1 Therefore, having left the discourse of the beginning of Christ, let us go on to full growth, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

2 of [the] baptisms, of doctrine, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

3 And this we will do, if God permits.

4 For [it is] impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of [the] Holy Spirit,

5 and have tasted [the] good Word of God and [the] powers of the world to come,

6 and who have fallen away; it is impossible, I say, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify the Son of God afresh to themselves and put [Him] to an open shame.

7 (For the earth which drinks in the rain that comes often upon it, and brings forth plants fit for those by whom it is dressed, receives blessing from God.

8 But [that which] bears thorns and briers [is] rejected and [is] a curse, whose end [is] to be burned.)

9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this way.

10 For God [is] not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

11 And we desire that each one of you show the same eagerness to the full assurance of hope to [the] end,

12 that you be not slothful, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, [He] swore by Himself,

14 saying, Surely in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply you.

15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

16 For men truly swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation [is] to them an end of all strife.

17 In this way desiring to declare more fully to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, God interposed by an oath,

18 so that by two immutable things, in which [it was] impossible [for] God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before [us] ,

19 which [hope] we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil,

20 where the Forerunner has entered for us, even] Jesus, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.