11 Now faith is the assurance that the things we hope for will come to pass and the conviction that even what we can’t see is real, 2 because those are what our predecessors were commended for. 3 By faith we understand that time was formed by God’s command because the visible universe was not made from visible materials.[ref]

4 By faith Abel offered a more satisfactory sacrifice to God than Kain,[ref] and as a result, he was declared to be righteous when God testified about his gifts, and through his faith, he still speaks despite being long dead.

5 By faith Enoch was transported directly to heaven without dying. ‘His body was never found because God transported him,’[ref] because before he was transported, it was testified that he pleased God, 6 and without faith it’s impossible to please him. Because it’s necessary for anyone who approaches God to believe that he exists, and that he rewards those who search for him.

7 By faith godly Noah built a box to save his family after he was warned[ref] about things that had never been seen before, thus condemning the world and becoming an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

8 By faith, Abraham submitted when he was called[ref] and travelled to the place that he was going to receive as an inheritance—departing without even knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he camped as a stranger in the promised land,[ref] living in tents with Isaac and Yacob—fellow heirs of the same promise—10 because he was waiting for a city with proper foundations—the city with God as its craftsman and builder.

11 By faith even Sarah herself received the power to conceive a child when she was past that age,[ref] because she considered that the one who had made the promise would be faithful to his word. 12 So it was that descendants came from that one man in his old age[ref] and they became as numerous as the stars in the sky and uncountable like grains of sand on the beach.

13 All of those people went on to die,[ref] not having received everything that was promised but only seeing and welcoming it all from a distance, having admitted that they were strangers and foreigners here on the earth. 14 People who talk like that make it clear that they’re looking for a new place to make their home—15 if they’d been meaning the place that they left, they would have already had time to go back there—16 so now they’re aspiring to a better place, i.e., a heavenly home. Therefore God isn’t ashamed of them or of being called their God, because he has prepared a city for them.

17 By faith, Abraham when he was tested offered up Isaac.[ref] He had received the promises and offered his only son that he’d given birth to—18 the one about which it had been said: ‘Your descendants will be named through Isaac.’ 19 Abraham had reckoned that God was powerful enough to bring him back to life from the dead, and in a manner of speaking, that’s what happened.

20 By faith, Isaac gave a blessing to Yacob and Esau.[ref]

21 By faith, when Yacob was dying he gave a blessing to both of Yosef’s sons,[ref] and bowed over the top of his walking stick.

22 By faith, when Yosef was dying, he spoke about how Israel’s descendants would leave Egypt in the future,[ref] and gave them instructions about taking his bones.

23 By faith when Moses was born, his parents hid him for three months when they saw how he was such a beautiful baby,[ref] and they weren’t afraid to disobey the king’s ruling.

24 By faith when Moses had become powerful, refused to be called Far’oh’s (Pharaoh’s) daughter’s son[ref] 25 and chose to suffer hardship along with God’s people rather than having the temporary enjoyment of sin. 26 He calculated that enduring derision for the messiah was better than the riches of Egypt because he was considering the future reward.

27 By faith, Moses wasn’t afraid of the king’s anger when he left Egypt and persevered because he could see what was invisible. 28 By faith, he initiated the Passover Celebration and the sprinkling of blood,[ref] so that the one destroying the eldest offspring wouldn’t touch their families.

29 By faith, they crossed through the Red Sea as if it was dry land,[ref] but when the Egyptians tried they were drowned.

30 By faith, Yericho’s walls collapsed after they’d walked around them for seven days.[ref]

31 By faith, Rahab the prostitute didn’t die along with all the others in the city who mocked God,[ref] because she had peacefully accommodated the spies.

32 So what else should I say? I don’t have time to describe Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jepthah, and about David and Samuel[ref] and the prophets 33 who by faith conquered kingdoms, acted righteously, obtained promises, shut lion’s mouths,[ref] 34 survived the power of a fiery furnace untouched,[ref] escaped slashing swords, overcome their own weaknesses, became mighty warriors, and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back those who’d died and came back to life, and others were tortured—not relenting so they’d be set free, but instead looking forward to obtaining a better reward in the next age.[ref] 36 Others were mocked and beaten, and some were put in chains and imprisoned.[ref] 37 They had rocks thrown at them to kill them, they were sawn in half, they were tempted, they were killed with swords.[ref] Living in poverty, they went around in skins of goats and sheep, and were mistreated by others. 38 This world wasn’t worthy of having them. They wandered around wilderness areas and on hills and lived in caves and in holes in the ground.

39 All of them were proven by their faith, yet they didn’t actually receive what had been promised. 40 God had planned to have something better so that we and they would be made perfect together.