12:1 Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let’s rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us,
12:2 looking only at Jesus, the ①originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
▷ ①Or leader
12:3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary ①and lose heart.
▷ ①Lit fainting in your souls
12:4 You have not yet resisted ①to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;
▷ ①Lit as far as blood
12:5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,
“MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD,
NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE PUNISHED BY HIM;
12:6 FOR WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES,
AND HE PUNISHES EVERY SON WHOM HE ACCEPTS.”
12:7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
12:8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
12:9 Furthermore, we had ①earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much more be subject to the Father of ②spirits, and live?
▷ ①Lit fathers of our flesh ②Or our spirits
12:10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.
12:11 For the moment, all discipline seems not to be pleasant, but painful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
12:12 Therefore, ①strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble,
▷ ①Lit make straight
12:13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is impaired may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
12:14 Pursue peace with all people, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
12:15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;
12:16 that there be no sexually immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.
12:17 For you know that even afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.
12:18 For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind,
12:19 and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words, which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them.
12:20 For they could not ①cope with the command, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.”
▷ ①Lit bear
12:21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.”
12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of ①angels,
▷ ①Or angels in festive gathering, and to the church
12:23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
12:24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
12:25 See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, ①much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns us from heaven.
▷ ①Lit much rather we will not escape...
12:26 And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “YET ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN.”
12:27 This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
12:28 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let’s ①show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe;
▷ ①Lit have
12:29 for our God is a consuming fire.