Christ is more worthy than Moses, 1-6; therefore if we do not believe in him, we shall be more worthy of punishment than hard-hearted Israel, 7-19.
1 Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, 2 Who was faithful to him who appointed him, as also Moses was "faithful in all his house." 3 For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, just as he who has built the house has more honor than the house. 4 For every house is built by some man, but he who built all things is God. 5 And Moses truly was "faithful in all his house" as a servant for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken. 6 But Christ is a son over his own house. We are his house, if we hold firmly to the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope steadfast to the end.
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
"Today if you will hear his voice,
8 Do not harden your hearts as in the provocation,/
as in the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 When your fathers tested me, proved me,/
and saw my works forty years.
10 Therefore, I was grieved with that generation,/
and said, 'They always err in their heart,/
and they have not known my ways.'
11 So I swore in my wrath,/
'They shall not enter into my rest.'"
12 Take heed, brothers, 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 Today, 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 steadfast to the end, 15 While it is said,
"Today if you will hear his voice,/
do not harden your hearts as in the provocation."
16 For who, when they had heard, provoked? Was it not all who came out of Egypt by Moses? 17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with those who had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they should not enter into his rest, but to those who did not believe? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Matthew Henry Commentary - Hebrews, Chapter 3[➚]
[v.2a] - "his house" - That is , God's house. Same in verse 5.
[v.2b] - Quoting Numbers 12:7 (LXX—paraphrased).
[v.5] - Quoting Numbers 12:7 (LXX—paraphrased).
[v.7-11] - Quoting Psalm 95:7-11 (LXX).
[v.7] - The quote in this verse is from Psalm 95:8 in the Septuagint.
[v.8] - "as in the day of temptation" - The Septuagint reads, "according to the day of irritation."
[v.9-10] - These verses follow the Septuagint almost verbatim. These verses in the Septuagint read like this: "where your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works. / Forty years was I grieved with this generation, and said, They do always err in their heart, and they have not known my ways." (The slash indicates the verse division.)
[v.15] - Quoting Psalm 95:7-8 (LXX—Psalm 95:8).
[v.16] - Reference, Numbers 14:2, 11; Deuteronomy 1:35-36; Psalm 78:17, 40.
[v.17] - Reference, Numbers 14:28-29, 37; Psalm 95:10.