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Hebrews 12

1Therefore, since we too have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us put aside every weight and the sin that so readily entangles, and run with endurance the race set before us, 2looking to Jesus, the pioneer and completer of faith, who for the joy set before him endured a cross, disregarding its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God's throne. 3For consider the one who endured such opposition from sinners against themselves, so that you do not grow weary and lose heart in your souls. 4In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of blood.

5And you have forgotten the encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take the Lord's discipline lightly, or lose heart when he reproves you; 6for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and flogs every son he receives.” 7Endure for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8But if you are without discipline, in which all have shared, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh as disciplinarians and respected them. Shall we not much more submit to the Father of spirits and live? 10For they disciplined us for a few days as seemed right to them, but he does so for our benefit, so that we may share in his holiness. 11Now all discipline seems at the time to bring sorrow, not joy, but afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those trained by it.

12Therefore straighten your drooping hands and weakened knees, 13and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but instead be healed. 14Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. 15Watch over one another, so that no one falls short of God's grace, so that no root of bitterness grows up to cause trouble and defile many through it, 16and so that no one is sexually immoral or profane like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. 17For you know that even afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no opportunity for a change of mind, though he sought it with tears.

18For you have not come to something that can be touched, and to blazing fire and darkness and gloom and storm, 19and to a trumpet's sound and a voice speaking words, whose hearers begged that no further word be spoken to them. 20For they could not bear the command, “Even if an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.” 21And the sight was so fearful that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.” 22But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to a festal gathering 23and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous people brought to completion, 24and to Jesus, mediator of a new covenant, and to sprinkled blood that speaks better than Abel.

25Watch out that you do not refuse the one who speaks. For if those did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, much less will we if we turn away from the one who warns from heaven. 26His voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also heaven.” 27The words “once more” indicate the removal of the things that are shaken, as things that have been made, so that the things that are not shaken may remain. 28Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be thankful, and through this offer God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, 29for our God is a consuming fire.

Translation notes 5

12:1–4 — Race and opposition. The witnesses are the people whose faith has just been recounted; the surrounding-cloud image does not by itself settle whether they observe events on earth. “Completer” continues the book's completion language. “For the joy” may mean in view of the joy or, less probably here, instead of the joy. At verse 3 the base reads “against themselves,” describing the sinners' self-damaging opposition. Many texts read “against himself” or “against him.” The unusual plural is retained rather than silently corrected. “To the point of blood” means resistance extending to bloodshed.

12:5–11 — Discipline and sons. The quotation draws on Proverbs 3:11–12. “Flogs” retains its harsh physical image. Discipline includes training and correction, not punishment alone. “Sons” preserves the family and inheritance comparison; it addresses the whole community. “Illegitimate children” is the social contrast used by the author, not an added judgment on children born outside marriage. “Endure” at verse 7 can also be read as a statement, “It is for discipline that you endure.” “Fathers of our flesh” contrasts human fathers with the Father of spirits without explaining how spirits originate.

12:12–17 — Healing, bitter root, and Esau. The imagery recalls Isaiah 35:3, Proverbs 4:26, and Deuteronomy 29:18. “Put out of joint” can also be understood as turning aside from the path. A root of bitterness is a source of poisonous communal influence, not simply a private resentful feeling. Esau's exchange and rejected request recall Genesis 25 and 27. The Greek word at verse 17 ordinarily means repentance or a change of mind. The phrase may concern his inability to reverse the loss or to obtain a changed decision about the blessing. “It” can refer to the blessing or to the change of mind; the draft leaves the pronoun unexpanded. The verse does not explicitly say that God refused a sincere confession of sin.

12:18–24 — Sinai and Zion. The first scene evokes Sinai without naming it; the base does not include “mountain” at verse 18, though some witnesses add it. “Have come” makes the second approach a present reality, not only a future destination. “Festal gathering” may be joined to the angels or to the assembly in verse 23; the punctuation here joins it with the assembly. “Firstborn” is plural, referring to those enrolled in heaven. The blood speaks “better than Abel,” with his blood or his testimony understood; neither is supplied as the only explanation.

12:25–29 — Speaking and shaking. The command continues the book's call to hear God's voice. The quotation about shaking comes from Haggai 2:6; the consuming-fire description recalls Deuteronomy 4:24. “Let us be thankful” can also be understood as “let us have grace,” followed by worship through that grace. The draft favors the ordinary thanksgiving expression in this context. The severe final image is retained alongside the promise of an unshakable kingdom.