Because of our faith, we confidently expect to receive God’s promises.

1It is because people trust God that they are sure that they will receive the things that they confidently expect God to give them. They are also certain that they will see those things, though no one sees them yet.

2It was because our ancestors trusted in God that they pleased him.

3It is because we trust in God that we understand that he formed the universe by commanding it to exist. The result is that the things that we see were not made from things that already existed.

Because of his faith, Abel offered a better sacrifice than his brother Cain did.

4It was because Adam’s son Abel trusted God that he sacrificed something better to God than what his older brother Cain offered to God. Because Abel did that, when God spoke well about what Abel sacrificed, God declared that Abel was righteous. And although Abel is dead, we still learn from him about trusting God.

Because of their faith, God blessed Enoch, Noah, and Abraham.

5It was because Enoch believed God that God took him up to heaven. The result was that he did not die. No one found him, because he was taken up {God had removed him} from the earth to heaven. Before God took him away, he testified that Enoch pleased him well.

6It is possible for people to please God only if they trust God, because anyone who wants to come to God must first believe that God exists and that he rewards those who seek to know him.

7It was because Noah trusted God that after he was warned by God {after God warned him} about a flood that had not yet happened, Noah showed that he revered God by building a huge ship to save his family. By doing that, he showed all the people who did not believe him [MTY] that they deserved to be condemned {that God would condemn them}. He was someone whom God declared to be righteous because of his trusting in God.

8It was because Abraham trusted God that when he was told to go {when God told him to go}, he obeyed God, he left his own country, and went to a place that God would give him. Abraham left his own country, even though he did not know where he would be going.

9It was because Abraham trusted God that he lived as though he was a foreigner in the land that God had promised to him. Abraham lived in tents, and his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob did also. God promised to give to Isaac and Jacob the same things that he promised to give Abraham.

10Abraham was waiting to live in a city in heaven that would exist forever [MET]. It was a city that God is building [DOU].

11It was because Abraham trusted God that God gave Abraham strength so that he was able to produce a son. Even though his wife Sarah was past the age when women bear children, God promised that he would give her a son, and Abraham considered that God would do what he promised to do.

12So, although Abraham was also too old to have children, so many people descended from that one man that they were as numerous as the stars in the sky and are as countless as the grains of sand along the seashore, just like God promised him.

All those people who trusted in God died without receiving what God promised.

13It was while they still trusted in God that all those people died. Even though they had not yet received the things that God had promised to give them, it was as though they saw those things in a distance. They were glad to know about what God promised. It was as though they admitted that they were not from this earth, but that they were only here temporarily.

14As for those people who talk like that, they clearly show that they long for a place that will become their true native land.

15If they had been thinking about that place being the place from which they had come, they would have taken the opportunity to return there.

16But, instead, they desired a better place in which to live; that is, they desired a home in heaven. So God has prepared a city for them to live with him, and he is pleased [LIT] for them to say that he is their God.

It was because Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, the Israelite people, and Rahab trusted God that he blessed them.

17It was because Abraham trusted God that he was ready to kill his son Isaac as a sacrifice when God tested him. This same man to whom God promised to give ◄a son/many descendants► was going to sacrifice that same son, the only son whom his own wife had borne!

18It was to Abraham that God said, “It is only from Isaac that I will consider your family to descend.”

19Abraham considered that to fulfill that promise, God could make Isaac live again even if he had died after Abraham sacrificed him! The result was that when Abraham did receive Isaac back after God told him not to harm Isaac, it was as though he received him back even after he died.

20It was because Isaac trusted God that he prayed that after he died, God would bless his sons Jacob and Esau.

21It was because Jacob trusted God that, as he was dying, he prayed that God would bless each of the sons of his own son Joseph. He worshipped God as he leaned upon his walking stick before he died.

22It was because Joseph trusted God that, when he was about to die in Egypt, he anticipated the time when the Israelis would leave Egypt; and he instructed that his people should carry his bones with them when they ◄left Egypt/returned to Canaan►.

23It was because Moses’ father and mother trusted God that they hid their son for three months shortly after he was born, because they saw that he was so beautiful. They were not afraid of disobeying what the king of Egypt had commanded, namely, that all the Jewish male babies must be killed.

24The daughter of the king, whom they called Pharaoh, raised Moses, but when he had grown up, it was because he trusted God that he refused to accept the privileges that would have been his if people considered that he was ◄the son of the king’s daughter/the king’s own grandson►.

25He decided that it was better for others to mistreat him for a time along with the Israeli people, than to temporarily enjoy living sinfully in the King’s palace.

26This is because he decided that if he suffered for the Messiah, it would be worth far more in God’s sight than his owning all the treasures of Egypt that he would receive as Pharaoh’s heir. He decided that because he looked forward to the time when God would give him an eternal reward.

27It was because he trusted God that he left Egypt. He was not afraid that the king would be angry because of his doing that. He ◄kept going/did not turn back► because it was as though he kept seeing God, whom no one can see.

28It was because Moses believed that God would save his own people that he instituted the festival called Passover. He did that by commanding that the people should kill lambs and sprinkle their blood on their doorposts. They did that in order that the angel who causes people to die would not kill [EUP] the oldest male Israelites when he killed the oldest sons in each Egyptian family.

29It was because they trusted God that when the Israelite people walked through where the Red Sea had been, it was as though they walked on dry land! But, when the army of Egypt also attempted to cross that same water, they drowned, because the sea came back and flooded them!

30It was because the Israeli people trusted God that the walls around Jericho city collapsed, after the Israelis marched around the walls for seven days.

31Rahab had been a prostitute, but because she trusted God, she did not perish with those inside Jericho who disobeyed God. Joshua sent some spies into the city in order to find ways to destroy it, but God saved her because she welcomed those spies peaceably.

Some who trusted God gained great victories and others were tortured and killed.

32I do not know what more I should say [RHQ] about others who trusted in God. It would take too much time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the other prophets.

33It was because they trusted God that some of them did great things for him. Some conquered lands ruled by powerful men. Some ruled Israel and justly punished those men and nations who rebelled against God. Some obtained from God the things that he promised to give them [MTY].

34Some forced lions to keep their mouths shut. Some escaped from being destroyed by fire. Some of those people escaped from being killed with a sword [MTY]. Some of those people who trusted God were made strong {became mighty} again after they had once been weak. Some became powerful when they fought wars. Some caused armies that came from foreign lands to run away from them.

35Some women who trusted God received their relatives back again when God ◄made them live again after they had died/raised them from the dead►. But others who trusted God were tortured until they died. They were tortured because they refused to agree when their captors said, “We will release you if you deny that you believe in God.” They refused to do that, because they wanted to live with God forever, which is better than continuing to live on earth after having almost died.

36Other people who trusted God were mocked; some had their backs cut open by being struck with leaded whips. Some were chained and put in prison.

37Some of those believers were stoned to death {People killed some of those believers by throwing stones at them}. Others were cut completely in two. Others were killed with swords. Others of these people who trusted God wandered around the land wearing garments made only of skins from sheep and goats. They did not have any money. They were continually oppressed and tormented {People continuously oppressed them and tormented them}.

38The people on earth who caused those who trusted in God to suffer were so bad that they did not deserve to live with people who trusted God. Some who trusted God wandered in deserts and on mountains. Some lived in caves and in other large holes in the ground.

Only when we are together with all these people who trusted God will we receive all God has promised.

39Although all these people were commended by God {God commended all these people} because they trusted him, God did not give them all that he promised them while they were alive.

40God knew ahead of time that what he would give us and them later would be better than giving them immediately what he promised. What God intends is that only when they and we are together will we have all that God intends us to have.