Hebrews 4:1

Φοβηβῶμεν. The fear to which we are exhorted is not any uncertainty of hope, but solicitude against careless indifference. It is a wholesome fear taught by wisdom (Philippians 2:12). We have the same use of φοβοῦμαι μὴ to express spiritual anxiety about the state of a Christian community in 2 Corinthians 11:3; 2 Corinthians 12:20; Galatians 4:11.

μήποτε, lest haply.

καταλειπομένης. It is better to omit the “us” of the A. V. It means “since a promise still remains unrealised.” The promise has not been exhausted by any previous fulfilment.

τις, “any one.” See note on Hebrews 3:12.

ἐξ ὑμῶν. He cannot say “of us,” because he proceeds to describe the case of hardened and defiant apostates.

δοκῇ … ὑστερηκέναι, “should seem to have failed in attaining it.” The Greek might also mean “should imagine that he has failed of (lit., come too late for) it”; but the writer’s object is to stimulate the negligent, not to encourage the despondent. The word δοκῇ is an instance of the figure called litotes, in which a milder term is designedly used to express one which is much stronger. The author of this Epistle, abounding as he does in passages of uncompromising sternness, would not be likely to use any merely euphuistic phrase. The dignity of his expressions adds to their intensity. For a similar delicate yet forcible use of δοκεῖν see 1 Corinthians 11:16. The verb ὑστερεῖν “come short” occurs in Hebrews 12:15, together with a terrible example of the thing itself in Hebrews 12:17.