¹Therefore let ’s also , seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses , lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us , and let ’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us ,

²looking to Jesus , the author and perfecter of faith , who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross , despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God .

³For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself , that you don’t grow weary , fainting in your souls .

⁴You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin.

⁵You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children ,

“My son , don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord ,

nor faint when you are reproved by him ;

⁶for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines ,

and chastises every son whom he receives .”

⁷It is for discipline that you endure . God deals with you as with children , for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline ?

⁸But if you are without discipline , of which all have been made partakers , then you are illegitimate , and not children .

⁹Furthermore , we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us , and we paid them respect . Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live ?

¹⁰For they indeed for a few days disciplined us as seemed good to them , but he for our profit , that we may be partakers of his holiness.

¹¹All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous ; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it .

¹²Therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees ,[#Isaiah 35:3]

¹³and make straight paths for your feet , so what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed .[#Proverbs 4:26]

¹⁴Follow after peace with all men , and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord ,

¹⁵looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God , lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and many be defiled by it ,

¹⁶lest there be any sexually immoral person or profane person , like Esau , who sold his birthright for one meal .

¹⁷For you know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing , he was rejected, for he found no place for a change of mind though he sought it diligently with tears .

¹⁸For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched and that burnt with fire , and to blackness , darkness , storm,

¹⁹the sound of a trumpet , and the voice of words ; which those who heard it begged that not one more word should be spoken to them ,

²⁰for they could not stand that which was commanded , “If even an animal touches the mountain , it shall be stoned ”.[#12:20 TR adds “or shot with an arrow”; #Exodus 19:12-13]

²¹So fearful was the appearance that Moses said , “I am terrified and trembling .”[#Deuteronomy 9:19]

²²But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God , the heavenly Jerusalem , and to innumerable multitudes of angels,

²³to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven , to God the Judge of all , to the spirits of just men made perfect ,

²⁴to Jesus , the mediator of a new covenant , and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.[#Jeremiah 31:31]

²⁵See that you don’t refuse him who speaks . For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth , how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven ,

²⁶whose voice shook the earth then , but now he has promised , saying , “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth , but also the heavens .”[#Haggai 2:6]

²⁷This phrase, “Yet once more ” signifies the removing of those things that are shaken , as of things that have been made , that those things which are not shaken may remain .

²⁸Therefore , receiving a Kingdom that can’t be shaken, let ’s have grace , through which we serve God acceptably , with reverence and awe,

²⁹for our God is a consuming fire .[#Deuteronomy 4:24]