they will perish, but thou remainest, they will all be worn out like a garment,

thou wilt roll them up like a mantle and they win be changed, but thou art the same, and thy years will never fail.'

Therefore I grew exasperated with that generation, I said, 'They are always astray in their heart': They would not learn my ways;

so I swore in my anger, 'they shall never enter my Rest.'

And to whom did he swear that they would never enter his Rest? To whom but those who disobeyed?

Thus we see it was owing to unbelief that they could not enter.

For we have had the good news as well as they; only, the message they heard was of no use to them, because it did not meet with faith in the hearers.

For we do enter the Rest by our faith: according to his word, As I swore in my anger, they shall never enter my Rest ??although his works were all over by the foundation of the world.

And again in this passage, they shall never enter my Rest.

who tasted the goodness of God's word and the powers of the world to come, and then fell away ??6 it is impossible to make them repent afresh, since they crucify the Son of God in their own persons and hold him up to obloquy.

Also, while they became priests in large numbers, since death prevents them from continuing to serve,

on the day I took them by the hand to lead out of Egypt's land; for they would not hold to my covenant, so I let them alone, saith the Lord.

This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel when that day comes, saith the Lord; I will set my laws within their mind, inscribing them upon their hearts; I will be a God to them, and they shall be a People to me;

since they relate merely to food and drink and a variety of ablutions ??outward regulations for the body, that only hold till the period of the New Order.

He mediates a new covenant for this reason, that those who have been called may obtain the eternal inheritance they have been promised, now that a death has occurred which redeems them from the transgressions involved in the first covenant.

Otherwise, they would surely have ceased to be offered; for the worshippers, once cleansed, would no longer be conscious of sins!

As it is, they are an annual reminder of sins

(These all died in faith without obtaining the promises; they only saw them far away and hailed them, owning they were 'strangers and exiles upon earth.'

Now people who speak in this way plainly show they are in search of a fatherland.

If they thought of the land they have left behind, they would have time to go back,

but they really aspire to the better land in heaven. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God; he has prepared a City for them.)

It was by faith that Moses was hidden for three months after birth by his parents, because they saw the child was beautiful, and had no fear of the royal decree.

It was by faith that they crossed the Red Sea like dry land ??and when the Egyptians attempted it they were drowned.

Some were given back to their womankind, raised from the very dead; others were broken on the wheel, refusing to accept release, that they might obtain a better resurrection;

others, again, had to experience scoffs and scourging, aye chains and imprisonment ??37 they were stoned, sawn in two, and cut to pieces; they had to roam about in sheepskins and goatskins, forlorn, oppressed, ill-treated

They all won their record for faith, but the Promise they did not obtain.

(for they could not bear the command, If even a beast touches the mountain, it must be stoned) ??21 indeed, so awful was the sight that Moses said, I am terrified and aghast.

See that you do not refuse to listen to His voice. For if they failed to escape, who refused to listen to their instructor upon earth, much less shall we escape, if we discard Him who speaks from heaven.

Obey your leaders, submit to them; for they are alive to the interests of your souls, as men who will have to account for their trust. Let their work be a joy to them and not a grief ??which would be a loss to yourselves.