Hebrews 10:13

From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(13) Expecting.—This word belongs to the contrast just mentioned. He does not minister and offer His sacrifice again, but waits for the promised subjection of His foes. Once before in this context (Hebrews 9:28) our thought has been thus directed to the future consummation. There it consists in the second coming of Christ for the salvation of “them that wait for Him;” here it is He Himself who is “waiting,” and the end is the attainment of supreme dominion. (See Hebrews 1:3; Hebrews 1:13.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:11-18 Under the new covenant, or gospel dispensation, full and final pardon is to be had. This makes a vast difference between the new covenant and the old one. Under the old, sacrifices must be often repeated, and after all, only pardon as to this world was to be obtained by them. Under the new, one Sacrifice is enough to procure for all nations and ages, spiritual pardon, or being freed from punishment in the world to come. Well might this be called a new covenant. Let none suppose that human inventions can avail those who put them in the place of the sacrifice of the Son of God. What then remains, but that we seek an interest in this Sacrifice by faith; and the seal of it to our souls, by the sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience? So that by the law being written in our hearts, we may know that we are justified, and that God will no more remember our sins.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

From henceforth expecting - Or waiting. He waits there until this shall be accomplished according to the promise made to him that all things shall be subdued under him; see the notes on 1 Corinthians 15:25-27.

Till his enemies - There is an allusion here to Psalm 110:1, where it is said, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool." The enemies of the Redeemer are Satan, the wicked of the earth, and all the evil passions of the heart. The idea is, that all things are yet to be made subject to his will - either by a cheerful and cordial submission to his authority, or by being crushed beneath his power. The Redeemer, having performed his great work of redemption by giving himself as a sacrifice on the cross, is represented now as calmly waiting until this glorious triumph is achieved, and this promise is fulfilled. We are not to suppose that he is inactive, or that he takes no share in the agency by which this is to be done. but the meaning is, that he looks to the certain fulfillment of the promise.

His footstool - That is, they shall be thoroughly and completely subdued. The same idea is expressed in 1 Corinthians 15:25, by saying that all his enemies shall be put under his feet. The language arose from the custom of conquerors in putting their feet on the necks of their enemies, as a symbol of subjection; see Joshua 10:24; notes, Isaiah 26:5-6.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13. expecting—"waiting." Awaiting the execution of His Father's will, that all His foes should be subjected to Him. The Son waits till the Father shall "send Him forth to triumph over all His foes." He is now sitting at rest (Heb 10:12), invisibly reigning, and having His foes virtually, by right of His death, subject to Him. His present sitting on the unseen throne is a necessary preliminary to His coming forth to subject His foes openly. He shall then come forth to a visibly manifested kingdom and conquest over His foes. Thus He fulfils Ps 110:1. This agrees with 1Co 15:23-28. He is, by His Spirit and His providence, now subjecting His foes to Him in part (Ps 110:1-7). The subjection of His foes fully shall be at His second advent, and from that time to the general judgment (Re 19:1-20:15); then comes the subjection of Himself as Head of the Church to the Father (the mediatorial economy ceasing when its end shall have been accomplished), that God may be all in all. Eastern conquerors used to tread on the necks of the vanquished, as Joshua did to the five kings. So Christ's total and absolute conquest at His coming is symbolized.

be made his footstool—literally, "be placed (rendered) footstool of His feet."

his enemies—Satan and Death, whose strength consists in "sin"; this being taken away (Heb 10:12), the power of the foes is taken away, and their destruction necessarily follows.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

That which remaineth he expecteth, even the fulfilling of his Father’s promise to him, Psalm 110:1, patiently waiting, earnestly looking, for what is most certain, and wherein he cannot be disappointed; for in respect of himself. His enemies cannot infest him more, being entirely vanquished already; but in respect of his administration, he waits till all that oppose his royal priesthood, as the devil and his angels, sin, the curse, death, and the world, with which he conflicts as a Priest to destroy them with his own blood, as his members do by it, Revelation 12:11. Having given them their death’s wound by his own death, he sits down, and waits in the successive ages of his church, until upon his elect it be made good, putting all under his own and church’s feet, so to overcome and trample on them, as men on their footstools: see Hebrews 2:8 1 Corinthians 15:26.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

From henceforth expecting,.... According to God's promise and declaration to him, Psalm 110:1.

Till his enemies be made his footstool; see Gill on Hebrews 1:13.

Geneva Study Bible

{4} From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

(4) He prevents a private objection, that is, that yet nonetheless we are subject to sin and death, to which the apostle answers, that the full effect of Christ's power has not yet shown itself, but shall eventually appear when he will at once put to flight all his enemies, with whom we still struggle.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Hebrews 10:13. Τὸ λοιπόν] henceforth, sc. from the time of His sitting down at the right hand of God. What is meant is the time yet intervening before the coming in of the Parousia. The taking of τὸ λοιπόν in the relative sense: “as regards the rest, concerning the rest” (Kurtz), is, on account of the close coherence with ἐκδεχόμενος ἕως, unnatural, for which reason also the passages adduced by Kurtz as supposed parallels, Ephesians 6:10, Php 3:1; Php 4:8, 1 Thessalonians 4:1, 2 Thessalonians 3:1, do not admit of comparison.

The object of the waiting is expressed by our author in the language of Psalm 110:1.

The ἐκάθισεν … τὸ λοιπὸν ἐκδεχόμενος ἕως … involves for the rest the supposition that the destruction of the enemies of Christ is to be looked for even before His Parousia. The author accordingly manifests here, too, a certain diversity in his mode of viewing the subject from that of the Apostle Paul, since the latter (comp. 1 Corinthians 15:22-28) anticipates the destruction of the anti-Christian powers only after the time of Christ’s Parousia. The supposition, which de Wette holds possible for the removal of this difference, that the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews “thought only of the triumph of the gospel among the nations, even as Paul also expected the universal diffusion of the gospel and the conversion of the Jews before the appearing of Christ,” has little probability, considering the absolute and unqualified character of the expression here chosen: οἱ ἐχθροὶ αὐτοῦ.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

13. his footstool] Psalm 110:1; 1 Corinthians 15:25.

Bengel's Gnomen

Hebrews 10:13. Ἐκδεχόμενος, expecting) By this word the knowledge of our exalted Lord is not denied, Revelation 1:1 : comp. Mark 13:32 : but His subjection to the Father is intimated; Acts 3:20. Sitting and at rest, He expects.—οἱ ἐχθροὶ αὐτοῦ, His enemies) whose strength consists in sin.

Hebrews 10:13