1 Since, then, we have so great a cloud of witnesses placed before us, laying aside every encumbrance, and the sin which easily entangles us, let us run, with perseverance, the race set before us;

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

3 Consider him who, from sinners, endured such opposition against himself, lest, becoming discouraged in your minds, you grow weary;

4 you have not yet resisted to blood, struggling against this sin.

5 «Besides, have you forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children,» 'My son, do not think lightly of the Lord's chastisement, neither faint when you are rebuked by him:'

6 «for whom the Lord loves he chastises, and scourges every son whom he receives.»

7 If you endure chastisement, God deals with you as his children. For what son is there whom his father does not chastise?

8 But if you be without chastisement, of which all sons are partakers, certainly you are bastards, and not sons.

9 Farther, we have had fathers of our flesh, who chastised us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of our spirits, and live?

10 For they, indeed, during a very few days, chastised us according to their pleasure; but he, for our advantage, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

11 Now, no chastisement, indeed, for the present, seems to be matter of joy, but of sorrow. Nevertheless, afterward it returns the peaceful fruit of righteousness to them who are trained by it.

12 Wherefore, bring to their right position, the arms that hang down, and the weakened knees.

13 And make smooth paths for your feet, that that which is lame, may not be put out of joint, but that it may rather be healed.

14 Pursue peace with all men, and holiness, without which, no one shall see the Lord:

15 carefully observing, lest any one come short of the favor of God; lest some bitter root springing up, trouble you, and by it many be polluted;

16 lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau; who, for one meal, gave away his birthrights.

17 And you know, that although afterward he wished to inherit the blessing, he was reprobated: for he found no scope for effecting a change, though he earnestly sought it with tears.

18 Now you are not come to a tangible mountain, which burned with fire; and to blackness, and to darkness, and to tempest,

19 and to the sound of a trumpet, and to the voice of words, the hearers of which earnestly entreated that a word more might not be addressed to them:

20 «for they could not bear this threat,» 'Even if a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned.'

21 «And so terrible was the appearance, that Moses said,» 'I exceedingly fear and tremble.'

22 But you are come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of messengers,

23 to the general assembly and congregation of the first-born, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

24 and to Jesus the mediator of the new institution, and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaks better things than that of Abel.

25 Take care that you refuse not him who speaks: for if they did not escape, who refused him who spoke on earth, much more we shall not escape, who turn away from him that speaks from heaven:

26 «whose voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, saying,» 'Yet once I shake not the earth only, but also the heavens.'

27 «Now this speech,» 'YET ONCE,' 'signifies the removing of the things shaken, as of things which were constituted, that the things not shaken may remain.'

28 Wherefore, we having received a kingdom not shaken, let us have gratitude, by which we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and religious fear.

29 For truly our God is a consuming fire.