Rest
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
G2663, katápausis, is a Greek noun for rest, repose, or a place or state in which rest is entered. Eight of its nine New Testament occurrences are in Hebrews 3 and 4, and the remaining occurrence is in Acts 7:49.
Reader summary
Full entry for κατάπαυσις (G2663) · Open the biblical lexicon
G2663, katápausis, is a Greek noun for rest, repose, or a place or state in which rest is entered. Eight of its nine New Testament occurrences are in Hebrews 3 and 4, and the remaining occurrence is in Acts 7:49.
The BSB source-word alignment has 9 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include rest (8), of repose [be] (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Acts 7:49. Its strongest book concentrations include Hebrews (8), Acts (1).
G2663, katápausis, is a Greek noun for rest, repose, or a place or state in which rest is entered. Eight of its nine New Testament occurrences are in Hebrews 3 and 4, and the remaining occurrence is in Acts 7:49. It does not name a bed, ordinary sleep, leisure, or relief from every earthly responsibility. Acts quotes Isaiah's question about the resting place human beings could build for the Creator, while Hebrews takes up Psalm 95's warning that the wilderness generation did not enter God's rest.
Hebrews develops the noun through a sustained argument rather than a detachable slogan. God's promise of entry still stands. Those who believe enter His rest, His works have been finished since creation, and the earlier generation's disobedience and unbelief warn the present community against hardening its heart. The same chapter tells readers to make every effort to enter that rest.
God's rest is therefore His promised gift and the goal of persevering faith, not spiritual passivity, self-salvation, or permission to neglect obedience and mutual exhortation. The chapter places creation rest, the wilderness warning, the promise addressed as Today, entry through faith, and the distinct Sabbath-rest language of Hebrews 4:9 within one theological movement.
G2663 participates in that argument, but the noun alone does not prove that Canaan, weekly Sabbath observance, present spiritual experience, or final consummation exhausts the whole meaning. Faithful teaching should preserve both promise and warning. It may invite weary people to trust God's completed work and encourage one another toward faithful perseverance, but it must not diagnose exhaustion, anxiety, disability, or difficulty feeling calm as unbelief.
G2663 is concentrated in Hebrews 3 and 4, where Psalm 95's denied rest becomes a continuing promise and warning. Acts 7 uses the noun for God's place of repose while denying that the Most High can be contained by a human-made house.
‘Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me, says the Lord, or where will My place of repose be?
Stephen quotes Isaiah while declaring that the Most High is not contained in human-made houses. Place of repose neither implies divine fatigue nor makes a building capable of containing God.
So I swore on oath in My anger, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’”
Hebrews quotes Psalm 95 as the climax of the wilderness warning. God's anger, oath, and denied entry arise from the cited rebellion narrative, not from the noun alone.
Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be deemed to have fallen short of it.
The denied entry of the former generation does not cancel the promise for the addressed community. The verse holds continuing promise and communal vigilance together.
Now we who have believed enter that rest. As for the others, it is just as God has said: “So I swore on oath in My anger, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’” And yet His works have been finished since the foundation of the world.
This verse contains two G2663 tokens and connects believing entry, the Psalm 95 warning, and God's finished creation work. No one element should be isolated as the complete argument.
Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same pattern of disobedience.
The exhortation prevents rest from becoming a synonym for passivity. Effort answers the warning against disobedience, while entry remains grounded in God's promise and the faith described earlier.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Eschatological rest—God's ceased labor and promised cessation from earthly struggle for believers.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
9 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
resting, rest
Read verseresting, rest
Read verseresting, rest
Read verseresting, rest
Read verseresting, rest
Read verseresting, rest
Read verseresting, rest
Read verseresting, rest
Read verseresting, rest
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 2 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 9 lexical occurrence verses.
κατάπαυσις is built from this root:
Refers to covenantal and eschatological rest promised by God.Hebrews 4:1-13
Acts 7:49 quotes Isaiah to ask what resting place human beings could build for the One whose throne is heaven and whose hand made all things. Katápausis there serves divine transcendence rather than divine fatigue. Hebrews 3:11 then repeats Psalm 95's denied entry as a warning shaped by wilderness rebellion. Hebrews addresses that warning to a confessing community and calls its members to exhort one another while it is called Today.
Hebrews 4:1 says the promise of entering God's rest still stands. Verse 3 connects believing entry to God's works finished since creation, and verse 11 commands every effort to enter so that no one follows the same pattern of disobedience. The chapter therefore refuses two reductions. Rest is not earned by anxious performance, because it is God's promise and His completed work.
Rest is also not passive presumption, because the community must hear, believe, obey, exhort, and persevere. Teachers should offer the promise without flattening creation rest, the wilderness generation, Sabbath-rest language, present participation, and future hope into a single slogan. They should also distinguish spiritual warning from a diagnosis of people whose bodies or minds struggle to feel rested.
Heb.4.1
G2663 is a feminine noun occurring once in the genitive in Acts and eight times in the accusative in Hebrews, including two tokens in Hebrews 4:3. It names rest, repose, or a resting place or state. Its relation to G2664 does not allow component arithmetic to replace actual usage.
Acts 7 quotes Isaiah 66, and Hebrews 3 and 4 repeatedly quote Psalm 95 while reaching back to creation and Israel's wilderness history. Hebrews develops those witnesses toward a remaining promise and the distinct Sabbath-rest statement of Hebrews 4:9. These connections deepen G2663 without making every biblical rest word lexically identical.