CHAPTER 12

1 Therefore, as we are surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses, laying aside every weight, and the sin which besets us, let us also run with patience in the race set before us,

2 Looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, having despised shame, and sat down on the right hand of the throne of God:

3 For consider who he was who endured from sinners such contradiction against himself,

4 That ye may not be wearied, being faint in your souls; ye have not as yet resisted unto blood, while striving against sin.

5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to children, "My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor be faint when thou art reproved by him:

6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth; and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."

7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons: for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

8 But if ye be without chastisement, of which all [sons] are partakers, then ye are bastards, and not sons.

9 Since we had the fathers of our flesh as our chastisers, and we reverenced them, shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?

10 For they indeed for a few days chastised us according to their own will: but he for our benefit, that he may impart to us his holiness.

11 But no chastening seems indeed for the present to be joyful, but grievous; yet afterwards it renders the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are by it exercised.

12 Raise ye up, therefore, the remiss hands, and the relaxed knees,

13 And make straight paths for your feet, that halting may not lead you astray, but rather that it may be healed.

14 Follow peace with all, and holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord;

15 Taking heed, lest any one should come short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness, growing up, should disturb you, and many be through it defiled;

16 Lest there should be any fornicator or a profane person, like Esau, who for one meal sold his birthright:

17 For ye know that when afterwards he wished to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it with tears.

18 For we have not come to the mount that might be touched, and to the burning fire, and to blackness, and darkness, and tempest,

19 And to the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which they having heard entreated that the word should not be proclaimed to them;

20 For they could not bear what was enjoined, "If a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned or pierced through with a dart;"

21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, "I fear and tremble."

22 But ye have come to Mount Sion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the company of innumerable angels,

23 And to the Church of the first­born, who are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

24 And to Jesus the Mediator of the New Testament, and the blood of sprinkling, which speaks better things than that of Abel.

25 See that ye despise not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who despised him who spoke on earth, how much less we, if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven?

26 Whose voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, saying, "Yet once I shake, not only the earth, but also heaven:"

27 And this, "Set once," signifies the removal of the things shaken, that the things unshaken might remain.

28 Hence we, who receive a kingdom which is not shaken, have grace, by which we serve God acceptably with reverence and fear:

29 "For our God is a consuming fire."