Hebrews 4 — Clausal Layout (English)

independentparticipialrelativepurposecausecomparativecontentconditionalphrase modifierdashed = verbless / suspended

Flush-left = a main (independent) clause. Each dependent line begins directly beneath the word it attaches to in the line above — the anchor word is dotted-underlined, and lights up when you hover its dependent clause; each tag also names the attachment. A dashed border marks verbless, elliptical, or suspended lines. Where a long sentence's staircase runs wider than the page, the diagram scrolls sideways. (In print, or without JavaScript, lines fall back to stepped indent columns.)

Fear — the promise of entering still stands 4:1–5

vv. 1–2 — the same good news, the fatal difference: faith

Let us fear, therefore,independent — hortatory — the chapter's first 'let us', drawn from 3:7–19

lest — while a promise of entering his rest is left standing —participial — genitive absolute; μήποτε opens the feared clause and leans on δοκῇ below

any of you should be judged to have come short of it.content — the thing feared — the perfect ὑστερηκέναι, a settled shortfall

For we too have had the good news preached to us,independent — perfect periphrastic — an abiding evangelized state

just as they did;comparative — elliptical — the wilderness generation, the standing foil

but the word they heard did not profit them,independent — same privilege, opposite outcome — ὁ λόγος τῆς ἀκοῆς, the word that reached the ear

since they were not united by faith with those who heard.participial — causal — acc. pl. συγκεκερασμένους read with the text (variant nom. sg. συγκεκερασμένος)

vv. 3–5 — the oath and the seventh day: the rest is real, and barred only to unbelief

For we who have believed are entering that rest,independent — the positive ground — the fronted present εἰσερχόμεθα, faith the door

just as he has said:comparative — the warrant — the perfect of God's still-standing speech

'As I swore in my wrath,content — Ps 95:11 (94:11 LXX) — the oath re-cited from 3:11

They shall surely not enter my rest,'content — the oath's content — Hebraic Εἰ, an emphatic negation, not a condition

although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.participial — καίτοι + genitive absolute, concessive — the rest has stood ready since creation

For somewhere he has spoken of the seventh day in this way:independent — the second witness introduced — που, the reverent vagueness of citation

'And God rested on the seventh day from all his works';content — Gen 2:2 — God's own Sabbath, the archetype of the κατάπαυσις

and again in this passage:independent — elliptical — εἴρηκεν carried over from v. 4; πάλιν, the author's citation formula

'They shall surely not enter my rest.'content — Ps 95:11 once more — under the elided verb of saying; rest real, entry forfeited

'Today' renewed — a sabbath-rest remains 4:6–11

vv. 6–8 — since some must enter, God fixes another day: Joshua's rest was not the rest

Since, then, it remains for some to enter it,cause — causal protasis — leans forward on the apodosis of v. 7; the rest cannot stand empty

and those who formerly had the good news preached did not enter because of disobedience,cause — the protasis's second limb — the first hearers shut out by ἀπείθεια (3:18–19)

he again fixes a certain day — 'Today' —independent — the apodosis — God re-dates the offer; Σήμερον in apposition names the day

speaking in David so long afterward,participial — the means — God the speaker, David the mouthpiece; the interval clinches the argument

as has been said before:comparative — the re-citation formula — the text already adduced at 3:7, 15

'Today, if you hear his voice,content — Ps 95:7 — the quoted condition: the day of hearing is now

do not harden your hearts.'content — Ps 95:8 — the quoted prohibition, the wilderness sin renounced

For if Joshua had given them rest,conditional — protasis — second-class, contrary to fact; Ἰησοῦς here is Joshua, the pointed near-miss of the name

he would not have spoken afterward of another day.independent — apodosis — ἄν + imperfect; the lingering 'Today' proves the conquest was not the rest

vv. 9–11 — the σαββατισμός conclusion, and the charge: strive to enter

So then, a sabbath-rest remains for the people of God.independent — the crowning inference — σαββατισμός, apparently coined here, ties the rest to God's Sabbath (v. 4)

for the one who has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works,cause — the rest defined — to enter is to cease, as the enterer's own Sabbath

just as God did from his own.comparative — elliptical — the exact analogy to Gen 2:2: the believer's rest patterned on God's

Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest,independent — the exhortation crests — diligence, the paradoxical labor of entering rest

so that no one may fall by the same pattern of disobedience.purpose — negative purpose — the wilderness ὑπόδειγμα not to be reproduced (3:17)

The living word — nothing hidden 4:12–13

For the word of God is livingindependent — the aphorism opens — Ζῶν fronted, ἐστιν implied; the word that says 'Today' is no dead letter

and active,phrase modifier — the second predicate — ἐνεργής, at work and effective

and sharper than any two-edged sword,phrase modifier — comparative ὑπέρ + accusative — keener than any blade

and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow,participial — the sword-figure pressed to the inmost seam — rhetorical depth, not a dualist anatomy

and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart;phrase modifier — κριτικός — the cascade's forensic close: the word as discerner of the καρδία (v. 7)

And no creature is hidden before him,independent — the shift from word to Speaker — nothing ἀφανής to God's sight

but all things are naked and laid bare to his eyes —independent — the positive counterpart, ἐστιν implied — τετραχηλισμένα, the neck bent back and exposed

him to whom we must give our account.relative — the elliptical close — λόγος now 'account, reckoning', the deliberate echo of v. 12

The great high priest — the throne of grace 4:14–16

Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,participial — causal participle leaning forward on κρατῶμεν below — the hinge to the priestly theme

Jesus the Son of God,phrase modifier — apposition — the name answering Joshua (v. 8): the greater Ἰησοῦς, priest and Son

let us hold fast the confession.independent — the first of the paired exhortations — the present κρατῶμεν, a sustained grip (cf. 10:23)

For we do not have a high priest unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,cause — the ground, by litotes — 'not unable' = abundantly able to feel with us

but one who has been tested in every way, in our likeness — yet without sin.participial — the positive of the pair — tested κατὰ πάντα, in our likeness, χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας the sole exception

Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness,independent — the second exhortation — the cultic προσερχώμεθα; fear (v. 1) resolves into παρρησία

so that we may receive mercypurpose — the first benefit — mercy for the failure behind us

and find grace for well-timed help.purpose — the second, chiastically ordered (λάβωμεν ἔλεος / χάριν εὕρωμεν) — aid at the critical hour

Analysis. Hebrews 4 falls into two unequal halves, and the layout shows the seam. Verses 1–11 are one sustained argument out of Ps 95, carried by flush-left hortatory and inferential main lines — Φοβηθῶμεν (v. 1), the ἄρα verdict (v. 9), Σπουδάσωμεν (v. 11) — while the Psalm's oath is re-quoted three times as content lines hanging under their verbs of saying (εἴρηκεν in v. 3, the elided εἴρηκεν behind v. 5's πάλιν, προείρηται in v. 7), with Gen 2:2 set beside them (v. 4) so that the Psalm's κατάπαυσις is identified with God's own seventh-day rest — hence the coined σαββατισμός of v. 9. Twice the sentence leans forward, protasis-fashion and so without anchors: the double ἐπεὶ οὖν premise of v. 6 hangs above its apodosis (v. 7, πάλιν τινὰ ὁρίζει ἡμέραν), and Ἔχοντες οὖν (v. 14) hangs above κρατῶμεν. Verses 12–13 are the living-word aphorism: one verbless main line (Ζῶν γὰρ ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ, ἐστιν implied) with its four predicates cascading beneath the single word λόγος, closing on the personal turn πρὸς ὃν ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος. Choices the layout takes a side on: at v. 2 the accusative plural συγκεκερασμένους is followed (with the chapter text) — 'they were not united by faith with those who heard' — against the well-attested nominative singular συγκεκερασμένος (which would make the word itself unblended with its hearers); the Εἰ of the oath (vv. 3, 5) is rendered as the Hebraic emphatic negative, not a true conditional; the καίτοι genitive absolute (v. 3) is read concessively with the main assertion — the rest has stood ready since creation; Ἰησοῦς in v. 8 is Joshua, the pointed near-miss of the name answered by Ἰησοῦν in v. 14; v. 12's μερισμοῦ ψυχῆς καὶ πνεύματος is taken rhetorically — the word cuts to the inmost seam of a person — rather than as a dualist anatomy, and κριτικός is given its full forensic reach, the word as judge of the heart's thoughts, anticipating the ledger-sense of λόγος ('account') in v. 13; at v. 15 κατὰ πάντα καθ' ὁμοιότητα is rendered 'in every way, in our likeness,' with χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας the sole exception.