7. For the land which hath drunk the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receiveth blessing from God:
8. but if it beareth thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh unto a curse; whose end is to be burned.
9. But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak:
10. for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and the love which ye shewed toward his name, in that ye ministered unto the saints, and still do minister.
11. And we desire that each one of you may shew the same diligence unto the fulness of hope even to the end:
12. that ye be not sluggish, but imitators of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
13. For when God made promise to Abraham, since he could swear by none greater, he sware by himself,
14. saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
15. And thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
16. For men swear by the greater: and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation.
17. Wherein God, being minded to shew more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath: