12 that ye not become slothful, but imitators of those who by faith and patience inherit the promises.
13 For when God promised unto Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,
14 saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thee.
15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
16 For men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all controversy.
17 In which God, desiring to show more abundantly unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath,
18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us,