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[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.
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