2 For if the word which was spoken by angels was firm, and every transgression and disobedience received just retribution,
who have received the law as ordained by [the] ministry of angels, and have not kept [it].
Cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great recompense.
Why then the law? It was added for the sake of transgressions, until the seed came to whom the promise was made, ordained through angels in [the] hand of a mediator.
Cursed be he that confirmeth not the words of this law to do them! And all the people shall say, Amen.
And the man that shall act presumptuously, and not hearken unto the priest that standeth to serve there before Jehovah thy God, or unto the judge, that man shall die; and thou shalt put away evil from Israel.
But I would put you in remembrance, you who once knew all things, that the Lord, having saved a people out of [the] land of Egypt, in the second place destroyed those who had not believed.
thou shalt bring forth that man or that woman, who committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, the man or the woman, and shalt stone them with stones, that they die.
If there be found in thy midst in any of thy gates which Jehovah thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that doeth what is evil in the sight of Jehovah thy God, in transgressing his covenant,
But the soul that doeth ought with a high hand, whether born in the land, or a stranger, he reproacheth Jehovah; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. For he hath despised the word of Jehovah, and hath broken his commandment: that soul shall surely be cut off; his iniquity is upon him. And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness they found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath day. And they that found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to the whole assembly. And they put him in custody, for it was not declared what should be done to him. And Jehovah said to Moses, The man shall certainly be put to death: the whole assembly shall stone him with stones outside the camp. And the whole assembly led him outside the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
yet God was not pleased with the most of them, for they were strewed in the desert. But these things happened [as] types of us, that we should not be lusters after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt the Christ, as some of them tempted, and perished by serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them murmured, and perished by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them [as] types, and have been written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come. So that let him that thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
God having spoken in many parts and in many ways formerly to the fathers in the prophets,
And he said to them, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: Put every man his sword upon his hip; go and return from gate to gate through the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbour. And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses; and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.
The chariots of God are twenty thousand, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them: it is a Sinai in holiness.
My doctrine shall drop as rain, My speech flow down as dew, As small rain upon the tender herb, And as showers on the grass.
And those that died in the plague were twenty-four thousand.
Then Jehovah sent fiery serpents among the people, which bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his staff smote the rock twice, and much water came out, and the assembly drank, and their beasts. And Jehovah said to Moses and to Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to hallow me before the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land that I have given them.
Now they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides them that had died because of the matter of Korah.
And it came to pass when he had ended speaking all these words, that the ground clave apart that was under them. And the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men that belonged to Korah, and all their property. And they went down, they and all that they had, alive into Sheol, and the earth covered them; and they perished from among the congregation. And all Israel that were round about them fled at their cry; for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up! And there came out a fire from Jehovah, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that had presented incense.
Say unto them, As surely as I live, saith Jehovah, if I do not do unto you as ye have spoken in mine ears! In this wilderness shall your carcases fall; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number from twenty years old and upwards, who have murmured against me, shall in no wise come into the land, concerning which I have lifted up my hand to make you dwell in it; save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, of whom ye said they should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land that ye have despised. And as to you, your carcases shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye have searched out the land, forty days, each day for a year shall ye bear your iniquities forty years, and ye shall know mine estrangement [from you]. I Jehovah have spoken; I will surely do it unto all this evil assembly which have gathered together against me! in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die. And the men whom Moses had sent to search out the land, who returned, and made the whole assembly to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report upon the land, even those men who had brought up an evil report upon the land, died by a plague before Jehovah.
The flesh was yet between their teeth, before it was chewed, when the wrath of Jehovah was kindled against the people, and Jehovah smote the people with a very great plague.
Lead the reviler outside the camp; and all that heard [him] shall lay their hands upon his head, and the whole assembly shall stone him. And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Every one when he revileth his God shall bear his sin. And he that blasphemeth the name of Jehovah shall certainly be put to death; all the assembly shall certainly stone him; as well the stranger as he that is home-born, when he blasphemeth the Name, shall be put to death.
And the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, took each of them his censer, and put fire in it, and put incense on it, and presented strange fire before Jehovah, which he had not commanded them. And there went out fire from before Jehovah, and devoured them, and they died before Jehovah.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Hebrews 2
Commentary on Hebrews 2 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 2
In this chapter the apostle,
Hbr 2:1-4
The apostle proceeds in the plain profitable method of doctrine, reason, and use, through this epistle. Here we have the application of the truths before asserted and proved; this is brought in by the illative particle therefore, with which this chapter begins, and which shows its connection with the former, where the apostle having proved Christ to be superior to the angels by whose ministry the law was given, and therefore that the gospel dispensation must be more excellent than the legal, he now comes to apply this doctrine both by way of exhortation and argument.
Hbr 2:5-9
The apostle, having made this serious application of the doctrine of the personal excellency of Christ above the angels, now returns to that pleasant subject again, and pursues it further (v. 5): For to the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.
Hbr 2:10-13
Having mentioned the death of Christ, the apostle here proceeds to prevent and remove the scandal of the cross; and this he does by showing both how it became God that Christ should suffer and how much man should be benefited by those sufferings.
Hbr 2:14-18
Here the apostle proceeds to assert the incarnation of Christ, as taking upon him not the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham; and he shows the reason and design of his so doing.