Bible Strands
Hebrews 6:17
So when God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The unnamed author writes to Jewish believers at risk of abandoning their faith, building a case for the absolute certainty of God's promise.
The words — perissoteron (περισσὸτερον) is the comparative of a word meaning "beyond measure"; the BSB's "very clear" understates the Greek, which says God wanted to show it more than sufficiently.
The thread — The same logic appears in Proverbs 19:21 (the LORD's purpose prevails) and Isaiah 55:11 (His word accomplishes what He pleases). Hebrews 6:18 then names the "two unchangeable things" — the promise and the oath — that make this certainty inescapable.
Why it lands — The verse removes any room for treating God's purpose as provisional; the reader is meant to stop hedging the promise with conditions.
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
Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
Cross-references
- Proverbs 19:21 Many plans are in a man’s heart, but the purpose of the LORD will prevail.
- Hebrews 6:18 Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged.
- Isaiah 55:11 so My word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper where I send it.
- Isaiah 14:24 The LORD of Hosts has sworn: “Surely, as I have planned, so will it be; as I have purposed, so will it stand.
- Psalms 110:4 The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind: “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”
- 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.
- Psalms 33:11 The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the purposes of His heart to all generations.
- John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness.
- Job 23:13 But He is unchangeable, and who can oppose Him? He does what He desires.
- Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.