Self-interpreting Bible

« back to list of books

« back to list of chapters

Hebrews 12

1An exhortation to patience and constancy enforced by the example of Christ. 5The benefit of God's chastisements. 14Exhortation to peace and holiness. 18The dispensation of the law compared with the privileges of the gospel. 25The danger of refusing the word from heaven.

1 WHEREFORE seeing we also are *compassed about with aso great a cloud of witnesses, blet us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

2 cLooking unto Jesus the 1author and finisher of our faith; who dfor the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3 For econsider him that fendured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

4 gYe have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation hwhich speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

6 For iwhom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

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

8 kBut if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which lcorrected us, and we gave them reverence: mshall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

10 For they *verily for a few days chastened us 2after their own pleasure; nbut he for our profit, othat we might be partakers of his holiness.

11 pNow no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth qthe peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

12 Wherefore rlift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

13 sAnd make 3straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.

14 tFollow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

15 uLooking diligently lest any man 4fail of the grace of God; lest any vroot of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

16 wLest there be any fornicator, or xprofane person, as Esau, ywho for one morsel of *meat sold his birthright.

17 For ye know how that afterward, zwhen he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no 5place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

18 For ye are not come unto athe mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,

19 bAnd the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice cthey that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:

20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, dAnd if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:

21 eAnd so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)

22 But ye are come unto fmount Sion, and unto gthe city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an hinnumerable company of angels,

23 iTo the general assembly and jchurch of the firstborn, which are 6written in heaven, and to kGod the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

24 And to Jesus lthe mediator of the new 7covenant, and to mthe blood of sprinkling, that speaketh nbetter things than that of Abel.

25 oSee that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For pif they escaped not who refused him that qspake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

26 Whose voice rthen shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

27 And this word, sYet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that 8are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

28 Wherefore we receiving ta kingdom which cannot be moved, let us 9have grace, uwhereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

29 For vour God is a consuming fire.