Bible Strands
Hebrews 3:12
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a wicked heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The anonymous author of Hebrews addresses Jewish believers at the point of warning: the wilderness generation's unbelief (v. 11) is not a distant lesson but a live threat to them.
The words — μὴ ποτε (mēpote) is more than "not"; it means "at no point," "in any way," marking the danger as a present, real possibility rather than a hypothetical.
The thread — Jeremiah 17:9 names the heart as "deceitful above all things," and Jeremiah 7:24 describes the "stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts" — the same trajectory Hebrews warns against.
Why it lands — The imperative "see to it" (Blepete) is a command to self-examination: the reader is to check their own heart for the presence of unbelief, not as a theological abstraction but as a present, personal danger.
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
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 17:5 This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes mere flesh his strength and turns his heart from the LORD.
- Jeremiah 7:24 Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.
- Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
- Jeremiah 18:12 But they will reply, ‘It is hopeless. We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”
- 1 Corinthians 10:12 So the one who thinks he is standing firm should be careful not to fall.
- Hebrews 12:25 See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if the people did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject Him who warns us from heaven?
- Hebrews 10:38 But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.”
- Jeremiah 11:8 Yet they would not obey or incline their ears, but each one followed the stubbornness of his evil heart. So I brought on them all the curses of this covenant I had commanded them to follow but they did not keep.”
- Mark 7:21 For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
- Proverbs 1:32 For the waywardness of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.