Passage

Hebrews 13.4

Book: Hebrews · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

2. Forget not to show love unto strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; them that are ill-treated, as being yourselves also in the body.

4. Let marriage be had in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled: for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

Be ye free from the love of money; content with such things as ye have: for himself hath said, I will in no wise fail thee, neither will I in any wise forsake thee. 6. So that with good courage we say, The Lord is my helper; I will not fear: What shall man do unto me? (Hebrews 13:2-6, ASV)

WEB

2. Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for in doing so, some have entertained angels without knowing it. 3. Remember those who are in bonds, as bound with them; and those who are ill-treated, since you are also in the body.

4. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled: but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for he has said, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.” 6. So that with good courage we say, “The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:2-6, WEB)

KJV

2. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.

4. Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. 6. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. (Hebrews 13:2-6, KJV)

YLT

2. of the hospitality be not forgetful, for through this unawares certain did entertain messengers; 3. be mindful of those in bonds, as having been bound with them, of those maltreated, as also yourselves being in the body;

4. honourable [is] the marriage in all, and the bed undefiled, and whoremongers and adulterers God shall judge.

Without covetousness the behaviour, being content with the things present, for He hath said, 'No, I will not leave, no, nor forsake thee,' 6. so that we do boldly say, 'The Lord [is] to me a helper, and I will not fear what man shall do to me.' (Hebrews 13:2-6, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: the anonymous author of Hebrews (traditionally Paul; Origen said only God knows who wrote it; Apollos, Barnabas and others have been proposed)
Audience: a community of Christians, probably largely Jewish, tempted to drift back from faith in Christ under pressure (Hebrews 10:32-34, 12:4)
Location: unknown; Hebrews 13:24, "They of Italy salute you," suggests a link with Italy
Time period: probably before AD 70, since the letter speaks of the Levitical service in the present tense and never mentions the temple's destruction; some date it later
Literary context: Part of a run of brief exhortations at the start of chapter 13: brotherly love and hospitality (13:1-2), care for prisoners and the mistreated (13:3), marriage (13:4), and freedom from the love of money (13:5-6). Verses 7-17 then turn to leaders, teaching and worship.

Theological reading

Marriage held in honor. "Let marriage be had in honor among all." The Greek line has no verb, so translations differ: the KJV reads it as a statement, "Marriage is honourable in all," while the ASV reads it as an exhortation. Either way, marriage is to be honored by everyone. Some interpreters see a check here on teaching that despised marriage, the kind Paul warns of in 1 Timothy 4:3, "forbidding to marry."

The bed undefiled. The second clause applies the first to sexual faithfulness. Marriage is honored when the marriage bed is kept pure. The reason given is plain: "fornicators and adulterers God will judge." Sexual sin is named as a matter that comes before God himself.

Desire and contentment. Verse 5 follows at once with "Be ye free from the love of money; content with such things as ye have." The two commands sit together as guards against disordered desire, and verse 5 grounds contentment in God's promise, "I will in no wise fail thee, neither will I in any wise forsake thee."

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

None of the words in this verse has its own lexicon entry yet.

Quoted in

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Notes

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Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.