The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament (248 page)

  
"Let all God's angels worship him."

⁷
Of the angels he says,

  
"Who makes his angels winds,

  
and his servants flames of fire."

⁸
But of the Son he says,

  
"Your throne, O God,
^a
is for ever and ever,

  
the righteous scepter is the scepter of your
^b
kingdom.

 ⁹
You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;

  
therefore God, your God, has anointed you

  
with the oil of gladness beyond your comrades."

¹⁰
And,

  
"You, Lord, founded the earth in the beginning,

  
and the heavens are the work of your hands;

¹¹
they will perish, but you remain;

  
they will all grow old like a garment,

¹²
like a cloak you will roll them up,

  
and they will be changed.
^c

  
But you are the same,

  
and your years will never end."

¹³
But to what angel has he ever said,

  
"Sit at my right hand,

  
till I make your enemies

  
a stool for your feet"?

¹⁴
Are they not all
ministering spirits
sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation?

Warning to Pay Attention

2
  
Therefore
we must pay the closer attention to what we have heard,
lest we drift
away from it.
²
For if the message
declared by angels
 
*
was valid and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution,
³
how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was
attested to us
by those who heard him,
⁴
while God also bore witness by
signs and wonders and various miracles
and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his own will.

Exaltation through Suffering

5
 For it was not to angels that God
subjected the world
to come, of which we are speaking.
⁶
It has been testified
somewhere,

  
"What is man that you are mindful of him,

  
or the son of man, that you care for him?

 
⁷
You made him for a little while lower than the angels,

  
you have crowned him with glory and honor,
^d

 ⁸
putting everything in subjection under his feet."

Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.
⁹
But we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might
taste death
for every one.

10
 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make
the pioneer
of their salvation perfect through suffering.
 
*
¹¹
For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified have all
one origin
. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
¹²
saying
,

  
"I will proclaim your name to my brethren,

  
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you."

¹³
And again,

  
"I will put my trust in him."

And again,

  
"Here am I, and the children God has given me."

14
 Since therefore the children share in
flesh and blood
, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil,
¹⁵
and deliver all those who through
fear of death
were subject to lifelong bondage.
¹⁶
For surely it is not with angels that he is concerned but with the
descendants of Abraham
.
¹⁷
Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful
high priest
in the service of God, to make expiation for the sins of the people.
¹⁸
For because he himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.

Moses a Servant, Christ a Son

3
  
Therefore
,
holy brethren
, who share in a heavenly call, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession.
²
He was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in
^e
God's house
.
³
Yet Jesus has been counted worthy of as much
more glory
than Moses as the builder of a house has more honor than the house.
⁴
(For every house is built by some one, but the builder of all things is God.)
⁵
Now
Moses was faithful
in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later,
⁶
but Christ was faithful over God's
^f
house as a son. And we are his house if we hold fast our confidence and pride in our hope.
^g

Warning against Unbelief

7
 
Therefore
, as the Holy Spirit says,

  
"Today, when you hear his voice,

 ⁸
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,

  
on the day of testing in the wilderness,

 ⁹
where your fathers put me to the test

  
and saw my works for forty years.

¹⁰
Therefore I was provoked with that generation,

  
and said, 'They always go astray in their hearts;

  
they have not known my ways.'

¹¹
As I swore in my wrath,

  
'They shall never enter my rest.' "
 
*

¹²
Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
¹³
But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
¹⁴
For we share in Christ, if only we hold our first confidence
firm to the end
,
¹⁵
while it is said,

  
"
Today, when you hear
his voice,

  
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion."

¹⁶
Who were they that heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses?
¹⁷
And with whom was he provoked forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
¹⁸
And to whom did he swear that they should never enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?
¹⁹
So we see that they were unable to enter
because of unbelief
.

The Rest That God Promised

4
  
Therefore
, while
the promise of entering his rest remains
, let us fear lest any of you be judged to have failed to reach it.
²
For good news came to us just as to them; but the message which they heard did not benefit them, because it did not meet with faith in the hearers.
^h
3
For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,

  
"As I swore in my wrath,

  
'They shall never enter my rest,' "

although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.
⁴
For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way, "And
God rested
on the seventh day from all his works."
⁵
And again in this place he said,

  
"They shall never enter my rest."

⁶
Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience,
⁷
again he sets a certain day
, "Today," saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,

  
"Today, when you hear his voice,

  
do not harden your hearts."

⁸
For if Joshua had given them rest, God
ⁱ
would not speak later of another day.
⁹
So then, there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God;
¹⁰
for whoever enters God's rest also ceases from his labors as God did from his.

11
 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, that no one fall by the same sort of disobedience.
¹²
For
the word of God
is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
¹³
And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.