1Let’s fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into his rest. 2For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn’t profit them, because it wasn’t mixed with faith by those who heard. 3For we who have believed do enter into that rest, even as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest;” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4For he has said this somewhere about the seventh day, “God rested on the seventh day from all his works;” 5and in this place again, “They will not enter into my rest.”
6Seeing therefore it remains that some should enter into it, and they to whom the good news was preached before failed to enter in because of disobedience, 7he again defines a certain day, “today”, saying through David so long a time afterward (just as has been said),
“Today if you will hear his voice,
don’t harden your hearts.”
8For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day. 9There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10For he who has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his. 11Let’s therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience. 12For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.
14Having then a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let’s hold tightly to our confession. 15For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin. 16Let’s therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace for help in time of need.
For a number of years many biblical scholars and archaeologists have questioned the historicity of King David. In the 20th century, this began to change because of three important finds. First, Avraham Biran discovered at Tel Dan an Aramaic stela, dated approximately 841 B.C. that mentioned the House of David, a usage in the ancient world clearly referring to the founder of a dynasty, and written about 150 years after David’s death.
The pertinent section of the text reads:
“[I killed Jeho]ram son of [Ahab] king of Israel,
and [I] killed [Ahaz]iahu son of [Jehoram kin]g
of the House of David.”(Tel Dan Inscription, lines 7b-8a)
The Mesha stela, dating to the 9th century B.C. (also known as Moabite Stone) reveals the designation House of David (though some recent scholars have argued that it speaks of the Moabite king Balak), as well as the name of Yahweh, God of Israel. The text speaks of Judah’s occupation of part of southern Moab.
The pertinent section of the text reads:
"altars of Yahweh, and I brought them before Chemosh. (line 18)
. . .
“And the house [of Da]vid (bt[d]wd) dwelt in Horonen
[. . .] and Kamosh said to me: “Go down!
Fight against Horonen.”
(Mesha Inscription, lines 31b-32a)
Last of all is the engraving of Pharoah Shoshenq I of Egypt at Karnak, where he has a lengthy list of place names in Israel, Judah, the Negev, and nearby locations, in which the name of David is mentioned (the heights of Dwt).
The pertinent section of the text reads:
“highlands/heights of David”
(Shoshenq I [Shishak in OT] Inscription, number 105 + 106)
(See K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament, 92-93), André Lemaire, “‘House of David’ Restored in Moabite Inscription” Biblical Archaeology Review 20:3 (May/June 1994, Michael D. Coogan, ed., The Oxford History of the Biblical World, pp. 175-176, and Iain Provan, V. Philips Long, and Tremper Longman III, A Biblical History of Israel, p. 216 [basis of texts and translations above]).