7. For the earth accepts a blessing from God, by drinking in the rain that often falls upon it, and by producing plants that are useful to those by whom it is cultivated.
8. But whatever brings forth thorns and briers is rejected, and is closest to what is accursed; their consummation is in combustion.
9. But from you, most beloved, we are confident that there will be things better and closer to salvation; even though we speak in this way.
10. For God is not unjust, such that he would forget your work and the love that you have shown in his name. For you have ministered, and you continue to minister, to the saints.
11. Yet we desire that each one of you display the same solicitude toward the fulfillment of hope, even unto the end,
12. so that you may not be slow to act, but instead may be imitators of those who, through faith and patience, shall inherit the promises.
13. For God, in making promises to Abraham, swore by himself, (because he had no one greater by whom he might swear),
14. saying: "Blessing, I shall bless you, and multiplying, I shall multiply you."
15. And in this way, by enduring patiently, he secured the promise.
16. For men swear by what is greater than themselves, and an oath as confirmation is the end of all their controversy.
17. In this matter, God, wanting to reveal more thoroughly the immutability of his counsel to the heirs of the promise, interposed an oath,
18. so that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have the strongest solace: we who have fled together so as to hold fast to the hope set before us.
19. This we have as an anchor of the soul, safe and sound, which advances even to the interior of the veil,