¹² so that you will not be [spiritually] sluggish, but [will instead be] imitators of those who through faith [lean on God with absolute trust and confidence in Him and in His power] and by patient endurance [even when suffering] are [now] inheriting the promises.

¹³ For when God made the promise to Abraham, He swore [an oath] by Himself, since He had no one greater by whom to swear, ¹⁴ saying, “I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you.”^{(A) 15} And so, having patiently waited, he realized the promise [in the miraculous birth of Isaac, as a pledge of what was to come from God]. ¹⁶ Indeed men swear [an oath] by ^[a]one greater than themselves, and with them [in all disputes] the oath serves as confirmation [of what has been said] and is an end of the dispute. ¹⁷ In the same way God, in His desire to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable nature of His purpose, intervened and guaranteed it with an oath,