Hebrews 11:13

All these people died in faith, without having received the things they were promised. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The author writes to a Jewish-Christian community under pressure to defect, using this verse as the summary verdict on the faith heroes just catalogued. It lands at the hinge between the list (vv. 4–12) and the theological explanation (vv. 13–16).

The words — λαβόντες (labontes), aorist active participle of λαμβάνω ("to take, receive"), is negated by μή to produce a flat denial: they did not receive. The aorist marks the action as a single, completed event that simply never occurred.

The thread — The "strangers and exiles" language echoes Abraham's self-description in Genesis 23:4 and the psalmist's cry in Psalms 39:12, while Hebrews 11:27 shows Moses operating in the same mode. The immediate context (v. 14) confirms the point: they were seeking a homeland.

Why it lands — It removes the expectation that faith should produce visible, earthly payoff within a lifetime. The reader is placed in the same category as the patriarchs: the demand is to hold the promise without requiring its fulfillment as evidence.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Cross-references

Genesis 23:4 “I am a foreigner and an outsider among you. Give me a burial site among you so that I can bury my dead.”
Psalms 39:12 Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping. For I am a foreigner dwelling with You, a stranger like all my fathers.
Hebrews 11:27 By faith Moses left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw Him who is invisible.
1 Chronicles 29:14 But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? For everything comes from You, and from Your own hand we have given to You.
John 8:56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad.”
Romans 8:24 For in this hope we were saved; but hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he can already see?
Hebrews 11:39 These were all commended for their faith, yet they did not receive what was promised.
1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.
Ephesians 2:19 Therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,
Genesis 25:8 And at a ripe old age he breathed his last and died, old and contented, and was gathered to his people.