Hebrews 1:11-12 (BSB+ESV+LSB+MJ* references, Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

 

11 they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment,

12 And like a mantle You will roll them up; like a garment they will also be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will not come to an end.”

Cross References

(Psalms 102:25-26) Of old You founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. 26 Even they will perish, but You will remain; and all of them will wear out like a garment; like clothing You will change them and they will be changed.

(Isaiah 34:2-4) For the indignation of Yahweh is against all the nations, and His wrath against all their hosts; He has devoted them to destruction; He has given them over to slaughter. 3 So their slain will be cast out, and their corpses will give off their stench, and the mountains will be drenched with their blood. 4 And all the host of heaven will rot away,

And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll; all their hosts will also wither away as a leaf withers from the vine, or as one withers from the fig tree.

(Ezekiel 32:3-8) 3 Thus says Lord Yahweh, “So I will spread My net over you with an assembly of many peoples, and they shall bring you up in My net. 4 I will abandon you on the land; I will hurl you on the open field. And I will cause all the birds of the sky to dwell on you, and I will satisfy the beasts of the whole earth with you. 5 I will put your flesh on the mountains and fill the valleys with your refuse. 6 I will also make the land drink the discharge of your blood as far as the mountains, and the ravines will be full of you. 7 And when I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. 8 All the shining lights in the heavens I will darken over you and will give darkness on your land,” declares Lord Yahweh

(Isaiah 51:6) Lift up your eyes to the sky, then look to the earth beneath; for the sky will vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants will die in like manner; but My salvation will be forever, and My righteousness will not be dismayed.

(Isaiah 65:17) “For behold, I am creating a new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come upon the heart.

(Jeremiah 10:10) But Yahweh is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure His indignation.

(Joel 2) 2 Blow a trumpet in Zion, and make a loud shout on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of Yahweh is coming; surely it is near, 2 a day of darkness and thick darkness, a day of clouds and dense gloom. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, so there is a numerous and mighty people; there has never been anything like it, nor will there be again after it for the years from generation to generation. 3 A fire consumes before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the garden of Eden before them but a desolate wilderness behind them, and nothing at all escapes them. 4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; and like war horses, so they run. 5 With a noise as of chariots they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame of fire consumes the stubble, like a mighty people arranged for battle. 6 Before them the peoples are writhing; all faces turn pale. 7 They run like mighty men; they climb up the wall like men of war; and they each march in line, and they do not deviate from their paths. 8 They do not crowd each other; they march everyone in his path; when they fall against the defending weapons, they do not break ranks. 9 They rush on the city; they run on the wall; they climb up into the houses; they enter through the windows like a thief. 10 Before them the earth trembles; the heavens quake; the sun and the moon grow dark,

And the stars lose their brightness. 11 But Yahweh gives forth His voice before His military force; surely His camp is very numerous, for mighty is he who does His word. The day of Yahweh is indeed great and very awesome, and who can endure it? 12 “Yet even now,” declares Yahweh, “Return to Me with all your heart and with fasting, weeping, and wailing;

13 and tear your heart and not your garments.” Now return to Yahweh your God, For He is gracious and compassionate,

Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness, and relenting concerning evil. 14 Who knows whether He will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him, even a grain offering and a drink offering for Yahweh your God? 15 Blow a trumpet in Zion, set apart a fast as holy, call for a solemn assembly, 16 gather the people, set apart the congregation as holy, assemble the elders, gather the infants and the nursing babies. Let the bridegroom come out of his room and the bride out of her bridal chamber. 17 Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, “Pity Your people, O Yahweh, and do not make Your inheritance a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they among the peoples say, ‘Where is their God?’” 18 Then Yahweh will be zealous for His land and will spare His people. 19 Then Yahweh will answer and say to His people, “Behold, I am going to send you grain, new wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied in full with them; and I will never again make you a reproach among the nations. 20 But I will remove the northern military force far from you, and I will drive it into a parched and desolate land, and its vanguard into the eastern sea, and its rear guard into the western sea. and its stench will rise up, and its foul smell will rise up, for it has done great things.” 21 Do not fear, O land, rejoice and be glad, for Yahweh has done great things. 22 Do not fear, beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness have turned green, for the tree has borne its fruit; the fig tree and the vine have yielded their full force. 23 So rejoice, O sons of Zion, and be glad in Yahweh your God, for He has given you the early rain in righteousness. And He has poured down for you the rain, the early and late rains as before. 24 The threshing floors will be full of grain, and the vats will overflow with the new wine and oil. 25 “Then I will pay back to you in full for the years that the swarming locust has consumed, the creeping locust, the stripping locust, and the gnawing locust, My great military force which I sent among you. 26 And you will have plenty to consume and be satisfied and praise the name of Yahweh your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; then My people will never be put to shame. 27 Thus you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am Yahweh your God, and there is no other; and My people will never be put to shame. 28 “And it will be afterwards that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your old men will dream dreams; your young men will see visions. 29 Even on the male slaves and female slaves I will in those days pour out My Spirit. 30 And I will put wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire, and columns of smoke. 31 The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of Yahweh comes. 32 And it will be that everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh will be delivered;

for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, even among the survivors whom Yahweh calls.

(Matthew 24:35) 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.

(2 Peter 3:5-10) 5 For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, 6 through which the world at that time was destroyed, being deluged with water. 7 But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. 8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. 9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some consider slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be found out.

(Revelation 21:1) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.

Commentary

( Barnes’ NWB)

They shall perish - That is, the heavens and the earth. They shall pass away; or they shall be destroyed. Probably no more is meant by the phrase here, than that important changes will take place in them, or than that they will change their form. Still it is not possible to foresee what changes may yet take place in the heavenly bodies, or to say that the present universe may not at some period be destroyed, and be succeeded by another creation still more magnificent. He that created the universe by a word, can destroy it by a word and he that formed the present frame of nature can cause it to be succeeded by another not less wonderful and glorious. The Scriptures seem to hold out the idea that the present frame of the universe shall be destroyed; see 2 Peter 3:10-13; Matthew 24:35. “But thou remainest.” Thou shalt not die or be destroyed. What a sublime thought! The idea is, that though the heavens and earth should suddenly disappear, or though they should gradually wear out and become extinct, yet there is one infinite being who remains unaffected and unchanged. Nothing can reach or disturb him. All these changes shall take place under his direction, and by his command; see Revelation 20:11. Let us not be alarmed then at any revolution. Let us not fear though we should see the heavens rolled up as a scroll, and the stars falling from their places. God, the Creator and the Redeemer, presides over all. He is unchanged. He ever lives; and though the universe should pass away, it will be only at his bidding, and under his direction. “And they all shall wax old.” Shall “grow” or become old. The word “wax” is an Old Saxon word, meaning to grow, or increase, or become. The heavens here are compared to a garment, meaning that as that grows old and decays, so it will be with the heavens and the earth. The language is evidently figurative; and yet who can tell how much literal truth there may be couched under it? Is it absurd to suppose that that sun which daily sends forth so many countless millions of beams of light over the universe, may in a course of ages become diminished in its splendor, and shine with feeble lustre? Can there be constant exhaustion, a constant burning like that, and yet no tendency to decay at some far distant period? Not unless the material for its splendor shall be supplied from the boundless resources of the Great Source of Light - God; and when he shall choose to withhold it, even that glorious sun must be dimmed of its splendor, and shine with enfeebled beams.

Verse 12

And as a vesture - A garment; literally something thrown around - περιβόλαιον peribolaion - and denoting properly the outer garment, the cloak or mantle; see notes, Matthew 5:40. “Shalt thou fold them up.” That is, the heavens. They are represented in the Scriptures as an “expanse.” or something spread out (the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:7): as a “curtain,” or “tent” Isaiah 40:22, and as a “scroll” that might be spread out or rolled up like a book or volume, Isaiah 34:4; Revelation 6:14. Here they are represented as a garment or mantle that might be folded up - language borrowed from folding up and laying aside garments that are no longer fit for use. “And they shall be changed.” That is, they shall be exchanged for others, or they shall give place to the new heavens and the new earth; 2 Peter 3:13. The meaning is, that the present form of the heavens and the earth is not to be permanent, but is to be succeeded by others, or to pass away, but that the Creator is to remain the same. “Thou art the same.” Thou wilt not change. “And thy years shall not fail.” Thou wilt exist forever unchanged. What could more clearly prove that he of whom this is spoken is immutable? Yet it is indubitably spoken of the Messiah, and must demonstrate that he is divine. These attributes cannot be conferred on a creature; and nothing can be clearer than that he who penned the Epistle believed that the Son of God was divine.

(Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible)

11. They—The earth and the heavens in their present state and form "shall perish" (Hebrews 12:26; Hebrews 12:27; 2 Peter 3:13). "Perish" does not mean annihilation; just as it did not mean so in the case of "the world that being overflowed with water, perished" under Noah (2 Peter 3:6). The covenant of the possession of the earth was renewed with Noah and his seed on the renovated earth. So it shall be after the perishing by fire (2 Peter 3:12; 2 Peter 3:13).

remainest—through (so the Greek) all changes.

as . . . a garment— (Isaiah 51:6).

Verse 12

12. vesture—Greek, "an enwrapping cloak."

fold them up—So the Septuagint, Psalms 102:26; but the Hebrew, "change them." The Spirit, by Paul, treats the Hebrew of the Old Testament, with independence of handling, presenting the divine truth in various aspects; sometimes as here sanctioning the Septuagint (compare Isaiah 34:4; Revelation 6:14); sometimes the Hebrew; sometimes varying from both.

changed—as one lays aside a garment to put on another.

thou art the same— (Isaiah 46:4; Malachi 3:6). The same in nature, therefore in covenant faithfulness to Thy people.

shall not fail—Hebrew, "shall not end." Israel, in the Babylonian captivity, in the hundred second Psalm, casts her hopes of deliverance on Messiah, the unchanging covenant God of Israel.

(Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary)

Verse 11

1) "They shall perish," (autoi apolountai) "They will (all) perish;" "pass away" or "be dissolved," because both the heaven and the earth have been tainted by sin, Matthew 24:35; 1 Peter 1:23; 1 Peter 1:25; 2 Peter 3:10-13; Isaiah 51:6.

2) "But thou remainest," (su de diameneis) "But thou remainest," continuously. God is eternal in the essence or essential nature of his being. He shall be or exist forever, without end or cessation of being; as he existed before he created all things so shall he exist in every essential element of his being when heaven and earth’s tainted things are gone forever, Deuteronomy 33:27; Psalms 90:1-2; 1 John 5:11; 1 John 5:13.

3) "And they all shall wax old as doth a garment," (kai pantes hos himation palaiothesontai) "And they will all become old as (like) a garment," of cloth becomes old, decays, 2 Peter 3:7. More and more the earth becomes polluted, like a mighty garbage dump whose stench goes into the heavens, which Satan has entered to defile and pollute, in accusing the brethren before the throne of God, the heavens and the earth must pass from their defiled, polluted form, to be purged at the end of the world, 1 John 2:17; Matthew 24:35; 2 Peter 3:10-18.

Verse 12

1) "And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up," (kai hosei peribolaion helikseis autous) "And as like) a mantle thou wilt roll them up," fold them, or lay them aside to be dissolved; one has described the visible heaven and earth as God’s vesture, vestment, or robe that has been defiled so badly that he can not always use them to declare his glory, Psalms 19:1-2. Both the creation and dissolution of all things are attributed to God the Son, 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9.

2) "And they shall be changed," (hos himation kai allagesontai) "And as (similar to) a garment they will be changed," altered, renovated, restored or made new, even as our mortal bodies shall be made new in the regeneration, the restitution of all things of creation thru the redemption wrought in Christ, Acts 3:20; Revelation 21:1; 1 Corinthians 15:23-28.

3) "But thou art the same," (su de ho autos ei) "yet, thou art (dost continue to exist) the same," the unchangeable one, in all holy nature, attributes, and power; Malachi 3:6 reads, "I the Lord change not;" neither does his Son change; Hebrews 13:8 reads, "Jesus Christ the game yesterday, and today, and for ever."

4) "And thy years shall not fail," (kai ta ete sou ouk ekleipsousin) "And thy years will not fail," to exist or continue. His years or time of being is never completed or finished, Revelation 1:8; Revelation 22:12-13; Isaiah 9:6-7.