Hebrews, 12

1. With so many witnesses in a great cloud all around us, we too, then, should throw off everything that weighs us down and the sin that clings so closely, and with perseverance keep running in the race which lies ahead of us.

1. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let 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. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection: for the sake of the joy which lay ahead of him, he endured the cross, disregarding the shame of it, and has taken his seat at the right of God's throne.

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 is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3. Think of the way he persevered against such opposition from sinners and then you will not lose heart and come to grief.

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

4. In the fight against sin, you have not yet had to keep fighting to the point of bloodshed.

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

5. Have you forgotten that encouraging text in which you are addressed as sons? My son, do not scorn correction from the Lord, do not resent his training,

5. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which 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 the Lord trains those he loves, and chastises every son he accepts.

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

7. Perseverance is part of your training; God is treating you as his sons. Has there ever been any son whose father did not train him?

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

8. If you were not getting this training, as all of you are, then you would be not sons but bastards.

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

9. Besides, we have all had our human fathers who punished us, and we respected them for it; all the more readily ought we to submit to the Father of spirits, and so earn life.

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

10. Our human fathers were training us for a short life and according to their own lights; but he does it all for our own good, so that we may share his own holiness.

10. For they verily for a few days chastened [us] after their own pleasure; but he for [our] profit, that [we] might be partakers of his holiness.

11. Of course, any discipline is at the time a matter for grief, not joy; but later, in those who have undergone it, it bears fruit in peace and uprightness.

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

12. So steady all weary hands and trembling knees

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

13. and make your crooked paths straight; then the injured limb will not be maimed, it will get better instead.

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

14. Seek peace with all people, and the holiness without which no one can ever see the Lord.

14. Follow peace with all [men], and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

15. Be careful that no one is deprived of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness should begin to grow and make trouble; this can poison a large number.

15. Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble [you], and thereby many be defiled;

16. And be careful that there is no immoral person, or anyone worldly minded like Esau, who sold his birthright for one single meal.

16. Lest there [be] any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

17. As you know, when he wanted to obtain the blessing afterwards, he was rejected and, though he pleaded for it with tears, he could find no way of reversing the decision.

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

18. What you have come to is nothing known to the senses: not a blazing fire, or gloom or total darkness, or a storm;

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

19. or trumpet-blast or the sound of a voice speaking which made everyone that heard it beg that no more should be said to them.

19. And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which [voice] they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:

20. They could not bear the order that was given: If even a beast touches the mountain, it must be stoned.

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

21. The whole scene was so terrible that Moses said, 'I am afraid and trembling.'

21. And so terrible was the sight, [that] Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)

22. But what you have come to is Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem where the millions of angels have gathered for the festival,

22. But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

23. with the whole Church of first-born sons, enrolled as citizens of heaven. You have come to God himself, the supreme Judge, and to the spirits of the upright who have been made perfect;

23. To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which 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 a new covenant, and to purifying blood which pleads more insistently than Abel's.

24. And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than [that of] Abel.

25. Make sure that you never refuse to listen when he speaks. If the people who on earth refused to listen to a warning could not escape their punishment, how shall we possibly escape if we turn away from a voice that warns us from heaven?

25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more [shall not] we [escape], if we turn away from him that [speaketh] from heaven:

26. That time his voice made the earth shake, but now he has given us this promise: I am going to shake the earth once more and not only the earth but heaven as well.

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

27. The words once more indicate the removal of what is shaken, since these are created things, so that what is not shaken remains.

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

28. We have been given possession of an unshakeable kingdom. Let us therefore be grateful and use our gratitude to worship God in the way that pleases him, in reverence and fear.

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

29. For our God is a consuming fire.

29. For our God [is] a consuming fire.