Hebrews 13:14
in Hebrews 13For here we do not have a permanent city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For we have not here an abiding city, but we seek after the city which is to come.
KJV
For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
⋯
This verse in Hebrews 13
Commentary
15 notes on this verseHe says to me, "You know that you who are the servants of God dwell in a strange land; for your city is far away from this one. If, then," he continues, "you know your city in which you are to dwell, why do ye here provide lands, and make expensive preparations, and accumulate dwellings and useless buildings? He who makes such preparations for this city cannot return again to his own. Oh foolish, and unstable, and miserable man!
This site's exposition
burned outside the camp
on Hebrews 13:11-14
Under Leviticus 16:27 the bodies are burned outside the camp, and Jesus suffered outside the city gate, to sanctify the people by His own blood. The readers are called to go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore, seeking the city that is to come.
This site's exposition
a permanent city
John Wesley notes that Jerusalem itself was then on the point of being destroyed. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that the fall of the city ended the civil and religious order the readers had clung to. They read it as a type of the passing world.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers4 voices
"for we have no lasting city here." Therefore, we must willingly choose the death for Christ; and especially because these cities are not ours, but we must seek another, the one that remains; for these are perishing. "Through him then." As for the high priest …
So let us despise things of this life and look forward to those that are stable and permanent.
For we have here no abiding city, but we seek that which is to come, meaning: We seek that ever-abiding and eternal heavenly Jerusalem, which is free and the mother of all the faithful.
"Let us go forth therefore to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach," that is, suffering the same things; having communion with Him in His sufferings. He was crucified without as a condemned person: neither let us then be ashamed to "go forth out" of the world. "For we have here no continuing city" (he says) "but we seek one to come."
The Medieval Church1 voice
He proves the necessity of going outside the gate, that is, out of the world. For we have no part in this world, since it too will not exist forever. Therefore, we must flee from this world and strive toward the future city, that is, …
7 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church1 voice
He adds the reason when he says: For here we have no lasting city, but we seek one that is to come. For a man willingly remains in his own place. For our end is not in the things of the Law or in temporal …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Sin, sinners, death, will not suffer us to continue long here; and therefore we should go forth now by faith, and seek in Christ the rest and settlement which this world cannot afford us,
); he then bespeaks their prayers for him, and offers up his prayers to God for them, gives them some hope of seeing himself and Timothy, and ends with the general salutation and benediction,
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
For here have we no continuing city,....
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
For here have we no continuing city - Here is an elegant and forcible allusion to the approaching destruction of Jerusalem. The Jerusalem that was below was about to be burnt with fire, and erased to the ground; the Jerusalem that was from above was that alone which could be considered to be μενουσαν, permanent. The words seem to say: “Arise, and depart; for this is not your rest: it is polluted:” About seven or eight years after this, Jerusalem was wholly destroyed.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Those Hebrews who clung to the earthly sanctuary are representatives of all who cling to this earth. The earthly Jerusalem proved to be no "abiding city," having been destroyed shortly after this Epistle was written, and with it fell the Jewish civil and religious polity; a type of the whole of our present earthly order of things soon to perish. one to come-- (Heb 2:5;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
For here we have no continuing city ... - We do not regard this as our final home, or our fixed abode, and we should be willing to bear reproaches during the little time that we are to remain here; compare notes, Heb 11:10, Heb 11:13-14. If, therefore, in consequence of our professed attachment to the Saviour, we should be driven away from our habitations, and compelled to wander, we should be willing to submit to it, for our permanent home is not here, but in heaven. The object of the writer seems to be to comfort the Hebrew Christians on the supposition that they would be driven by persecution from the city of Jerusalem, and doomed to wander as exiles. He tells them that their Lord was led from that city to be put to death, and they should be willing to go forth also; that their permanent home was not Jerusalem, but heaven, and they should be willing in view of that blessed abode to be exiled from the city where they dwelt, and made wanderers in the earth.
The words behind it
10 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| οὐ | ou | Not | G3756 → | 1664 times |
| γὰρ | gar | for | G1063 → | 1039 times |
| ἔχομεν | echomen | we have | G2192 → | 707 times |
| ὧδε | hode | here | G5602 → | |
| μένουσαν | menousan | an abiding | G3306 → | 118 times |
| πόλιν, | polin | city, | G4172 → | 163 times |
| ἀλλὰ | alla | but | G235 → | 635 times |
| τὴν | ten | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| μέλλουσαν | mellousan | coming [one] | G3195 → | 109 times |
| ἐπιζητοῦμεν. | epizetoumen | we are seeking for. | G1934 → |
οὐNot
ouG3756 →1664 times
γὰρfor
garG1063 →1039 times
ἔχομενwe have
echomenG2192 →707 times
ὧδεhere
hodeG5602 →
μένουσανan abiding
menousanG3306 →118 times
πόλιν,city,
polinG4172 →163 times
ἀλλὰbut
allaG235 →635 times
τὴνthe
tenG3588 →19766 times
μέλλουσανcoming [one]
mellousanG3195 →109 times
ἐπιζητοῦμεν.we are seeking for.
epizetoumenG1934 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Philippians 3:20But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
it leads to
- Ephesians 2:19
Therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,
- Colossians 3:1–3
Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
- 2 Corinthians 4:18
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
- Hebrews 12:22
Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels
- 1 Peter 1:3–4
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
- Ephesians 2:19
Through
Hebrews 12:22Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels
it leads to
- Philippians 3:20
But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
- Galatians 4:26
But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.
- Psalms 48:2
Beautiful in loftiness, the joy of all the earth, like the peaks of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the great King.
- Philippians 3:20
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies11
About Hebrews

This page draws on 16 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Cosmas Indicopleustes, The Christian Topography, Book 7; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Homily on Hebrews 33; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Oecumenius, The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews; Shepherd of Hermas, Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 1; Sir Robert Anderson, Types in Hebrews; Theodoret of Cyrus, INTERPRETATION OF HEBREWS 13; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Hebrews and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Hebrews.
