Bible Strands
Hebrews 13:14
For here we do not have a permanent city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The anonymous author of Hebrews addresses Jewish believers under pressure to return to the temple system, placing this verse in the closing exhortation immediately after the call to bear Christ's disgrace outside the camp (13:13).
The words — μένουσαν (menousan), "abiding, permanent," is a present participle of μένω (to remain, dwell); it marks the city not as a vague future hope but as a fixed, enduring dwelling.
The thread — Hebrews 11:10–12 describes Abraham and the patriarchs seeking "a city with a founder and builder," and Philippians 3:20 locates citizenship in heaven while awaiting a Savior from there.
Why it lands — It strips the present of any claim to finality: whatever you are holding as your permanent address—system, place, comfort—it is not the city you are looking for.
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
For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
Cross-references
- Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
- Colossians 3:1 Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
- Hebrews 11:12 And so from one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
- Hebrews 12:22 Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels
- 2 Peter 3:13 But in keeping with God’s promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
- Ephesians 2:19 Therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,
- 2 Corinthians 4:17 For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison.
- Micah 2:10 Arise and depart, for this is not your place of rest, because its defilement brings destruction—a grievous destruction!
- Hebrews 11:9 By faith he dwelt in the promised land as a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
- 1 Corinthians 7:29 What I am saying, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none;