as the Holy Spirit says
This phrase underscores the divine authority and inspiration of the message that follows. The Holy Spirit is presented as the active communicator of God's will, emphasizing the continuity and consistency of God's message throughout the ages. The use of the present tense "says" (λέγει, legei) suggests that the Holy Spirit's message is not just historical but is continually relevant and applicable to believers today. This aligns with the conservative Christian view that Scripture is living and active, as stated in Hebrews 4:12.

Today, if you hear His voice
The word "Today" is a translation of the Greek word "Σήμερον" (Sēmeron), which conveys a sense of immediacy and urgency. It emphasizes that the opportunity to respond to God's voice is always in the present moment. This reflects the biblical theme that God's call is always timely and that procrastination in spiritual matters can lead to hardening of the heart.

if you hear His voice
This phrase is conditional, indicating that hearing God's voice requires a willingness and openness on the part of the listener. The Greek word for "hear" is "ἀκούσητε" (akousēte), which implies not just auditory reception but also understanding and obedience. The "voice" of God is a metaphor for His communication, whether through Scripture, the Holy Spirit, or other means. In the conservative Christian perspective, this highlights the importance of being attuned to God's guidance and being responsive to His leading.

Whether the marks of parenthesis here introduced in our ordinary Bibles (not inserted by the translators of 1611) express the true connection of the verses is a question very hard to decide, and one that does not admit of full discussion here. It is very possible that the writer (like St. Paul in Romans 15:3; Romans 15:21; 1Corinthians 1:31) may have merged his own exhortation in that which the quotation supplies (Hebrews 3:8); and the objection that Hebrews 3:12 would naturally in that case have been introduced by some connective word is shown to be groundless by such passages as Hebrews 8:13; Hebrews 10:23; Hebrews 12:7; Hebrews 12:25. On the other hand, if we connect "Wherefore," in this verse, with "Take heed" in Hebrews 3:12, we have greater regularity of structure--a strong argument in this Epistle. It seems unlikely, moreover, that the writer (whose tenderness of tone and sympathy are so manifest in his words of warning) would at this stage adopt as his own the stringent and general exhortation, "harden not your hearts:" the spirit of Hebrews 3:12 ("lest haply there shall be in any one of you") is altogether different. On the whole, therefore, it seems best to consider Hebrews 3:7 ("To-day . . .") to Hebrews 3:11 (". . . my rest") as a pure quotation, enforcing the warning that follows. . . .

(1) "If ye will hear his voice" may probably mean in the Hebrew, "Oh that ye would hear his voice!" But the Greek of the LXX., cited in the Epistle, is capable of the same meaning. Here, again, the meaning of the particular phrase does not affect the drift of the passage.

(2) "Harden not your hearts" expresses the abjuration which ensues from resistance of grace. Elsewhere such judicial hardening is attributed to God; as when he is said to have hardened Pharaoh's heart (cf. Isaiah 6:9, etc.; Matthew 13:13). The two modes of expression involve no difference of doctrine. It is God's doing as being judicial; man's as being due to his own perversity. As in the provocation, in the day of the temptation in the wilderness. Here κατὰ τὴν ἡμέραν, which is from the LXX., may mean "at the time of" (cf. Acts 16:25, κατὰ τὸ μεσονύκτιον), or "according to," i.e. "after the manner of." The former agrees best with the Hebrew psalm, which has "As at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the wilderness," referring to the two places called by these names from what occurred there, when the people murmured for want of water. The first occurrence was at Rephidim, in the wilderness of Sin, at the commencement of the wandering (Exodus 17:1-8); the second was in the wilderness of Zin, near Kadesh, towards the end of the forty years (Numbers 20:1-14). Both names are assigned to the former place in Exodus 17:7; but elsewhere they are distinguished (see Deuteronomy 33:8). In the text, following the LXX., equivalents of the Hebrew names are given, Massah being rendered literally by πειρασμός: Meribah (equivalent to "strife ") by the unusual word παραπικρασμός, which occurs only here and in the psalm, though the verb παραπικραίνω is common in the LXX. The root of the word being πικρὸς ("bitter"), it may possibly have been suggested by the occurrence at Marah (equivalent to "bitterness"), where there was also a murmuring about water (Exodus 15:23), πικρία being the LXX. equivalent of Marah.

(3) When (οῦ in the sense of ὅπου, as is common in the LXX. and New Testament) your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. In place of the reading of the Textus Receptus, ἐδοκιμασάν με ("proved me"), which agrees with the LXX., the authority of manuscripts is in favor of ἐν δοκιμασίᾳ. This again, like the ether variations of reading, is of no importance with regard to the meaning. But further, in the original Hebrew, and apparently in the LXX., "forty years" is connected with the clause that follows: "forty years long was I grieved," etc.; whereas, in the text, the interposition of διὸ at the beginning of ver. 10, necessitates its connection with "saw my works." It is possible that the writer of the Epistle intended a reference to the corresponding forty years from the manifestation of Christ to the destruction of Jerusalem, which were drawing to their close at the time of writing, and during which the Israelites of his day were trying God by their rejection of the gospel, or, in the case of some of the believers addressed, by their wavering allegiance to it. The supposition that this idea was in the writer's mind is supported by the fact that Jewish writers refer to the psalm as assigning forty years for the days of the Messiah (see reference in Bleek, Delitzsch, Alford, etc.). That the writer had an intention in his variation from the original is the more likely from his following it correctly afterwards in ver. 17. . . .

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