What Does Hebrews 4:9 Mean in the King James?

There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

Hebrews 4:9 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The word for “rest” carries the shape of Sabbath: what remains is a share in God’s rest, not merely a pause from activity.

THE MEANING

A Sabbath-shaped rest remains for you within the people of God. It is more than relief from fatigue: it is a share in the rest that follows completed work, still present now.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that rest is gone until every task is finished: the verse says a Sabbath-rest remains.

THE ROOT

σαββατισμός

sabbatismos

GROWS FROM

σαββατ

The Greek Sabbath word base, naming the Sabbath and its observance.

The Greek word ⁨σαββατισμός⁩ gathers rest into the shape of Sabbath. Its word family points to a rhythm of ceasing and sharing in rest, rather than rest as an empty interval.

ALSO GROWS

sabbaton: Sabbath; the seventh day

σάββατον

It shares the ⁨σαββατ⁩ base and shows the Sabbath pattern at the heart of the verse’s “rest.”

sabbatizō: Keep or observe the Sabbath

σαββατίζω

It shares the ⁨σαββατ⁩ base and connects Sabbath rest with entering a Sabbath-shaped practice.

THE PATTERN

God’s rest is a shareable pattern of ceasing from work and receiving the wholeness of completed work.

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

Genesis 2:2 · KJVGod’s rest follows completed work and gives the Sabbath pattern its first shape.

But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

Exodus 20:10 · KJVSabbath rest extends the pattern of ceasing from work across the whole household.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28 · KJVJesus speaks of rest as something given to those carrying labor and weight.

THE THREAD

For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

Hebrews 4:10 · KJV

The next verse unfolds the Sabbath shape of the rest: entering God’s rest corresponds to ceasing from one’s own works, as God ceased from his. Hebrews 4:9 names what remains; this verse shows its pattern.

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