| 1 | Therefore, we also having so great a cloud of witnesses set around us, every weight having put off, and the closely besetting sin, through endurance may we run the contest that is set before us, |
| 2 | looking to the author and perfecter of faith -- Jesus, who, over-against the joy set before him -- did endure a cross, shame having despised, on the right hand also of the throne of God did sit down; |
| 3 | for consider again him who endured such gainsaying from the sinners to himself, that ye may not be wearied in your souls -- being faint. |
| 4 | Not yet unto blood did ye resist -- with the sin striving; |
| 5 | and ye have forgotten the exhortation that doth speak fully with you as with sons, `My son, be not despising chastening of the Lord, nor be faint, being reproved by Him, |
| 6 | for whom the Lord doth love He doth chasten, and He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth;` |
| 7 | if chastening ye endure, as to sons God beareth Himself to you, for who is a son whom a father doth not chasten? |
| 8 | and if ye are apart from chastening, of which all have become partakers, then bastards are ye, and not sons. |
| 9 | Then, indeed, fathers of our flesh we have had, chastising [us], and we were reverencing [them]; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of the spirits, and live? |
| 10 | for they, indeed, for a few days, according to what seemed good to them, were chastening, but He for profit, to be partakers of His separation; |
| 11 | and all chastening for the present, indeed, doth not seem to be of joy, but of sorrow, yet afterward the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those exercised through it -- it doth yield. |
| 12 | Wherefore, the hanging-down hands and the loosened knees set ye up; |
| 13 | and straight paths make for your feet, that that which is lame may not be turned aside, but rather be healed; |
| 14 | peace pursue with all, and the separation, apart from which no one shall see the Lord, |
| 15 | looking diligently over lest any one be failing of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up may give trouble, and through this many may be defiled; |
| 16 | lest any one be a fornicator, or a profane person, as Esau, who in exchange for one morsel of food did sell his birthright, |
| 17 | for ye know that also afterwards, wishing to inherit the blessing, he was disapproved of, for a place of reformation he found not, though with tears having sought it. |
| 18 | For ye came not near to the mount touched and scorched with fire, and to blackness, and darkness, and tempest, |
| 19 | and a sound of a trumpet, and a voice of sayings, which those having heard did entreat that a word might not be added to them, |
| 20 | for they were not bearing that which is commanded, `And if a beast may touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or with an arrow shot through,` |
| 21 | and, (so terrible was the sight,) Moses said, `I am fearful exceedingly, and trembling.` |
| 22 | But, ye came to Mount Zion, and to a city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of messengers, |
| 23 | to the company and assembly of the first-born in heaven enrolled, and to God the judge of all, and to spirits of righteous men made perfect, |
| 24 | and to a mediator of a new covenant -- Jesus, and to blood of sprinkling, speaking better things than that of Abel! |
| 25 | See, may ye not refuse him who is speaking, for if those did not escape who refused him who upon earth was divinely speaking -- much less we who do turn away from him who [speaketh] from heaven, |
| 26 | whose voice the earth shook then, and now hath he promised, saying, `Yet once -- I shake not only the earth, but also the heaven;` |
| 27 | and this -- `Yet once` -- doth make evident the removal of the things shaken, as of things having been made, that the things not shaken may remain; |
| 28 | wherefore, a kingdom that cannot be shaken receiving, may we have grace, through which we may serve God well-pleasingly, with reverence and religious fear; |
| 29 | for also our God [is] a consuming fire. |
