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[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.
[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.
[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.
[4]Ye have not yet come unto blood, in the contest against sin.
[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.
[6]For, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth; and he scourgeth those sons, for whom he hath kind regards.
[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?
[8]But if ye are without that chastisement, with which every one is chastened, ye are become strangers and not sons.
[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?
[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.
[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]Wherefore, strengthen ye your relaxed hands, and your tottering knees:
[13]and make straight paths for your feet, that the limb which is lame may not be wrenched, but may be healed.
[14]Follow after peace with every man; and after holiness, without which a man will not see our Lord.
[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:
[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.
[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.
[18]For ye have not come to the fire that burned, and the tangible [mount]; nor to the darkness and obscurity and tempest;
[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;
[20]for they could not endure what was commanded. And even a beast, if it approached the mountain, was to be stoned.
[21]And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I fear and tremble.
[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;
[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;
[24]and to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant; and to the sprinkling, of his blood, which speaketh better than that of Abel.
[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?
[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.
[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.
[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.
[29]For our God is a consuming fire.
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