Looking diligently, lest any one fall from the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled: Lest there be any fornicator or profane person,

lest there be any sexually immoral person, or profane person, like Esau, who sold his own birthright for one meal.

Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be accounted worthy, who hath trampled underfoot the Son of God, and, the blood of the covenant, hath esteemed, a profane thing, by which he had been made holy, and, unto the Spirit of favour, hath offered wanton insult?

For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the profaned, halloweth unto the purity of the flesh,

By [having] faith, Enoch was taken [to be with God], so that he did not have to die. And he could not be found because God had taken him away. For he had been commended [by God] before he was taken away, that he had pleased God. [Note: The Hebrew of Gen. 5:24 says, "he walked with God"].

But the truth is that they were longing for a better country, that is, a heavenly one. For that reason God is not ashamed [of them or] to be called their God [even to be surnamed their God—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob]; for He has prepared a city for them.

Faith made Abel's sacrifice greater in the sight of God than Cain's; through faith he gained God's approval as an upright man, for God himself approved his offering, and through faith even when he was dead he still spoke.