For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
Parallel translations
- WEB For who, when they heard, rebelled? No, didn’t all those who came out of Egypt by Moses?
- BSB For who were the ones who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?
- 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 14:2And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!
- Num 14:30Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
- Num 26:65For the LORD had said of them, They shall surely die in the wilderness. And there was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
- Ps 78:17And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.
- Deut 1:38But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: encourage him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.
- Num 14:38But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.
- Num 14:24But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.
- Num 14:4And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
- Heb 3:9–10When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
- Deut 1:35–36Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers,
- Rom 11:4–5But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
- Josh 14:7–11Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadeshbarnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart.
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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
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