Hebrews 3:19

King James Version

So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Parallel Translations

New American Standard Bible (1995)
So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.

Legacy Standard Bible
So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.

Simplified Cowboy Version
It was this choice they made for themselves that kept them from God, his rest, and his grub.

Bible in Basic English
So we see that they were not able to go in because they had no belief.

Darby Translation
And we see that they could not enter in on account of unbelief;)

World English Bible
We see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
So we see, they could not enter in, because of unbelief.

Weymouth's New Testament
And so we see that it was owing to lack of faith that they could not be admitted.

King James Version (1611)
So we see that they could not enter in, because of vnbeleefe.

Literal Translation
And we see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And we se yt they coulde not enter in because of vnbeleue.

Mace New Testament (1729)
because of their incredulity.

Amplified Bible
So we see that they were not able to enter [into His rest—the promised land] because of unbelief and an unwillingness to trust in God.

American Standard Version
And we see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.

Revised Standard Version
So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
And we se that they coulde not enter in because of vnbeleve.

Update Bible Version
And we see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.

Webster's Bible Translation
So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Young's Literal Translation
and we see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.

New Century Version
So we see they were not allowed to enter and have God's rest, because they did not believe.

New English Translation
So we see that they could not enter because of unbelief.

Berean Standard Bible
So we see that it was because of their unbelief that they were unable to enter.

Contemporary English Version
We see that those people did not enter the place of rest because they did not have faith.

Complete Jewish Bible
So we see that they were unable to enter because of lack of trust.

English Standard Version
So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Geneva Bible (1587)
So we see that they could not enter in, because of vnbeliefe.

George Lamsa Translation
So we see that they could not enter in because they did not believe.

Christian Standard Bible®
So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Hebrew Names Version
We see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.

International Standard Version
So we see that they were unable to enter because of their unbelief.Hebrews 4:6;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
And we see that they were not able to enter in, because they did not believe.

Murdock Translation
So we see that they could not enter, because they believed not.

New King James Version
So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

New Living Translation
So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest.

New Life Bible
So we can see that they were not able to go into His rest because they did not put their trust in Him.

English Revised Version
And we see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.

New Revised Standard
So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And we see, that they were not able to enter, because of unbelief.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And we see that they could not enter in, because of unbelief.

Lexham English Bible
And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And we see that they coulde not enter in, because of vnbeliefe.

Easy-to-Read Version
So we see that they were not allowed to enter and have God's rest, because they did not believe.

New American Standard Bible
And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.

Good News Translation
We see, then, that they were not able to enter the land, because they did not believe.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And we seen, that thei myyten not entre in to the reste of hym for vnbileue.

Contextual Overview

⁷ Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, ⁸ Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: ⁹ When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. ¹⁰ Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. ¹¹ So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) ¹² Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. ¹³ But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; ¹⁵ While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. ¹⁶ For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Mark 16:16, John 3:18, John 3:36, 2 Thessalonians 2:12, 1 John 5:10, Jude 1:5

Reciprocal: Numbers 13:31 - General Numbers 14:35 - this evil Deuteronomy 1:32 - General Deuteronomy 9:23 - ye believed 2 Kings 7:20 - General Psalms 78:22 - General Psalms 106:24 - they believed Matthew 17:20 - Because Matthew 25:10 - and the Luke 9:41 - O faithless John 20:25 - Except Romans 11:20 - because Ephesians 5:6 - disobedience Hebrews 3:11 - I sware Hebrews 4:2 - not being Hebrews 4:6 - they Hebrews 4:11 - lest Hebrews 11:6 - without

Cross-References

Genesis 3:12
And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

Genesis 3:13
And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

Genesis 3:16
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

Genesis 3:21
Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

Genesis 3:22
And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

Genesis 18:27
And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord , which am but dust and ashes:

Genesis 23:4
I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.

Job 1:21
And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord .

Job 19:26
And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

Job 21:26
They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

So we see that they could not enter in,.... To God's rest, the land of Canaan, for they died by the plague before the Lord, and their carcasses fell in the wilderness, before they came to it,

Numbers 14:37 and the reason was,

because of unbelief; their distrust of God, his power, and his providence; this instance is produced by the apostle, to show the evil nature of unbelief, and the sad effects of it; to deter persons from it, and that they might take heed of encouraging it; and which instance he further improves in the following chapter.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

So we see ... - We see from the direct testimony of the Old Testament that unbelief was the reason why they were excluded from the promised land. Let us learn in view of the reasoning and exhortations here:

(1) The evil of unbelief. It excluded that whole generation, consisting of many hundred thousand souls, from the land of promise - the land to which they had looked with ardent hopes, and with warm desires. It will exclude countless millions from heaven. A “lack of confidence in God” is the great source of evil in this world, and will be the cause of wretchedness to all eternity of unnumbered hosts. But surely that was not a small or unimportant thing which strewed the desert with the bones of that whole generation whom God had in so remarkable a manner rescued from Egyptian servitude. And that cannot be a small matter which will cause multitudes to sink down to infinite wretchedness and despair.

(2) Let us who are professed Christians be cautious against indulging unbelief in our hearts. Our difficulties all begin there. We lose confidence in God. We doubt his promises, his oaths, his threatenings. In dark and trying times we begin to have doubts about the wisdom of his dealings, and about his goodness. Unbelief once admitted into the heart is the beginning of many woes. When a man loses confidence in God, he is on a shoreless ocean that is full of whirlpools, and rocks, and quicksands, and where it is “impossible” to find a secure anchorage. There is nothing to which he may moor his driven bark; and he will never find safety or peace until he comes back to God.

(3) Let us live a life of faith. Let us so live that we may say with Paul, “The life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” So living, we shall have peace. The mind will be at rest. Storms and tempests may blow, but we shall be secure. Others may be troubled in the vicissitudes of life, but our minds will be at peace.

(4) Let us live expecting the future “rest” that remains for us. Let us keep our eye fixed upon it. To us there is a rest promised, as there was to the Hebrews whom God had delivered from the land of oppression; and we may by faith attain to that “rest” as they might have reached the land of Canaan.

(5) Let us persevere to the end. He that draws back must be lost. He that does not endure to the end of life in the ways of religion can never have been a Christian. There is nothing which will furnish certain evidence of religion unless our piety is such as to lead us to persevere until death. The man who enters on the professed Christian life expecting to fall away, or who can look upon the possibility of falling away without concern, has never known anything of the nature of true religion. He cannot be a Christian. He may have had raptures and visions; he may be a loud professor and a noisy and zealous partisan, but he has no evidence that he has ever known anything about religion. That religion which is not connected with a firm and determined purpose by the grace of God to persevere to the end of life, is no true religion; and a man who expects to fall away and go back again to the world, or who can look at such an idea without alarm, should regard it as a settled matter that he has no true knowledge of God.

(6) No man should delay the work of salvation to a future time. today is the accepted time; today the only time of which we have any security. God speaks “today,” and today his voice should be heard. No man on any subject should defer until tomorrow what ought to be done today. He who defers religion until a future time neglects his own best interest; violates most solemn obligations; and endangers his immortal soul. What security can anyone have that he will live to see another day? What evidence has he that he will be any more disposed to attend to his salvation then than he is now? What evidence can he have that he will not provoke God by this course, and bring condemnation on his soul? Of all delusions, that is the most wonderful by which dying people are led to defer attention to the concerns of the soul to a future period of life. Nowhere has Satan such advantage as in keeping this delusion before the mind; and if in respect to anything the voice of warning and alarm should be lifted loud and long, it is in reference to this. O why will not people be wise “today?” Why will they not embrace the offer of salvation “now?” Why will they not at once make sure of eternal happiness? And why, amidst the changes and trials of this life, will they not so secure the everlasting inheritance as to feel that that is safe - that there is one thing at least that cannot be shaken and disturbed by commercial embarrassment and distress; one thing secure though friends and kindred are torn away from them; one thing safe when their own health fails, and they lie down on the bed where they will bid adieu to all earthly comforts, and from which they will never rise?

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Hebrews 3:19. So we see that they could not enter in — It was no decree of God that prevented them, it was no want of necessary strength to enable them, it was through no deficiency of Divine counsel to instruct them; all these they had in abundance: but they chose to sin, and would not believe. Unbelief produced disobedience, and disobedience produced hardness of heart and blindness of mind; and all these drew down the judgments of God, and wrath came upon them to the uttermost.

1. THIS whole chapter, as the epistle in general, reads a most awful lesson against backsliders, triflers, and loiterers in the way of salvation. Every believer in Christ is in danger of apostasy, while any remains of the evil heart of unbelief are found in him. God has promised to purify the heart; and the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin. It is therefore the highest wisdom of genuine Christians to look to God for the complete purification of their souls; this they cannot have too soon, and for this they cannot be too much in earnest.

2. No man should defer his salvation to any future time. If God speaks to-day, it is to-day that he should be heard and obeyed. To defer reconciliation to God to any future period, is the most reprehensible and destructive presumption. It supposes that God will indulge us in our sensual propensities, and cause his mercy to tarry for us till we have consummated our iniquitous purposes. It shows that we prefer, at least for the present, the devil to Christ, sin to holiness, and earth to heaven. And can we suppose that God will be thus mocked? Can we suppose that it can at all consistent with his mercy to extend forgiveness to such abominable provocation? What a man sows that shall he reap. If he sows to the flesh, he shall of the flesh reap corruption. Reader, it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

3. Unbelief has generally been considered the most damning of all sins. I wish those who make this assertion would condescend to explain themselves. What is this unbelief that damns and ruins mankind? Their not permitting their minds to be persuaded of the truths which God speaks. απιστια, from α, negative, and πιστις, faith, signifies faithless or to be without faith. And this is an effect from another cause. In Hebrews 4:11, these very people are said to have fallen through unbelief; but there the word is απειθεια, from α, negative, and πειθω, to persuade. They heard the Divine instructions, they saw God's stupendous miracles; but they would not suffer themselves to be persuaded, that he who said and did such things would perform those other things which he had either threatened or promised: hence they had no faith, because they were unpersuaded; and their unbelief was the effect of their unpersuaded or unpersuadable mind. And their minds were not persuaded of God's truth, because they had ears open only to the dictates of the flesh; see on Hebrews 4:2. Here then is the damning sin, the not inferring, from what God has said and done, that he will do those other things which he has either threatened or promised. And how few are there who are not committing this sin daily! Reader, dost thou in this state dream of heaven? Awake out of sleep!

4. Where there are so many snares and dangers it is impossible to be too watchful and circumspect. Satan, as a roaring lion, as a subtle serpent, or in the guise of an angel of light, is momentarily going about seeking whom he may deceive, blind, and devour; and, when it is considered that the human heart, till entirely renewed, is on his side, it is a miracle of mercy that any soul escapes perdition: no man is safe any longer than he maintains the spirit of watchfulness and prayer; and to maintain such a spirit, he has need of all the means of grace. He who neglects any of them which the mercy of God has placed in his power, tempts the devil to tempt him. As a preventive of backsliding and apostasy, the apostle recommends mutual exhortation. No Christian should live for himself alone; he should consider his fellow Christian as a member of the same body, and feel for him accordingly, and have, succour, and protect him. When this is carefully attended to in religious society, Satan finds it very difficult to make an inroad on the Church; but when coldness, distance, and a want of brotherly love take place, Satan can attack each singly, and, by successive victories over individuals, soon make an easy conquest of the whole.