Devine Scripture

Hebrews 3:17

What does Hebrews 3:17 mean?

A plain-English look at Hebrews 3:17 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.

What Hebrews 3:17 means

The next question asks with whom God was displeased for forty years. The answer: those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness. Their persistent sin brought a long season of divine displeasure, ending in death outside the promised land. The phrasing underscores consequences: sin is not a minor misstep but a path to ruin when carried on in unbelief. The wilderness became a graveyard for a generation that would not trust God. The lesson is not to terrify but to clarify: the God who saves also judges stubborn rebellion in His people.

Parallel translations

WEB

World English Bible · 2000

And with whom was he displeased forty years? was it not with them that sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

KJV

King James Version · 1611

But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

ASV

American Standard Version · 1901

And with whom was he displeased forty years? was it not with them that sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

BBE

Bible in Basic English · 1949

And with whom was he angry for forty years? was it not with those who did evil, who came to their deaths in the waste land?

YLT

Young's Literal Translation · 1862

but with whom was He grieved forty years? was it not with those who did sin, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?

DRA

Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752

And with whom was he offended forty years? Was it not with them that sinned, whose carcasses were overthrown in the desert?

DBY

Darby Bible · 1890

And with whom was he wroth forty years? [Was it] not with those who had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

Context

This second rhetorical question heightens the warning by recalling the duration (“forty years”) and the outcome (“bodies fell”). It connects personal sin with corporate consequences and prepares for the final question (v. 18) that links the oath of exclusion to disobedience. The flow methodically closes all escape routes of false security: past deliverance did not prevent judgment, and length of time did not soften its certainty. The scene is set for the final interpretive key—disobedience in verse 18, leading to the summarizing diagnosis of unbelief in verse 19.

v.16For who, when they heard, did provoke? nay, did not all they that came out of Egypt by Moses?

v.17This passage

v.18And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that were disobedient?

Cross references

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

  • Numbers 14:29

    your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, that have murmured against me,

  • Numbers 14:32

    But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.

  • Deuteronomy 2:15

    Moreover the hand of Jehovah was against them, to destroy them from the midst of the camp, until they were consumed.

  • Numbers 26:64

    But among these there was not a man of them that were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.

  • Numbers 14:22

    because all those men that have seen my glory, and my signs, which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

  • Jude 1:5

    Now I desire to put you in remembrance, though ye know all things once for all, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

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