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The Psalm has been used from the earliest times in the Synagogue service for the Sabbath, and as “the Invitatory Psalm” at Matins in the Western Church.

It is assigned in the LXX. (not in the Hebrew) to David (comp. Heb. 4:7), but this popular attribution cannot be right.

The words which immediately precede the quotation (3:8-11) justify the application to Christians:

We are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand (Lk. 12:32 poivmnion ).

The particular interpretation of this claim gives also the particular interpretation of ‘today.’ The voice of God comes still to those who claim to be His.

The quotation agrees with the LXX. text except by the insertion of diov and by the substitution of tauvth/ for ejkeivnh/ and of aujtoi; dev for kai; aujtoiv in Heb. 3:10; [ peirasmou' is the true reading of LXX.] and of ejn dokimasiva/ for ejdokivmasan (v. 9).

7 Wherefore—even as the Holy Ghost saith ,

Today, if ye shall hear His voice ,

8 Harden not your hearts, as in the Provocation , At the day of the Temptation in the wilderness ,

9 Where your fathers tempted by proving ,

And saw my works forty years.

10 Wherefore I was displeased with this generation ,

And said They do always err in their heart;

But they did not know my ways ,

11 As I sware in my wrath ,

They shall not enter into my rest

(1) Faith the condition of blessing (Hebrews 3:7-19)

3:7. diov ] Wherefore , because it is only by holding fast our hope that we can secure the privilege of the divine society.

The point of transition lies in 3:6. The condition of resolute fidelity suggests the consideration of the consequences of failure.

The construction of the clauses which follow is uncertain. It may be complete or incomplete. In the former case two modes of construction are possible. The quotation from Ps. 95 may be appropriated by the writer of the Epistle and made part of his own appeal, so that the words mh; sklhruvnhte ... become the immediate sequel ( diov...mh; sklhr. ). Or the whole quotation may be parenthetical, and diov be connected immediately with blevpete in Heb. 3:12.

It is a serious objection to the former view that the words mh; sklhruvnhte ... in the Psalm are spoken by God, and it is unlikely that the writer should so appropriate them, while long parentheses are not alien from his style; and further it may be urged that blevpete by itself is abrupt as a beginning.


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