Hebrews 12

Thomson^{(i) 1} As we therefore are encompassed with such a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which easily entangleth us, and let us run without intermission the race set before us, ² looking forward to Jesus, the leader and perfecter of this faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured a cross, despising shame, and hath taken a seat at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who bore such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you may not grow weary, nor faint in your minds. ⁴ You have not yet in your contest with sin resisted to blood. ⁵ And have you forgotten this exhortation which speaketh to us as to children, "My son slight not the correction of the Lord, Nor faint when reproved by him; ⁶ For whom the Lord loveth he reproveth, And chastiseth every son whom he receiveth. ⁷ If you endure correction God dealeth with you as sons. For what son is there whom a father doth not correct? ⁸ Now if you are without correction, of which all are partakers, you are indeed bastards and not sons. ⁹ Well then: we have had fathers of our flesh who have corrected us, and we have reverenced them; shall we not much more submit ourselves to the father of our spirits, and live? ¹⁰ For they indeed for a few days corrected us as they thought fit; but he for our advantage, that we may partake of his holiness. ¹¹ Now all correction seemeth, for the present, not to be matter of joy, but of grief; yet afterwards it produceth the peaceful fruit of righteousness to them who are exercised therewith. ¹² Therefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the knees which are feeble, ¹³ and make straight tracks with your feet, that that which is lame may not be sprained, but rather healed. ¹⁴ Follow peace with all men, and that holiness without which none shall see the Lord, ¹⁵ watching diligently that none fall short of the favour of God"that no root of bitterness spring up and occasion trouble, and many be defiled by it ¹⁶ that there be no fornicator, nor profane person like Esau, who for a single meal sold his birth right; ¹⁷ for you know that afterwards when he wished to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no way to change his father's mind, though he earnestly sought it with tears. ¹⁸ For you are not come to a mountain which might be touched, and to blazing fire, and to gloom, and darkness, and a turbid tempest, ¹⁹ and to the sound of a trumpet, and a sound of words, the hearers of which entreated that the discourse might not be continued to them; ²⁰ for they could not bear this threat, "And if even a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned or pierced through with a dart." ²¹ And so awful was the appearance, that Moses said, "I am exceedingly terrified and tremble:" ²² but you are come to mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels ²³ to the general assembly and congregation of first born, 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 a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel. ²⁵ See that you do not reject him who speaketh. For if they did not escape who rejected him who gave forth oracles on earth, how much less shall we who reject him who is from heaven, ²⁶ whose voice then shook the earth, but he hath now announced, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth but the heaven also." ²⁷ Now this expression, "Yet once more" signifieth the removal of the things shaken, as having been made, that the things which are immoveable may remain. ²⁸ As we have therefore received a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have gratitude by which we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and holy awe: ²⁹ for our God is a consuming fire.