Godbey - Hebrews - 12

12:1  Therefore let us indeed, having around us so great a cloud of witnesses, having laid aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, run with patience the race which is set before us,

12:2  looking unto Jesus the beginner and perfecter of our faith; who for the joy that was placed before him, endured the cross, looking with contempt at the shame, and has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God.

12:3  For consider him who has endured so great a contradiction of sinners against himself, in order that you may not become weary, fainting in your souls.

12:4  For you have not yet resisted unto blood, fighting against sin;

12:5  and you have forgotten the exhortation which reasoneth with you as with sons, My son regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art proven of him:

12:6  for whom the Lord loves he chastises, and scourges every son whom he receives.

12:7  Endure unto chastisement; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom the father does not chastise?

12:8  And if you are without chastisement, of which all have been partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons.

12:9  Then indeed, we had fathers of our flesh who chastised us, and we endured: how much more then shall we submit to the Father of spirits, and live?

12:10  For they indeed for a few days were accustomed to chastise us according to that which seemed right to them; but he made unto our profit, in order that we might partake his holiness.

12:11  Indeed no chastisement for the present seems to be truly joyful, but sorrowful: but afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who have been disciplined by it.

12:12  Therefore hold up the hands which hang down, and the paralyzed knees,

12:13  and make straight paths for your feet, in order that whatsoever is lame may not be turned out of the way, but rather may it be healed.

12:14  Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification, without which no one shall see the Lord:

12:15  looking diligently lest any one may fail from the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up may trouble you, and through it many may be defiled;

12:16  lest any one may be a fornicator, or a profane person, as was Esau, who for one morsel sold his birthright.

12:17  For you know that, wishing to inherit the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance even though having sought it diligently with tears.

12:18  For you have not come to the mountain that can be touched, and that is burnt with fire, and unto blackness and darkness, and tempest,

12:19  and to the sound of the trumpet, and the voice of words; which those having heard requested that the word should not be spoken unto them:

12:20  for they could not endure that which was spoken, If a wild beast should touch the mountain, it shall be pierced through with a dart:

12:21  and the sight was so fearful, Moses said, I exceedingly fear and tremble:

12:22  but you have come to mount Zion, and to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the city of the living God, and to myriads of angels,

12:23  to the whole company, and to the church of the first-born, who have been written in the heavens, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of justified people who have been made perfect,

12:24  and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, speaking something better than the blood of Abel.

12:25  See that you do not reject the one speaking: for if they escape not having rejected the one delivering them the divine oracles on earth, how much more shall we not escape, who turn away from the one speaking from the heavens:

12:26  whose voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, saying, I will still once shake not only the earth, but also heaven.

12:27  But he would yet once show the removal of the things shaken, as having been created, in order that the things unshaken may remain.

12:28  Therefore receiving an unshaken kingdom, let us have grace, through which we may worship God acceptably with reverence and fear:

12:29  for our God is a consuming fire.