Hebrews 3:17Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

They did not receive benefit precisely because they did not apply their faith. Then, wishing to frighten them, he expresses this in the following words: "For some, when they heard, rebelled; yet not all who came out of Egypt with Moses. With whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bones fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, if not to the disobedient? So we see that they could not enter because of unbelief." After repeating the testimony, he adds a question, in order to make his words clear. "Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says," he says, "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." Of which hardened men does he remind them, and of which unbelievers? Is it not the Jews?

He concludes his discourse with a question, for greater clarity and less contradiction. Questions are put to those who are making confession. He also sets forth the punishment. He says their bones fell in the wilderness, that is, the great thigh bones. By a part he indicated the whole bodies.

And with whom was He again displeased for forty years? Was it not with those who did not believe Caleb and Joshua, who acted unrighteously, worshiped the calf, and committed many other things, and whose bones fell in the wilderness?

They died and were never able to enter the land of promise. They only looked toward the land of promise, but they could not enter it. The Jews saw the promised land, but they could not enter it. They fell in the wilderness, and their bones lie alone, the bones of those who fell in the wilderness (Heb 3:17). But we, their children, have followed Jesus to the Jordan and have already entered the promised land.

The discourse just completed above concerning Moses' apostleship gives the Apostle occasion to draw several strong moral exhortations for his readers from the history of that same ministry of Moses. Having become partakers of the heavenly calling and having yielded themselves to Christ's guidance, Christians must firmly preserve their boldness and hope to the end. They must do this despite every temptation from Christ's enemies. In this matter the New Testament Israel should take as an example those Israelites of Moses' time who were steadfast and strong in spirit. Throughout the forty years of wandering, they did not lose their faith and kept themselves from murmuring. Such were Joshua and Caleb, despite all the temptations and calamities in the wilderness.

The Apostle explains the necessity of observing this condition by the example of the Israelites. While God's warning voice is still heard by all, one must take it to heart and not harden one's heart like the Hebrews. Consider, such is the Apostle's thought, who were those who heard the voice and yet murmured against God? The reading τίνες is more natural and corresponds to the following interrogative pronoun. But can one even ask this? Were they not all those who came out of Egypt under the guidance of Moses, διά Μωυαεως? Was it not the sinful and disobedient whom God punished, depriving them of the possibility of seeing the land of Canaan and resting in it? Yes, the Hebrews serve us Christians as a striking example of the harmful consequences to which unbelief in God's words leads.