Verse 4 Resisted unto blood. It would seem that this language must be understood figuratively, that is, as designed to express the last extremity of spiritual contest with temptation; for the injunction is to resistance, and resistance was in no sense a duty in respect to outward persecutions. Our Savior's language, "If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off," may be considered somewhat analogous. Besides, what is said in Hebrews 10:32,33, seems to imply that the persons addressed in this Epistle had been exposed to the extreme of outward persecution.