Hebrews 13: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The letter's final chapter gives a series of closing instructions: keep loving one another, welcome strangers, remember prisoners, honor marriage, avoid the love of money, and follow the example of leaders who taught God's message. It then points to Jesus, who suffered outside the city gate as the sin offerings were burned outside the camp, and calls readers to go out to him, offering praise and good deeds as their sacrifices. The chapter ends with a request for prayer, a blessing, news that Timothy has been released, and greetings.

Claim by Claim

1. 13:1
   • Brotherly love is to continue.
2. 13:2
   • Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers.
   • By showing hospitality some people have entertained angels without knowing it.
3. 13:3
   • Remember those who are in prison, as if bound with them.
   • Remember those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are also in a body.
4. 13:4
   • Marriage is honorable among all.
   • The marriage bed is undefiled.
   • God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
5. 13:5
   • Let your manner of life be free from the love of money.
   • Be content with the things you have.
   • He has said, I will never leave you.
   • He has said, I will never forsake you.
6. 13:6
   • So we may say with confidence, The Lord is my helper.
   • We may say, I will not fear.
   • We may say, what shall man do to me?
7. 13:7
   • Remember those who have the rule over you.
   • Those who have the rule over you spoke the word of God to you.
   • Consider the outcome of their way of life.
   • Imitate their faith.
8. 13:8
   • Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
9. 13:9
   • Do not be carried about with various and strange teachings.
   • It is good for the heart to be established by grace.
   • The heart is not established by foods.
   • Those who were occupied with such foods were not profited by them.
10. 13:10
    • We have an altar.
    • Those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat from that altar.
11. 13:11
    • The high priest brings the blood of animals into the sanctuary as an offering for sin.
    • The bodies of those animals are burned outside the camp.
12. 13:12
    • Jesus suffered outside the gate.
    • Jesus suffered outside the gate so that he might sanctify the people by his own blood.
13. 13:13
    • Let us go out to him outside the camp.
    • Let us bear his reproach.
14. 13:14
    • Here we have no lasting city.
    • We seek the city that is to come.
15. 13:15
    • Through him let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.
    • The sacrifice of praise is the fruit of lips that confess his name.
16. 13:16
    • Do not forget to do good.
    • Do not forget to share with others.
    • God is well pleased with such sacrifices.
17. 13:17
    • Obey those who have the rule over you.
    • Submit to them.
    • They keep watch over your souls.
    • They will have to give an account.
    • Obey them so that they may do this with joy and not with groaning.
    • Their groaning would be unprofitable for you.
18. 13:18
    • Pray for us.
    • We are confident that we have a good conscience.
    • We desire to conduct ourselves honorably in all things.
19. 13:19
    • I urge you all the more to do this.
    • I urge this so that I may be restored to you sooner.
20. 13:20
    • God is the God of peace.
    • God brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus.
    • Jesus is the great shepherd of the sheep.
    • God brought Jesus back through the blood of the everlasting covenant.
21. 13:21
    • May God make you complete in every good work to do his will.
    • God works in us what is well pleasing in his sight.
    • God does this through Jesus Christ.
    • To him be glory forever and ever.
    • Amen.
22. 13:22
    • I urge you, brothers, to bear with the word of exhortation.
    • I have written to you in few words.
23. 13:23
    • Know that our brother Timothy has been set at liberty.
    • If Timothy comes shortly, I will see you with him.
24. 13:24
    • Greet all those who have the rule over you.
    • Greet all the saints.
    • Those of Italy greet you.
25. 13:25
    • Grace be with you all.
    • Amen.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

13:1

"Brotherly love" is one Greek word, philadelphia, which in ordinary Greek meant the affection between blood brothers and sisters. Early Christian writers borrowed it for the bond between members of the community, which is why the rendering says "brothers and sisters."

13:2

In 1611 "entertain" meant to receive and look after a guest, not to amuse anyone. Inns along ancient roads were few, expensive and often dangerous, so travelers depended on private households taking them in; hospitality was treated as a social duty rather than a kindness. "Entertained angels unawares" points back to Genesis, where Abraham and Lot each welcome ordinary looking travelers who turn out to be messengers of God.

13:3

"In bonds" means in chains, that is, in prison. Roman jails did not reliably feed or clothe prisoners; food, bedding and money had to be brought in by family and friends, which meant publicly identifying yourself with someone the authorities had arrested. The last clause is compressed in the Greek and can be read two ways: that you have a body of your own and so know what mistreatment feels like, or that you belong to the same body as the sufferers.

13:4

The Greek sentence has no verb, so it can be read as a statement ("marriage is honorable") or as a command ("let marriage be held in honor"), and "in all" can mean "among all people" or "in every respect." "The bed undefiled" is a standard ancient euphemism for sexual faithfulness within a marriage. "Whoremongers" was the 1611 word for the Greek pornoi, which covers sexual immorality broadly and is not limited to men who use prostitutes.

13:5

"Conversation" in 1611 English meant a person's whole way of living and behaving, not talking. The quotation echoes God's promise to Israel in Deuteronomy 31:6 and to Joshua in Joshua 1:5. The Greek piles up negatives for emphasis, closer to "I will absolutely never let you go."

13:6

A quotation of Psalm 118:6. The Greek can be divided either as the King James does it, "I will not fear what man shall do unto me," or as two separate lines, "I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" Ancient manuscripts carried no punctuation, so both readings are open.

13:7

"Them which have the rule over you" translates a word for guides or leaders; here the past tense suggests founders of the community who are no longer living. "The end of their conversation" means the outcome of their way of life, how it finished, which for some of these leaders may mean how they died.

13:9

"Divers" means various or assorted, and "strange" means foreign or alien, not odd. "Meats" in 1611 meant food of any kind, not just flesh; the reference is to rules about what may be eaten or to ritual meals, not to meat specifically. "Occupied therein" means those who spent their lives following such rules.

13:10

Priests serving at the sanctuary were supported by the offerings: portions of most sacrifices were theirs to eat, and that food was their living. The tabernacle was the portable tent sanctuary Israel carried through the wilderness, used here as shorthand for the whole system of priestly worship.

13:11

This describes the Day of Atonement ritual in Leviticus 16. On that one day the high priest carried sacrificial blood into the innermost room of the sanctuary, and the carcasses of those particular animals were then burned outside the camp rather than eaten. "Sanctuary" here renders a Greek phrase meaning the holy places, the curtained inner chambers of the tent.

13:12

Executions in the ancient world were carried out beyond the city walls, both for public display along the roads and because a corpse was considered defiling inside the city. The point being drawn is the parallel with the animal carcasses of the previous verse, which were disposed of outside the camp.

13:13

"Reproach" means public disgrace, the shame of being openly rejected. "Without the camp" is the place Israel's law assigned to what was unclean or excluded, so going out there means accepting the same loss of standing.

13:14

In the ancient world a city was not mainly a set of buildings but the place where a person held citizenship, legal protection and a settled identity. To have no "continuing" city is to have no permanent standing anywhere.

13:15

"Sacrifice of praise" was a technical term for the thank offering described in Leviticus 7, an animal sacrifice brought to acknowledge a favor received. "The fruit of our lips" is an idiom from Hosea 14:2 for what the mouth produces, that is, spoken words, offered here in place of an animal.

13:16

"To communicate" in 1611 meant to share what you have with someone, especially money and goods. It had nothing to do with speaking or passing on information.

13:17

The Greek word behind "obey" means to be persuaded by or to put confidence in someone, rather than to take orders. "Watch for your souls" uses the image of a sentry staying awake through the night; "give account" is the language of a steward who must one day hand over the books for the property entrusted to him. "Unprofitable" means of no advantage.

13:18

"Honestly" in 1611 meant honorably or decently, living in a way that looks right to others, a wider idea than simply not lying.

13:19

"The rather" means all the more. "Restored to you" implies the writer is being kept away from them by something he does not name; imprisonment, illness and travel difficulties are all possible.

13:20

"The God of peace" is a set phrase used to close letters of this period. "That great shepherd of the sheep" echoes Isaiah 63:11, which speaks of God bringing up the shepherd of his flock out of the sea. "The blood of the everlasting covenant" recalls Exodus 24:8 and Zechariah 9:11: agreements of this kind were formally sealed by the blood of a sacrifice. The Greek word order leaves it open whether "through the blood" goes with bringing Jesus back from the dead or with his being the shepherd.

13:21

"Make you perfect" translates katartizo, a word used for mending fishing nets, setting a broken bone and putting equipment in working order. It means to fit out or put in proper condition, not to make morally flawless. Manuscripts differ here between "working in you" and "working in us."

13:22

"Suffer" means bear with or put up with. "The word of exhortation" was a standard phrase for a synagogue sermon; the same expression appears in Acts 13:15. Calling this long text "few words" suggests the writer thinks of it as a spoken address that has been trimmed for sending.

13:23

Timothy was a younger companion of Paul known from several letters. The Greek participle behind "set at liberty" can mean released from custody or simply sent off on a journey, so it is genuinely unclear whether he had been imprisoned.

13:24

"Salute" simply means greet. "Saints" translates a word meaning holy ones, set apart people, and refers to all members of the community rather than to exceptional individuals. "They of Italy salute you" is ambiguous in Greek: it can mean Italians living away from home who are with the writer, or people writing from inside Italy.

13:25

"Grace" means God's kindness given freely, as a gift, not something earned or paid for.