Murdock - Hebrews - 12

12:1  Therefore let us also, who have all these witnesses surrounding us like clouds, cast from us all encumbrances, and sin, which is always prepared for us; and let us run with patience the race that is appointed for us.

12:2  And let us look on Jesus, who hath become the commencement and the completion of our faith; who, on account of the joy there was for him, endured the cross, and surrendered himself to opprobrium; and is seated on the right hand of the throne of God.

12:3  Behold, therefore, how much he suffered from sinners, from them who are adversaries of their own soul, that ye may not be discouraged, nor your soul become remiss.

12:4  Ye have not yet come unto blood, in the contest against sin.

12:5  And ye have forgotten the monition, which saith to you, as to children, My son, disregard not the chastening of the Lord; nor let thy soul faint, when thou art rebuked by him.

12:6  For, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth; and he scourgeth those sons, for whom he hath kind regards.

12:7  Therefore endure ye the chastisement; because God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there, whom his father chasteneth not?

12:8  But if ye are without that chastisement, with which every one is chastened, ye are become strangers and not sons.

12:9  And if our fathers of the flesh chastened us, and we revered them, how much more ought we to be submissive to our spiritual fathers, and live?

12:10  For they chastened us for a short time, according to their pleasure; but God, for our advantage, that we may become partakers of his holiness.

12:11  Now all chastisement, in the time of it, is not accounted a matter of joy, but of grief: yet, afterwards, it yieldeth the fruits of peace and righteousness to them who are exercised by it.

12:12  Wherefore, strengthen ye your relaxed hands, and your tottering knees:

12:13  and make straight paths for your feet, that the limb which is lame may not be wrenched, but may be healed.

12:14  Follow after peace with every man; and after holiness, without which a man will not see our Lord.

12:15  And be careful, lest any be found among you destitute of the grace of God; or lest some root of bitterness shoot forth germs, and trouble you; and thereby many be defiled:

12:16  or lest any one be found among you a fornicator; or a heedless one like Esau, who for one mess of food, sold his primogeniture.

12:17  For ye know that, afterwards when he wished to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found not a place for repentance, although he sought it with tears.

12:18  For ye have not come to the fire that burned, and the tangible mount; nor to the darkness and obscurity and tempest;

12:19  nor to the sound of the trumpet, and the voice of words, which they who heard, entreated that it might no more be spoken to them;

12:20  for they could not endure what was commanded. And even a beast, if it approached the mountain, was to be stoned.

12:21  And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I fear and tremble.

12:22  But ye have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the Jerusalem that is in heaven; and to the assemblies of myriads of angels;

12:23  and to the church of the first-born, who are enrolled in heaven and to God the judge of all; and to the spirits of the just, who are perfected;

12:24  and to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant; and to the sprinkling, of his blood, which speaketh better than that of Abel.

12:25  Beware, therefore, lest ye refuse to hear him who speaketh with you. For if they escaped not, who refused to hear him who spake with them on the earth, how much more shall we not, if we refuse to hear him who speaketh with us from heaven?

12:26  Whose voice then shook the earth; but now he hath promised, and said, yet again once more, I will shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

12:27  And this his expression, Once more, indicateth the mutation of the things that are shaken, because they are fabricated; that the things which will not be shaken, may remain.

12:28  Since, therefore, we have received a kingdom that is unshaken, let us grasp the grace whereby we may serve and please God, with reverence and fear.

12:29  For our God is a consuming fire.