Devine Scripture

Hebrews 13:2

What does Hebrews 13:2 mean?

A plain-English look at Hebrews 13:2 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.

What Hebrews 13:2 means

Hospitality is love made tangible to those we do not know. The command assumes that strangers—especially traveling believers or the vulnerable—will cross our paths and need welcome. The motivation is both kindness and holy awe: Scripture recalls occasions when God’s servants hosted angels without realizing it. The point is not to chase hidden marvels but to treat outsiders with the dignity and openness we would show heavenly guests. Such hospitality stretches comfort, rearranges schedules, and risks inconvenience. Yet in God’s economy, welcoming the unknown often becomes an encounter with his presence, his purposes, and his people, and it weaves the church into a wide, resilient network of grace.

Parallel translations

WEB

World English Bible · 2000

Forget not to show love unto strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

KJV

King James Version · 1611

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

ASV

American Standard Version · 1901

Forget not to show love unto strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

BBE

Bible in Basic English · 1949

Take care to keep open house: because in this way some have had angels as their guests, without being conscious of it.

YLT

Young's Literal Translation · 1862

of the hospitality be not forgetful, for through this unawares certain did entertain messengers;

DRA

Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752

And hospitality do not forget: for by this some, being not aware of it, have entertained angels.

DBY

Darby Bible · 1890

Be not forgetful of hospitality; for by it some have unawares entertained angels.

Context

After urging love among brethren (v.1), the writer turns that love outward to strangers (v.2). In a scattered, sometimes persecuted church, hospitality protected the vulnerable and enabled gospel travel. The next verse (v.3) extends this same love to those in bonds and mistreated. These steps show a widening circle—from family to foreigner to the afflicted—revealing how covenant love crosses boundaries and costs something.

v.1Let love of the brethren continue.

v.2This passage

v.3Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; them that are ill-treated, as being yourselves also in the body.

Cross references

Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.

  • 1 Peter 4:9

    using hospitality one to another without murmuring:

  • Job 31:32

    (The sojourner hath not lodged in the street; But I have opened my doors to the traveller);

  • Genesis 18:1

    And Jehovah appeared unto him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;

  • Titus 1:8

    but given to hospitality, a lover of good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled;

  • Matthew 25:40

    And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me.

  • Matthew 25:43

    I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

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