1 Therefore also we, having so great a cloud of witnesses lying around us, laying aside every impediment and sin which entirely surrounds us, let us run with patience the race set before us, 2 looking to the chief guide and perfecter of the faith, Jesus, who for the joy set before him despised the shame and endured the cross, and sat down on the right hand of God.
3 For consider him that has endured such a contradiction from sinners, that you may not become faint and weary in your minds. 4 You have not yet resisted to blood contending against sin. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which says to you as to sons, My son, despise not the correction of the Lord and faint not when rebuked by him, 6 for the Lord corrects those whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.
7 If you endure correction, God deals with you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not correct? 8 But if you are without correction of which all are partakers, then you are of foreign birth, and not sons. 9 Moreover, we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us and we respected them; shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they for a few days corrected us as seemed good to them, but he for the best, that we may partake of his holiness. 11 And no correction seems to be joyful for the present but painful, but afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those exercised by it.
12 Wherefore hold up the hands that hang down, and the feeble knees, 13 and make straight courses for your feet, that the lame may not be turned out of the way, but may rather be healed.
14 Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord, 15 taking care that no one may come short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing up may make trouble and by it many be defiled, 16 that no one may be a fornicator or unholy person like Esau, who for one meal sold his birthright. 17 For you know that afterwards, wishing also to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place for a change of mind, though he sought it with tears.
18 For you have not come to a mountain that may be touched, and to a burning fire, and blackness and darkness and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, which those who heard desired that the word might not be spoken to them any more,??20 for they could not bear what was commanded, And if a beast touches the mountain it shall be stoned; 21 and so fearful was the sight, that Moses said, I fear and tremble,??22 but you have come to Zion, the mountain and city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels in general assembly, 23 and to the church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge the God of all, and to spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to a sprinkled blood which speaks better than Abel.
25 See that you refuse not him that speaks; for if they did not escape who refused him that gave answers on earth, much more shall we [not escape] who turn ourselves away from him in heaven; 26 whose voice then shook the earth, but now it has been promised, saying, Hereafter once for all I will shake not only the earth, but also heaven. 27 And this, Hereafter once for all, signifies the removal of the things shaken as of things made, that those not shaken may continue. 28 Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace through which we may serve God acceptably, with piety and fear; 29 for our God is also a consuming fire.