¹Therefore, having left the beginning of the teaching of the Anointed One, let us go on to maturity, not again laying a foundation of change of heart from dead works and trust in God,

²of teaching about immersions, then about laying on of hands, about the resurrection both of the dead, and about eternal judgment.

³And this we will do, if indeed God shall permit.

⁴For it is impossible for those once having been enlightened, then having tasted of the heavenly gift and having become partakers of the Holy Spirit,

⁵and having tasted the goodness of God's word and also the power of the coming age —

⁶and then having fallen away — again to restore them to change of heart, crucifying in themselves the Son of God and subjecting him to open shame.

⁷For land that, when it had drunk in the rain often coming upon it, and producing vegetation useful for those for the sake of whom also it is tilled, partakes of blessing from God;

⁸but that bringing forth thorns and thistles is worthless and near to a curse, of which the end is unto burning.

⁹But we have been persuaded concerning you, beloved, of better things and things accompanying salvation, even if we speak like this.

¹⁰For God is not unjust to forget your work and the labor of love that you showed toward his name, in having ministered to the holy ones and still ministering.

¹¹Now we desire each of you to show the same earnestness toward the full assurance of the hope unto the end;

¹²so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through trust and patience are inheriting the promises.

¹³For God, having made his promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater to swear by, swore by himself,

¹⁴saying: Surely, blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you;

¹⁵And thus, when he had waited patiently, he obtained the promise.

¹⁶For men indeed swear by one greater, and in all their disputes the oath finally comes to confirmation;

¹⁷In which God, desiring more excessively to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose, guaranteed it by an oath,

¹⁸so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge may have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope being set before us;

¹⁹which we have as an anchor, both sure and unshakable, and entering into that within the veil,

²⁰where the forerunner has entered for us, Jesus, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.