¹⁵ If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.^{(A) 16} Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one.^(B) Therefore God is not ashamed^(C) to be called their God,^(D) for he has prepared a city^(E) for them.

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.^(F) He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son,