For who were the ones who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?
Parallel translations
- WEB For who, when they heard, rebelled? No, didn’t all those who came out of Egypt by Moses?
- KJV For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
- NKJV For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses?
- NASB For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses?
- NLT And who was it who rebelled against God, even though they heard his voice? Wasn’t it the people Moses led out of Egypt?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Those who heard God's voice and yet rebelled were the very people Moses led out of Egypt. The rebels were not outsiders but the redeemed community.
Overview
Through a series of questions, the author identifies the rebels as the exodus generation, who had experienced God's deliverance firsthand. The sobering point is that having been part of the redeemed people did not prevent their unbelief. Privilege without persevering faith proved fatal, a warning to the readers.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Num 14:2All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness!
- Num 14:30Surely none of you will enter the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
- Num 26:65For the LORD had told them that they would surely die in the wilderness. Not one was left except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
- Ps 78:17But they continued to sin against Him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.
- Deut 1:38Joshua son of Nun, who stands before you, will enter it. Encourage him, for he will enable Israel to inherit the land.
- Num 14:38Of those men who had gone to spy out the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh remained alive.
- Num 14:24But because My servant Caleb has a different spirit and has followed Me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he has entered, and his descendants will inherit it.
- Num 14:4So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”
- Heb 3:9–10where your fathers tested and tried Me, and for forty years saw My works.
- Deut 1:35–36“Not one of the men of this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your fathers,
- Rom 11:4–5And what was the divine reply to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
- Josh 14:7–11I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back to him an honest report.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Hebrews is sustained worship of Christ: better than angels, Moses, and the priests; the great High Priest after Melchizedek who by one sacrifice perfects forever those he saves.
How Hebrews 3:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.