Hebrews 11:39

καὶ οὗτοι πάντες, “And these all,” that is, those who have been named in this chapter, “although they had witness borne to them through their faith,” as has been recorded (Hebrews 11:2-38), “did not receive the promise,” that is, as already said in Hebrews 11:13, they only foresaw that it would be fulfilled and died in that faith. But this failure to obtain the fulfilment of the promise was not due to any slackness on the part of God nor to any defect in their faith; there was a good reason for it, and that reason was that “God had in view some better thing for us, that without us they should not be perfected”. The κρεῖττόν τι is that which this Epistle has made it its business to expound, the perfecting (τελειωθῶσιν) of God's people by full communion with Him mediated by the perfect revelation (Hebrews 1:1) of the Son and His perfect covenant (Hebrews 8:7-13), and His better sacrifice (Hebrews 9:23). And the perfecting of the people of God under the O.T. is said to have been impossible, not as might have been expected “apart from the Son,” but χωρὶς ἡμῶν, because the writer has in view the history of the Church, the relation of the people of God in former times to the same people in Messianic times.