(1) THEREFORE, WHILE the promise of entering His rest still holds {and} is offered [today], let us be afraid [to distrust it], lest any of you should think he has come too late {and} has come short of [reaching] it. (2) For indeed we have had the glad tidings [Gospel of God] proclaimed to us just as truly as they [the Israelites of old did when the good news of deliverance from bondage came to them]; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not mixed with faith (with the leaning of the entire personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) by those who heard it; {neither were they united in faith with the ones [Joshua and Caleb] who heard (did believe).} (3) For we who have believed (adhered to and trusted in and relied on God) do enter that rest, in accordance with His declaration that those [who did not believe] should not enter when He said, As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest; and this He said although [His] works had been completed {and} prepared [and waiting for all who would believe] from the foundation of the world. (4) For in a certain place He has said this about the seventh day: And God rested on the seventh day from all His works. (5) And [they forfeited their part in it, for] in this [passage] He said, They shall not enter My rest. (6) Seeing then that the promise remains over [from past times] for some to enter that rest, and that those who formerly were given the good news about it {and} the opportunity, failed to appropriate it {and} did not enter because of disobedience, (7) Again He sets a definite day, [a new] Today, [and gives another opportunity of securing that rest] saying through David after so long a time in the words already quoted, Today, if you would hear His voice {and} when you hear it, do not harden your hearts. (8) [This mention of a rest was not a reference to their entering into Canaan.] For if Joshua had given them rest, He [God] would not speak afterward about another day. (9) So then, there is still awaiting a full {and} complete Sabbath-rest reserved for the [true] people of God; (10) For he who has once entered [God's] rest also has ceased from [the weariness and pain] of human labors, just as God rested from those labors peculiarly His own. (11) Let us therefore be zealous {and} exert ourselves {and} strive diligently to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for ourselves], that no one may fall {or} perish by the same kind of unbelief {and} disobedience [into which those in the wilderness fell].