Hebrews 4:9

Revised Standard Version

So then, there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God;

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
This shows that the seventh-day rest for God's people is still to come.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
There remayneth therfore yet a rest to ye people of God.

Hebrew Names Version
There remains therefore a Shabbat rest for the people of God.

New American Standard Bible
Consequently, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

New Century Version
This shows that the rest for God's people is still coming.

Update Bible Version
There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

Webster's Bible Translation
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

English Standard Version
So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God,

World English Bible
There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God.

Weymouth's New Testament
It follows that there still remains a sabbath rest for the people of God.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Therfor the sabat is left to the puple of God.

English Revised Version
There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God.

Berean Standard Bible
There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

Contemporary English Version
But God has promised us a Sabbath when we will rest, even though it has not yet come.

Amplified Bible
So there remains a [full and complete] Sabbath rest for the people of God.

American Standard Version
There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God.

Bible in Basic English
So that there is still a Sabbath-keeping for the people of God.

Complete Jewish Bible
So there remains a Shabbat-keeping for God's people.

Darby Translation
There remains then a sabbatism to the people of God.

International Standard Version
There remains, therefore, a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

Etheridge Translation
---Therefore, yet to enjoy a shabathism [fn] is confirmed to the people of Aloha.

Murdock Translation
Therefore it is established, that the people of God are to have a sabbath.

King James Version (1611)
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

New Living Translation
So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God.

New Life Bible
And so God's people have a complete rest waiting for them.

New Revised Standard
So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God;

Geneva Bible (1587)
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

George Lamsa Translation
It is therefore the duty of the people of God to keep the Sabbath.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Hence there is, left over, a Sabbath-keeping, for the people of God.

Douay-Rheims Bible
There remaineth therefore a day of rest for the people of God.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
There remayneth therfore yet a rest to the people of God.

Good News Translation
As it is, however, there still remains for God's people a rest like God's resting on the seventh day.

Christian Standard Bible®
Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people.

King James Version
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

Lexham English Bible
Consequently a sabbath rest remains for the people of God.

Literal Translation
So, then, there remains a sabbath rest to the people of God.

Young's Literal Translation
there doth remain, then, a sabbatic rest to the people of God,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Therfore remayneth there yet a rest vnto the people of God.

Mace New Testament (1729)
which shows that the people of God have a sabbath still to come.

New English Translation
Consequently a Sabbath rest remains for the people of God.

New King James Version
There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.

Simplified Cowboy Version
There's another rest coming. A much better one for those who ride for God!

New American Standard Bible (1995)
So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

Legacy Standard Bible
So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

Contextual Overview

¹ 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. 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 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.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

remaineth: Hebrews 4:1, Hebrews 4:3, Hebrews 3:11, Isaiah 11:10, Isaiah 57:2, Isaiah 60:19, Isaiah 60:20, Revelation 7:14-17, Revelation 21:4

rest: or, keeping of a sabbath

people: Hebrews 11:25, Psalms 47:9, Matthew 1:21, Titus 2:14, 1 Peter 2:10

Reciprocal: Exodus 16:30 - General Exodus 31:15 - the sabbath Exodus 33:14 - rest Deuteronomy 12:9 - General Joshua 11:23 - And the land Joshua 19:51 - These are Joshua 21:44 - General Job 3:17 - at rest Psalms 92:1 - for Psalms 94:13 - mayest Isaiah 32:18 - General Jeremiah 31:2 - when Ezekiel 46:1 - on the sabbath Acts 9:31 - the churches 2 Thessalonians 1:7 - who Hebrews 4:6 - it remaineth Hebrews 13:14 - General Revelation 14:13 - Yea

Cross-References

Genesis 4:4
and Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering,

Genesis 4:9
Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" He said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?"

Genesis 4:11
And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

Genesis 4:13
Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is greater than I can bear.

Genesis 4:14
Behold, thou hast driven me this day away from the ground; and from thy face I shall be hidden; and I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will slay me."

Genesis 37:32
and they sent the long robe with sleeves and brought it to their father, and said, "This we have found; see now whether it is your son's robe or not."

Psalms 9:12
For he who avenges blood is mindful of them; he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.

Proverbs 28:13
He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

John 8:44
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Ver. 9 There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God.] Not all mankind; nor the people of the Jews only; rather the people of God, both Jews and Gentiles, under the New Testament; the people whom God has loved with a special love, has chose in Christ, and given to him, with whom he has made a covenant in him, and whom Christ saves from their sins, and calls by his grace; and the rest which remains for them is not a new sabbath day, but a sabbatism: and this does not so mush design eternal rest in heaven; though the Jews often call that a sabbath; the 92nd psalm they say is a psalm for the time to come, שכלו שבת, "which is all sabbath", and the rest of eternal life k: but rather this intends the spiritual rest believers have in Christ under the Gospel dispensation, which they now enter into, and of which the apostle had been treating; and as for the word "remaineth", this does not denote the futurity of it, but the apostle's inference or consequence from what he had said; and the sense is, it remains therefore, and is a certain fact, a clear consequence from what has been observed, that there is another rest distinct from God's rest on the seventh day, and from the rest in the land of Canaan; which were both typical ones of the present rest the saints now enjoy: so the Jews call the world to come the times of the Messiah, שבת הגדול, "the great sabbath" l.

k Misn. Tamid, c. 7. sect. 4. T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 97. 1, Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 16. 3. Massecheth Sopherim, c. 18. sect. 1. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 3. 1. l Zohar in Gen. fol. 31. 4. Shaare Orn, fol. 17. 1. Caphtor, fol. 64. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

There remaineth, therefore, a rest - This is the conclusion to which the apostle comes. The meaning is this, that according to the Scriptures there is “now” a promise of rest made to the people of God. It did not pertain merely to those who were called to go to the promised land, nor to those who lived in the time of David, but it is “still” true that the promise of rest pertains to “all” the people of God of every generation. The “reasoning” by which the apostle comes to this conclusion is briefly this:

1. That there was a “rest” - called “the rest of God” - spoken of in the earliest period of the world - implying that God meant that it should be enjoyed.

(2)That the Israelites, to whom the promise was made, failed of obtaining what was promised by their unbelief.

(3)That God intended that “some” should enter into his rest - since it would not be provided in vain.

(4)That long after the Israelites had fallen in the wilderness, we find the same reference to a rest which David in his time exhorts those whom he addressed to endeavor to obtain.

(5)That if all that had been meant by the word “rest,” and by the promise, had been accomplished when Joshua conducted the Israelites to the land of Canaan, we should not have heard another day spoken of when it was possible to forfeit that rest by unbelief.

It followed, therefore, that there was something besides that; something that pertained to all the people of God to which the name rest might still be given, and which they were exhorted still to obtain. The word “rest” in this verse - σαββατισμὸς sabbatismos - “Sabbatism,” in the margin is rendered “keeping of a Sabbath.” It is a different word from σάββατον sabbaton - “the Sabbath;” and it occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, and is not found in the Septuagint. It properly means “a keeping Sabbath” from σαββατίζω sabbatizō - “to keep Sabbath.” This word, not used in the New Testament, occurs frequently in the Septuagint; Exodus 16:30; Leviticus 23:32; Leviticus 26:35; 2 Chronicles 36:21; and in 3 Esdr. 1:58; 2 Macc. 6:6. It differs from the word “Sabbath.” That denotes “the time - the day;” this, “the keeping,” or “observance” of it; “the festival.” It means here “a resting,” or an observance of sacred repose - and refers undoubtedly to heaven, as a place of eternal rest with God. It cannot mean the rest in the land of Canaan - for the drift of the writer is to prove that that is “not” intended. It cannot mean the “Sabbath,” properly so called - for then the writer would have employed the usual word σάββατον sabbaton - “Sabbath.” It cannot mean the Christian Sabbath - for the object is not to prove that there is such a day to be observed, and his reasoning about being excluded from it by unbelief and by hardening the heart would be irrelevant. It must mean, therefore, “heaven” - the world of spiritual and eternal rest; and the assertion is, that there “is” such a “resting,” or “keeping of a Sabbath” in heaven for the people of God. Hence, learn:

(1) That heaven is a place of cessation from wearisome toil. It is to be like the “rest” which God had after the work of creation (Hebrews 4:4, note), and of which that was the type and emblem. There will be “employment” there, but it will be without fatigue; there will be the occupation of the mind, and of whatever powers we may possess, but without weariness. Here we are often worn down and exhausted. The body sinks under continued toil, and fails into the grave. There the slave will rest from his toil; the man here oppressed and broken down by anxious care will cease from his labors. We know but little of heaven; but we know that a large part of what now oppresses and crushes the frame will not exist there. Slavery will be unknown; the anxious care for support will be unknown, and all the exhaustion which proceeds from the love of gain, and from ambition, will be unknown. In the wearisome toils of life, then, let us look forward to the “rest” that remains in heaven, and as the laborer looks to the shades of the evening, or to the Sabbath as a period of rest, so let us look to heaven as the place of eternal repose.

(2) Heaven will be like a Sabbath. The best description of it is to say it is “an eternal Sabbath.” Take the Sabbath on earth when best observed, and extend the idea to eternity, and let there be separated all idea of imperfection from its observance, and that would be heaven. The Sabbath is holy; so is heaven. It is a period of worship; so is heaven. It is for praise and for the contemplation of heavenly truth; so is heaven. The Sabbath is appointed that we may lay aside worldly cares and anxieties for a little season here; heaven that we may lay them aside forever.

(3) The Sabbath here should be like heaven. It is designed to be its type and emblem. So far as the circumstances of the case will allow, it should be just like heaven. There should be the same employments; the same joys; the same communion with God. One of the best rules for employing the Sabbath aright is, to think what heaven will be, and then to endeavor to spend it in the same way. One day in seven at least should remind us of what heaven is to be; and that day may be, and should be, the most happy of the seven.

(4) They who do not love the Sabbath on earth, are not prepared for heaven. If it is to them a day of tediousness; if its hours move heavily; if they have no delight in its sacred employments, what would an eternity of such days be? How would they be passed? Nothing can be clearer than that if we have no such happiness in a season of holy rest, and in holy employments here, we are wholly unprepared for heaven. To the Christian it is the subject of the highest joy in anticipation that heaven is to be “one long unbroken” sabbath - an eternity of successive Sabbath hours. But what to a sinner could be a more repulsive and gloomy prospect than such an eternal Sabbath?

(5) If this be so, then what a melancholy view is furnished as to the actual preparation of the great mass of people for heaven! How is the Sabbath now spent? In idleness; in business; in traveling; in hunting and fishing; in light reading and conversation; in sleep; in visiting; in riding, walking, lounging, “ennui;” - in revelry and dissipation; in any and every way “except the right way;” in every way except in holy communion with God. What would the race be if once transported to heaven as they are! What a prospect would it be to this multitude to have to spend “an eternity” which would be but a prolongation of the Sabbath of holiness!

(6) Let those who love the Sabbath rejoice in the prospect of eternal rest in heaven. In our labor let us look to that world where wearisome toil is unknown; in our afflictions, let us look to that world where tears never fall; and when our hearts are pained by the violation of the Sabbath all around us, let us look to that blessed world where such violation will cease forever. It is not far distant. A few steps will bring us there. Of any Christian it may be said that perhaps his next Sabbath will be spent in heaven - near the throne of God.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Hebrews 4:9. There, remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.] It was not,

1. The rest of the Sabbath; it was not,

2. The rest in the promised land,

for the psalmist wrote long after the days of Joshua; therefore there is another rest, a state of blessedness, for the people of God; and this is the Gospel, the blessings it procures and communicates, and the eternal glory which it prepares for, and has promised to, genuine believers.

There are two words in this chapter which we indifferently translate rest, καταπαυσις and σαββατισμος. the first signifying a cessation from labour, so that the weary body is rested and refreshed; the second meaning, not only a rest from labour, but a religious rest; sabbatismus, a rest of a sacred kind, of which both soul and body partake. This is true, whether we understand the rest as referring to Gospel blessings, or to eternal felicity, or to both.