Hebrews 4:7 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Hebrews 4:7
Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
to mark out or bound ("horizon") · verb — present active indicative, 3rd person singular
certain
τινὰtina
G5100
some or any person or object · indefinite pronoun — accusative singular feminine
day
ἡμέραν·hēmeran
G2250
day · noun — accusative singular feminine
saying
λέγων·legōn
G3004
properly · verb — present active participle, nominative singular masculine
in
ἐνen
G1722
"in · preposition
David
ΔαυὶδDauid
G1138
Dabid (i.e. David) · noun — dative singular masculine, a proper name
day
σήμερον,sēmeron
G4594
on the (i.e. this) day (or night current or just passed) · adverb
after
μετὰmeta
G3326
properly · preposition
long
τοσοῦτονtosouton
G5118
apparently from G3588 (ὁ) and G3739 (ὅς)) and G3778 (οὗ… · correlative pronoun — accusative singular masculine
time
χρόνον,chronon
G5550
a space of time (in general · noun — accusative singular masculine
as
καθὼςkathōs
G2531
just (or inasmuch) as · conjunction
said
ἐρέωeréō
G2046
an alternate for G2036 (ἔπω) in certain tenses
day
σήμερονsēmeron
G4594
on the (i.e. this) day (or night current or just passed) · adverb
if
ἐὰνean
G1437
a conditional particle · conditional particle
hear
ἀκούσητε,akousēte
G191
to hear (in various senses) · verb — aorist active subjunctive, 2nd person plural
his
αὐτοῦautou
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular masculine
voice
φωνῆςphōnēs
G5456
a tone (articulate · noun — genitive singular feminine
harden
σκληρύνητεsklērunēte
G4645
to indurate · verb — aorist active subjunctive, 2nd person plural
not
μὴmē
G3361
(adverb) not · particle — negative
your
ὑμῶνhymōn
G5216
of (from or concerning) you
hearts
καρδίαςkardias
G2588
the heart · noun — accusative plural feminine
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 95:7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
Hebrews 3:7-8 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
Hebrews 3:15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
Matthew 22:43 He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying,
2 Samuel 23:1-2 Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob,…
Acts 28:25 And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the proph…
1 Kings 6:1 And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth ye…
Mark 12:36 For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The LORD said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Hebrews 4:1-10
Here, I. The apostle declares that our privileges by Christ under the gospel are not only as great, but greater than those enjoyed under the Mosaic law. He specifies this, that we have a promise left us of entering into his rest; that is, of entering into a covenant-relation to Christ, and a state of communion with God through Christ, and of growing up therein, till we are made perfect in glory. We have discoveries of this rest, and proposals, and the best directions how we may attain unto it. This promise of spiritual rest is a promise left us by the Lord Jesus Christ in his last will and testament, as a precious legacy. Our business is to see to it that we be the legatees, that we lay our…
Again--Anew the promise recurs. Translate as the Greek order is, "He limited a certain day, 'To-day.'" Here Paul interrupts the quotation by, "In (the Psalm of) David saying after so long a time (after five hundred years' possession of Canaan)," and resumes it by, "as it has been said before (so the Greek oldest manuscript, before, namely, Heb 3:7, Heb 3:15), To-day if ye hear His voice," &c. [ALFORD].
Adam Clarke on Hebrews 4:7
He limiteth a certain day - The term day signifies not only time in general, but also present time, and a particular space. Day here seems to have the same meaning as rest in some other parts of this verse. The day or time of rest relative to the ancient Jews being over and past, and a long time having elapsed between God's displeasure shown to the disobedient Jews in the wilderness and the days of David, and the true rest not having been enjoyed, God in his mercy has instituted another day - has given another dispensation of mercy and goodness by Christ Jesus; and now it may be said, as formerly, To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. God speaks now as he spoke before; h…
For if God did not have a third rest, He would not have said: "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts," so that there may be a rest into which those should enter who do not harden their hearts. Since obedience would be completely useless if there were neither rest nor reward. You have seen how he confirms it? "Do not harden your hearts so that you may enter into the rest," he says. For by saying that those who hardened their hearts did not enter into the rest, he implies that those who do not harden their hearts will enter. For every command of God has also a future reckoning.
"Today" is neither an indefinite period of time, nor can it be predicated of an interval outside of "days" as if "today" were joined with each day. This should be stated not only for the sake of apostolic perspicuity but also for the sake of those who wish to understand, in the matter of the origin of the Only Begotten, the "I have begotten you today" by flatly asserting that the "today" is an indefinite period of time. They cannot perceive that if this were the case one would not be able to speak of a "today" since there was then not yet a day. The apostle has made clear that he would not say that "today" is an indefinite period of time when he said, "Again speaking in David he marks off a day." Also in another passage, "Comfort them every day until it will be called 'the Day.' " First he showed that the "today" is not being spoken of outside of "days," by his saying "every day," and so appending "until it will be called 'the Day.' " Then in the matter of the "day" it does not appear as if he were talking about an indefinite period of time which might be applied both to the time that has already passed and the time that is about to come. For what does he say? Deeming "each day" to be "the Day" which is spoken to we should give heed to remaining in the faith. For as "the Day" indicates the present day, he advises them to make full use of the day for that which is useful for exhortation.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Repentance · The present time the season for — The present time the season for
Rest · SPIRITUAL — SPIRITUAL
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Again he limiteth a certain day,.... Since the seventh day of the creation was a day of rest which God entered into, and not man; and since the land of Canaan was a typical rest, which the unbelieving Israelites did not enter into, because of unbelief; and yet there must be persons, and there must be a time for them to enter into the true rest which God has left a promise of; therefore he has limited, fixed, and appointed a certain day, the Gospel dispensation, for believers to enter into it:
saying in David; or by David, who was the penman of the 95th psalm, as may be learned from hence; and this is agreeably to, and confirms a rule which the Jews give, that those psalms which are without…
Hebrews 4:3-10
3. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
3. Ingredimur enim in ejus requiem postquam credidimus: sicut dixit, Itaque juravi in ira mea, si introibunt in requiem meam; tametsi operibus a creatione mundi perfectis.
4. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
4. Dixit enim alicubi sic de die septimo, Et requievit Deus septimo die ab omnibus operibus suis:
5. And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
5. Et in hoc rursum, Si introibunt…
So God set another time . . . and that time is today: The logic here is that David wrote Ps 95 much later than the wilderness debacle, so God’s rest cannot be limited to that earlier generation. The words already quoted are from Ps 95:7-8; these words encourage us not to harden our hearts when hearing God’s voice so that we might enter the rest that the people in the wilderness were denied. This opportunity is available today (see Heb 3:13).
