Hebrews 3:12-19

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 3:12

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you - Take warning by those disobedient Israelites; they were brought out of the house of bondage, and had the fullest promise of a land of prosperity and rest. By their disobedience they came short of it, and fell in the wilderness. Ye have been brought from the bondage of sin, and have a most gracious promise of an everlasting inheritance among the saints in light; through unbelief and disobedience they lost their rest, through the same ye may... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 3:13

But exhort one another daily - This supposes a state of chose Church fellowship, without which they could not have had access to each other. While it is called to-day - Use time while you have: it, for by and by there will be no more present time; all will be future; all will be eternity. Daily signifies time continued. To-day, all present time. Your fathers said: Let us make ourselves a captain, and return back unto Egypt, Numbers 14:4 . Thus they exhorted each other to depart from... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 3:14

For we are made partakers of Christ - Having believed in Christ as the promised Messiah, and embraced the whole Christian system, they were consequently made partakers of all its benefits in this life, and entitled to the fulfillment of all its exceeding great and precious promises relative to the glories of the eternal world. The former they actually possessed, the latter they could have only in case of their perseverance; therefore the apostle says, If we hold fast the beginning of our... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 3:15

While it is said, To-day - You may see the necessity of perseverance from the saying, "Today, if ye will hear his voice," therefore harden not your hearts - do not neglect so great a salvation; hold fast what ye have obtained, and let no man take your crown. See on Hebrews 3:7-9 ; (note) and Hebrews 3:12 ; (note). read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 3:16

For some, when they had heard, did provoke - There is a various reading here, which consists merely in the different placing of an accent, and yet gives the whole passage a different turn: - τινες , from τις , who, if read with the accent on the epsilon, τινὲς , is the plural indefinite, and signifies some, as in our translation; if read with the accent on the iota, τίνες , it has an interrogative meaning; and, according to this, the whole clause, τίνες γαρ ακουσαντες... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 3:17

But with whom was he grieved forty years? - I believe it was Surenhusius who first observed that "the apostle, in using the term forty years, elegantly alludes to the space of time which had elapsed since the ascension of our Lord till the time in which this epistle was written, which was about forty years." But this does not exactly agree with what appears to be the exact date of this epistle. However, God had now been a long time provoked by that race rejecting the manifested Messiah, as... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 3:18

To whom sware he - God never acts by any kind of caprice; whenever he pours out his judgments, there are the most positive reasons to vindicate his conduct. Those whose carcasses fell in the wilderness were they who had sinned. And those who did not enter into his rest were those who believed not. God is represented here as swearing that they should not enter in, in order to show the determinate nature of his purpose, the reason on which it was founded, and the height of the aggravation... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 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. This whole chapter, as... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 3:12

Verse 12 12.Take heed, (or See,) brethren, lest there be at any time in any of you a wicked heart of unbelief, etc. I have preferred to retain literally what the Apostle states, rather than to give a paraphrase as to the wicked or depraved heart of unbelief, by which he intimates that unbelief would be connected with depravity or wickedness, if after having received the knowledge of Christ they departed from his faith. For he addressed them who had been imbued with the elements of Christianity;... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 3:13

Verse 13 13.He also pointed out the remedy, so that they might not fall into this wickedness, and that was, to exhort one another. For as by nature we are inclined to evil, we have need of various helps to retain us in the fear of God. Unless our faith be now and then raised up, it will lie prostrate; unless it be warmed, it will be frozen; unless it be roused, it will grow torpid. He would have us then to stimulate one another by mutual exhortations, so that Satan may not creep into our... read more

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