Hebrews 11

1Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for, the proof of realities we do not see. 2This is how the people of long ago gained God’s approval. 3By faith we understand that the ages were set in order by God’s word, so that what we see did not come into being from anything visible.

4By faith Abel offered God a greater sacrifice than Cain’s. Through faith he was attested as righteous, since God bore witness about his gifts. And through faith, though he died, he is still speaking.

5By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. Before he was taken, it was attested of him that he had pleased God. 6And no one can please God without faith, since anyone who approaches God has to believe both that he exists and that he repays those who search for him. 7By faith Noah, warned by God about what could not yet be seen, acted with reverence and built an ark for the salvation of his household. Through this he passed sentence on the world, and he came to inherit the righteousness that faith brings.

8By faith Abraham obeyed God’s call to leave for a land he would later be given as his own, and he set out without knowing where he was headed. 9By faith he lived as a resident alien in the land of the promise, as if it were someone else’s country. He lived in tents, along with Isaac and Jacob, his fellow heirs of that same promise. 10For he was waiting for the city with firm foundations, a city planned and built by God. 11By faith, together with Sarah herself, he received the power to become a father, even though he was past the age for it, since he held that the one who had made the promise was faithful. 12So it was that from one man, whose body was already as if dead, there came descendants as many as the stars of heaven, as numberless as the sand along the shore of the sea.

13All these died still holding to faith. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it from far off and welcomed it, and they openly said that they were foreigners and passing visitors on the earth. 14Those who talk this way are showing that they are in search of a homeland. 15Had their minds been on the land they came out of, they would have had time enough to turn back. 16But as things are, they are reaching out for something better: a homeland in heaven. So God does not count it a shame to be known as their God, and he has made a city ready for them.

17By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. The man who had been given the promises was offering up his only son, 18the son about whom he had been told, “Your offspring will be named through Isaac.” 19He counted on God’s power to raise people even from the dead, and from the dead, in a figure, he did receive him back.

20By faith Isaac also blessed Jacob and Esau with regard to what was still to come. 21By faith Jacob, at the point of death, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and he bowed low in worship over the tip of his staff. 22By faith Joseph, when his life was coming to an end, spoke of the Israelites’ coming exodus and gave orders about his bones.

23By faith, when Moses was born, his parents kept him hidden for three months. They saw what a fine child he was, and they did not fear the king’s decree. 24By faith Moses, once he was a grown man, would not let himself be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25He chose to share the hardships of God’s people instead of enjoying sin’s pleasures for a short time. 26He reckoned that to bear the reproach of Christ was worth more than all the riches of Egypt, because he kept his eyes on the reward. 27By faith he left Egypt, unafraid of the king’s rage, and he held firm as one who saw the unseen God. 28By faith he held the Passover and had the blood spread on the doorframes, so that the one who struck down the firstborn would not touch the Israelites.

29By faith Israel went through the Red Sea as if it were dry ground; the Egyptians made the attempt too, and the sea swallowed them. 30By faith the walls of Jericho fell, when Israel had gone around them day after day for seven days. 31By faith Rahab the prostitute escaped the death of those who refused to obey, since she had taken in the spies in peace.

32And what more should I say? Time would run out on me if I told about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets. 33Through faith they overcame kingdoms, ruled with justice, won what had been promised, and shut the mouths of lions. 34They put out the power of fire, got away from the sword’s edge, found strength when they were weak, grew mighty in war, and drove back foreign armies. 35Women had their dead given back to them, raised to life. Others were tortured and beaten, and they would not accept freedom, because they wanted to obtain a better resurrection. 36Others went through mockery and the lash, and beyond that, chains and prison cells. 37They were stoned, sawn in two, cut down by the sword. They roamed about wearing the skins of sheep and goats, lacking everything, oppressed, treated cruelly. 38The world did not deserve such people. They wandered over deserts and mountains, and sheltered in caves and in holes in the earth. 39Through their faith all of these were attested by God, and yet they did not receive the promise. 40God had in view something better for us: they were not to be made perfect apart from us.