| 12:1 | Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares [us], and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, |
| 12:2 | looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of [our] faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. |
| 12:3 | For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. |
| 12:4 | You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. |
| 12:5 | And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; |
| 12:6 | For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives." |
| 12:7 | If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? |
| 12:8 | But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. |
| 12:9 | Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected [us], and we paid [them] respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? |
| 12:10 | For they indeed for a few days chastened [us] as seemed [best] to them, but He for [our] profit, that [we] may be partakers of His holiness. |
| 12:11 | Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. |
| 12:12 | Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, |
| 12:13 | and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. |
| 12:14 | Pursue peace with all [people], and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: |
| 12:15 | looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; |
| 12:16 | lest there [be] any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. |
| 12:17 | For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears. |
| 12:18 | For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, |
| 12:19 | and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard [it] begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. |
| 12:20 | (For they could not endure what was commanded: "And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow." |
| 12:21 | And so terrifying was the sight [that] Moses said, "I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.") |
| 12:22 | But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, |
| 12:23 | to the general assembly and church of the firstborn [who are] registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, |
| 12:24 | to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than [that of] Abel. |
| 12:25 | See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more [shall we not escape] if we turn away from Him who [speaks] from heaven, |
| 12:26 | whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven." |
| 12:27 | Now this, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. |
| 12:28 | Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. |
| 12:29 | For our God [is] a consuming fire. |
Hebrews 12 - New King James Version
