less exalted]. [Note: Although these Psalms passages referred to mankind, they are here applied to Jesus. See verse 9]. You crowned him with splendor and honor {{some ancient manuscripts add "and placed him as ruler over what you made"}}.

For since He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is [also] able to help those who [suffer when they] are tempted.

where your forefathers tried me and tested [my patience] when they saw what I did for forty years.

Therefore, I was angry with that generation of people and said, 'They always go astray in their hearts, and they did not understand my ways.'

So I vowed in my anger, 'They will not enter a state of rest with me.'"

For who were they who heard [God] and provoked [Him]? Was it not everyone who was led out of Egypt by Moses?

And to whom did God vow that they would not enter a state of rest with Him? [Was it not] those who were disobedient to Him?

And [so] we see that they were not able to enter [a state of rest with God] because of [their] unbelief.

For we [Christians] have had the good news [about resting with God] preached to us, just as the Israelites [had good news proclaimed to them. See 1:16-19]. But the message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not coupled with faith by those who heard it.

Now we who have believed [will someday] enter that rest, even as God has said [Psa. 95:11], "So, I vowed in my anger, 'They will not enter a state of rest with me,'" although God's works were completed since the creation of the world.

And again, this [is recorded, Psa. 95:11], "They will not enter a state of rest with me."

[Now] we have many things to say about Melchizedek, but because of your slowness to grasp things, they are hard to explain.

And we will do so [i.e., go on to more advanced teaching] if God allows us to. For it is impossible to get people who have [completely] fallen away [from God] to repent again, because they [continue to] crucify for themselves God's Son all over again, and hold Him up to contempt.

and who had experienced the good teaching of God and the powers of the coming age [i.e., they had already received some of the blessings of the Christian life, perhaps even miraculous signs].

And on one hand, many people were appointed to be [Levitical] priests because they were prevented by death from continuing [to serve]. [Note: The idea is that Levitical priests had to be constantly replaced].

[It will] not be like the Agreement that I made with their forefathers on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the country of Egypt. For they did not [continue to] keep my Agreement, so I did not regard them [as acceptable], says the Lord.

For this is the Agreement that I will make with the people of Israel in the coming days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and I will also write them on their hearts. And I will be their God and they will be my people.

since, with foods and drinks and various [ceremonial] washings, they are only outward regulations imposed until the time when everything would be made right [i.e., under the New Agreement].

These people [all] continued to have faith until they died, [even though] they had not obtained [all] the things God had promised, but had [only] seen them and welcomed them from a distance. And they had confessed to being strangers and aliens on earth.

For those who say such things make it obvious that they are looking for a country of their own [i.e. heaven].

And indeed, if they had remembered [with longing] the country they had left, they would have had the opportunity to return to it.

But instead, they longed for a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

By [having] faith, when Joseph was about to die, he mentioned the Israelites' departure [from Egypt] and gave [them] instructions concerning his bones [i.e., that they were to take them back to Palestine. See Gen. 50:25].

By [having] faith, Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born because they saw that he was a handsome child, and they were not afraid of the king's decree [to destroy all male Hebrew children].

By [having] faith, the Israelites passed [safely] through the Red Sea as if it were dry ground, but when the Egyptians attempted to do it, they were drowned.

who, by [having] faith, conquered kingdoms, practiced what was right, and obtained what was promised [by God]. They shut the mouths of lions,

they put out raging fires, and they escaped being killed by swords. They were strengthened when weak, became mighty in battle, and defeated foreign armies.

Women received their dead [loved ones] back to life. Others were tortured but refused to be rescued, so they could obtain a better resurrection.

They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were executed by the sword. They traveled around in sheepskin and goatskin clothing; they were destitute, afflicted and mistreated.

(The world did not deserve such people). They wandered in deserts and mountains, [living] in caves and [even] holes in the ground.

because God had planned to give us something better [than they got], so that they would not be complete without us. [Note: The idea here is that these faithful people of Old Testament times did not receive the fullest of blessings until Christ came to make them available to both them and us together].

Pay careful attention so that you do not refuse [to hear] God when He speaks to you. [See verse 9]. For if those people [i.e., the Israelites] did not escape [judgment] when they refused [to hear] Him who warned them on earth [i.e., God speaking through Moses at Mount Sinai], how much less [likely] will we escape [judgment] if we reject Him who warns from heaven [i.e., Christ]?

Remember your leaders who told you God's message. [Note: This probably refers to former preachers who had since died]. Consider the outcome of the way they lived and imitate their faith.

[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.