¹Consequently, as regards us too, having such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us dispose of every burden and of sin which easily besets us and run with patience the race which lies ahead of us, ²turning our sights to the originator and finisher of faith, Jesus, who over against the joy which lay ahead of him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and who has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³For consider him who has endured such opposition towards himself by sinners, so that you do not flag and become faint-hearted. ⁴You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood in struggling against sin. ⁵And you have completely forgotten the exhortation which treats you as sons, ⁷Be patient in being disciplined when God deals with you as with sons, for what kind of a son is it whom the father does not discipline? ⁸For if you were to be without discipline, of which you have all become partakers, you would then be illegitimate children and not sons. ⁹Then again, we had our fathers in the flesh as educators, and we respected them. Shall we not much more submit to the father of spirits and live? ¹⁰For they for a few days disciplined us according to what seemed right to them, but he for what is beneficial for our partaking of his holiness. ¹¹Now no discipline seems to be a matter of joy at the time, but of grief, but later it yields peaceful fruit of righteousness to those exercised by it. ¹²So straighten up drooping hands and infirm knees, ¹³and make straight paths with your feet, so that a lame member is not put out of joint, but rather is healed. ¹⁴Pursue peace with everyone, and sanctification, without which no-one will see the Lord, ¹⁵watching out that no-one is missing the grace of God, in order that no root of bitterness grows up and causes disquiet, and many become defiled through it, ¹⁶and that there is no fornicator, or profane person like Esau who for one meal sold his birthright. ¹⁷For you know that also later on, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no room for a change of mind, although he sought it earnestly with tears. ¹⁸For you have not come to the tangible mountain which has been burnt with fire, and to gloom and darkness and storm, ¹⁹or to the sounding of the trumpet and the sound of words. And those who heard it pleaded that not a word should be spoken to them again. ²⁰For they could not bear what was ordered: “If even a wild animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” ²¹And the spectacle was so fearful that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.” ²²But you have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the upper-heavenly Jerusalem, and myriads of angels, ²³to the assembly and church of the firstborn who have been recorded in the heavens, and to God the judge of everyone, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, ²⁴and to the mediator of a new covenant, Jesus, and to sprinkled blood speaking of something better than Abel. ²⁵See that you do not disregard him who speaks. For if those who disregarded him who gave oracular instructions on earth did not escape, how much more will this apply to us if we turn away from him who instructs from the heavens, ²⁶whose voice shook the world at that time, but has now made a promise, saying, “Yet one more time will I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” ²⁷And the phrase “Yet one more time” indicates the removal of the things shaken, that is, the things physically made, in order that the things not shaken should remain. ²⁸So let us have grace, seeing that we are receiving an unshakeable kingdom, through which we serve God in a pleasing way, with reverence and veneration, ²⁹for indeed our God is a consuming fire.

Reference(s) in Chapter 12: v.5 ↔ Proverbs 3:11 ● v.6 ↔ Proverbs 3:12 ● v.12 ↔ Isaiah 35:3 ● v.16 ↔ Genesis 25:33 ● v.20 ↔ Exodus 19:13 ● v.26 ↔ Haggai 2:6 ● v.27 ↔ Haggai 2:6.