Hebrews 13
The full text of Hebrews 13 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Greek. Free to read.
1 Let love for one another as family continue.
2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so some have entertained angels without knowing it.
3 Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering in the body.
4 Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept pure, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
6 So we say with confidence:
"The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?"
7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.
10 We have an altar from which those who minister at the tent have no right to eat.
11 The bodies of those animals whose blood the high priest carries into the holy places as a sin offering are burned outside the camp.
12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.
13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.
14 For here we have no enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
15 Through him, then, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.
16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.
18 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way.
19 I urge you all the more to pray, so that I may be restored to you soon.
20 Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,
21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
22 I urge you, brothers and sisters, bear with my word of encouragement, for I have written to you only briefly.
23 I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he comes soon, I will see you together with him.
24 Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those from Italy send you their greetings.
25 Grace be with you all.
Translation notes (9)
- Hebrews 13:2a Greek philoxenia (φιλοξενία), literally 'love of strangers', shares its root with xenisantes, 'having entertained', creating a wordplay that links the command to its motivation. The allusion is to Abraham hosting three visitors at Mamre (Genesis 18) and Lot receiving two angels at Sodom (Genesis 19), in both cases without initially recognizing their guests.
- Hebrews 13:5a The quotation echoes God's promise in Deuteronomy 31:6 and Joshua 1:5. The Greek is doubly emphatic, using the strong negation ou me (οὐ μή), 'never', with both verbs—ou me se ano oud' ou me se egkatalipo—the most forceful denial Greek grammar allows. The opening exhortation translates aphilargyros, literally 'without love of silver'.
- Hebrews 13:6a The quotation is Psalm 118:6, cited in the wording of the Septuagint: kyrios emoi boēthos, literally 'the Lord is to me a helper'. The introductory participle tharrountas, 'being confident', frames the psalm as the believer's own bold speech, drawing the conclusion from God's promise quoted in the previous verse. The closing question expects the answer that man can do nothing.
- Hebrews 13:9a Greek bromasin, 'foods', refers most naturally to regulations concerning ritual meals or dietary observance, a reading supported by the following verse's contrast with the altar and the tent. The verb parapheresthe, 'be carried away', pictures being swept off course, in deliberate contrast to the unchanging Christ of the preceding verse.
- Hebrews 13:10a The skene (σκηνή), 'tent', is the wilderness tabernacle, standing here for the whole Levitical order. Priests ordinarily ate portions of the sacrifices (Leviticus 7:6), but the sin offering whose blood entered the sanctuary could not be eaten (Leviticus 6:30), a rule the next verse invokes to present Christ's sacrifice as an altar closed to the old priesthood.
- Hebrews 13:11a The verse summarizes the Day of Atonement ritual of Leviticus 16:27, in which the carcasses of the bull and goat whose blood was brought into the sanctuary were burned outside the camp. Greek exo tes paremboles (ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς), 'outside the camp', echoes the Septuagint of that passage and prepares for the comparison with Jesus suffering outside the gate in the next verse.
- Hebrews 13:12a Greek exo tes pyles, 'outside the gate', deliberately echoes the phrase 'outside the camp' in verse 11, which draws on Leviticus 16:27, where the carcasses of the Day of Atonement sin offerings were burned beyond the camp. The author maps this ritual geography onto Jesus's crucifixion outside Jerusalem's walls: the place of disposal and disgrace becomes the place where he acts to make the people holy.
- Hebrews 13:20a The phrase anagagōn ek nekrōn ton poimena tōn probaton, 'who brought up from the dead the Shepherd of the sheep', echoes the Septuagint of Isaiah 63:11, where God 'brought up' Moses, the shepherd of the sheep, from the sea. The author transfers this exodus language to the resurrection, with megan, 'great', marking Jesus as surpassing Moses. The 'eternal covenant' recalls Isaiah 55:3 and Ezekiel 37:26.
- Hebrews 13:21a Some manuscripts read 'working in you'; and some read 'to whom be glory for ever and ever' rather than 'to whom be the glory.'
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