Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Hebrews 3:11

"As I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest." — Hebrews 3:11 (ASV)

The seriousness with which God viewed Israel’s sin is shown by the divine oath; this points to an unshakable determination. The form of the oath in the Hebrew, reflected in the LXX, is “If they shall enter”; i.e., “If they shall enter into my rest... then my name is not God!” The oath refers to the time when the spies had returned from their survey of the Promised Land (Numbers 14:21ff.). The psalmist has brought together two incidents in Israel’s history to make the impressive point that the Israelites of old consistently provoked God. God swore the oath in his “anger” (lit., “wrath”; GK 3973; a different word from “angry” in v.10). This word points to the passionate and settled opposition of God’s holy nature to all that is evil and to his concern for what is right. God is not passive in the face of wrongdoing; he actively opposes it. God did not allow the sinning Israelites to enter his rest. “Rest” (GK 2923) must be taken in a spiritual sense; it points to a place of blessing where there is no more striving but only relaxation in the presence of God. The wilderness generation would have no part in the world to come; their disobedience had cut them off from this blessing