Hebrews 4:8

Jesus i.e. Joshua. The needless adoption of the Greek form of the name by the A. V. is here most unfortunately perplexing to uninstructed readers, as also in Acts 7:45.

had given them rest He did, indeed, give them arest and, in some sense (Deuteronomy 12:9), therest partially and primarily intended (Joshua 23:1); but only a dim shadow of the true and final rest offered by Christ (Mat 11:28; 2 Thessalonians 3:1-6; Revelation 14:13).

then would he not afterward have spoken The "He" is here Jehovah. More literally, "He would not have been speaking." The phrases applied to Scripture by the writer always imply his sense of its living power and ideal continuity. The words are as though they had just been uttered ("He hath said," Hebrews 4:4) or were still being uttered (as here, and throughout). There is a similar mode of argument in Hebrews 7:11; Hebrews 8:4; Hebrews 8:7; Hebrews 11:15.