Hebrews 11:40

Hebrews 11:40
	;
Album	The Life of the World to Come
Released	2009
Artist	the Mountain Goats
Length	2:48
Previous Track	"Philippians 3:20-21"
Next Track	"Genesis 30:3"

Hebrews 11:40 is the fifth song on the album The Life of the World to Come.

Bible Verse[]

Since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.. ^{NIV Translation}

Lyrics[]

Masks hanging on the tomb walls 
Where the coven grieves
Witches hiding in the brambles 
Ground level down where the dry leaves
Blow and burn slowly 
No ground is ever gonna hold me

Bright candles in the manor
Where the curse takes hold
Bodies reassembling down where the worms crawl
Make your own friends when the world's gone cold

It gets dark and then 
I feel certain I am going to rise again
If not by faith then by the sword 
I'm going to be restored

Build fires to keep the beacon flashing 
Where the earth lies flat
Blood calls to blood as the hours draw down
Invent my own family if it comes to that
Hold them close, hold them near
Tell them no one's ever going to hurt them here

Steal the treasure and try to leave town
Fight my way back down
Don't want to hurt anyone
Probably gonna have to before it's all done

Take to the hills, run away
I'm gonna get my perfect body back someday
If not by faith then by the sword 
I'm going to be restored

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

"It is about the solitary universe of self-mutilation" -- 2009-11-27 - 9:30 Club - Washington, D.C.
"I wrote this on a tour bus heading into Salt Lake City while watching an old Mario Bava movie. He's one of those sort of proto...proto-Italian gore kinda dudes." -- 2010-03-10 - NPR Tiny Desk Concert
"God, it's always so depressing to talk about what this song's about. It's hard to do it too, without alienating people who don't know what you're talking about. I'll do my best. Sometimes when you're young, or not so young, you do things to harm yourself physically. And people who don't understand don't know how that works even though it does and it's kind of like having a secret code. And unless someone else has that secret code, then they don't really know what it's like. Anyway, like all the Dark Arts, it ends up sucking you into this dark vortex and you can't find your way out because, y'know, it's dark." -- 2010-04-14 - The Corner Hotel - Melbourne, Australia
"It's kind of a ghost story." -- 7/29/2009 - The Life of the World to Come: a film by Rian Johnson[1]
"Imagine that you awake and find yourself lost in the woods. You remember a little about how you got there, but it hardly matters now, because remember won't help you find the path out, and it feels important to stay focused. There must be sunlight somewhere. You know that it's going to take you a long time to get where you're going, and that some bad things are probably going to happen to you along the way. Over time - the journey being even longer than you'd suspected - you learn that some of those bad things can be headed off at the pass: you just have to beat them at their own game. Their game, however, involves hurting you; it's not the same game if you point the damage elsewhere. At this point in the scenario, some of you are probably thinking: "Wait: you had me, and then you lost me." The rest of you know exactly what I'm talking about and you have the scars to prove it, and you'll be doing me a favor if you'll explain it to the others, since this song was as close as I could come." -- 7/29/2009 - The Life of the World to Come: a film by Rian Johnson, liner notes

Things Referenced in this Song[]

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]

The Life of the World to Come

Track list: "1 Samuel 15:23" • "Psalms 40:2" • "Genesis 3:23" • "Philippians 3:20-21" • "Hebrews 11:40" • "Genesis 30:3" • "Romans 10:9 " • "1 John 4:16" • "Matthew 25:21" • "Deuteronomy 2:10" • "Isaiah 45:23" • "Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace"
Bonus tracks: "Enoch 18:14" • "Proverbs 6:27"
The Life of the World in Flux: "Daniel 12:8 (third)" • "Matthew 11:14-19"