Hebrews 10:32-39

³² But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings:

³³ partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated;

³⁴ for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.

³⁵ Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.

³⁶ For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: 

³⁷ “ For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry.

³⁸ Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.”

³⁹ But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

recall (v.32) — habitually

illuminated (v.32) — enlightened by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:13; Hebrews 2:4; 6:4)

The writer appeals to their faith in past afflictions to encourage the Jews to be faithful in their current afflictions.

spectacle (v.33) = lit. “to bring upon the stage” — exposed by shame or by shameful treatment. The Greek is theatrizo from which we get “theater.”

reproaches (v.33) = contemptuous defamation

tribulations (v.33) = pressure — what weighs down the spirit

companions (v.33) — they suffered from seeing others persecuted and from helping them (financially?)

me in my chains (v.34) — probably should be “them that were in bonds”

goods (v.34) = possessions — they lost their possessions

knowing (v.34) — from experience

in heaven (v.34) — not in the best manuscripts (perhaps added by a translator who was trying to make this apply to Christians and not just believing Jews)

confidence (v.35) = freedom in speaking, cheerful courage

patience (v.36) = lit. “to remain under” — so, remain under persecution and don’t seek to escape it by returning to Judaism.

receive (v.36) = receive and carry away for use and enjoyment

Verse 37 is a quote from Habakkuk 2:3 — He refers to Christ

He who is coming (v.37) = lit. “the Coming One” (Revelation 1:8)

a little while (v.37) = lit. “for yet a little — a very little — while”

the just shall live by faith (v.38) — Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11

draws back (v.38) — with the sense of a deliberate action

we (v.39) — emphatic

perdition (v.39) — not “loss of being” but “loss of well-being”

saving (v.39) = obtaining, gaining, possessing

Terrible sufferings are in store for those who find themselves in Daniel’s seventieth week, the time of Jacob’s trouble. Unable to buy or sell (Revelation 13:17), these people endure a great flight of afflictions just as Christ had forewarned in Matthew chapters 24 and 25.

The Hebrew Tribulation epistle of James is replete with similar warnings (James 1:11; 2:5-6, 15-17; 5:1-3).

Their afflictions were so severe that one of their leaders was stoned to death (Acts 7:60), the twelve tribes were scattered (Acts 8:1) and there was little doubt but that the the times prophesied by Joel (Acts 2:16-17) were taking place. — McLean, page 149.