1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses , let us lay aside every weight , and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us ,
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith ; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross , despising the shame , and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God .
3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself , lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds .
4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood , striving against sin .
5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children , My son , despise not thou the chastening of the Lord , nor faint when thou art rebuked of him :
6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth , and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth .
7 If ye endure chastening , God dealeth with you as with sons ; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not ?
8 But if ye be without chastisement , whereof all are partakers , then are ye bastards , and not sons .
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence : shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits , and live ?
10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure ; but he for our profit , that we might be partakers of his holiness .
11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous , but grievous : nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby .
12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down , and the feeble knees ;
13 And make straight paths for your feet , lest that which is lame be turned out of the way ; but let it rather be healed .
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness , without which no man shall see the Lord :
15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God ; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled ;
16 Lest there be any fornicator , or profane person , as Esau , who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright .
17 For ye know how that afterward , when he would have inherited the blessing , he was rejected : for he found no place of repentance , though he sought it carefully with tears .
18 For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched , and that burned with fire , nor unto blackness , and darkness , and tempest ,
19 And the sound of a trumpet , and the voice of words ; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more :
20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded , And if so much as a beast touch the mountain , it shall be stoned , or thrust through with a dart :
21 And so terrible was the sight , that Moses said , I exceedingly fear and quake :)
22 But ye are come unto mount Sion , and unto the city of the living God , the heavenly Jerusalem , and to an innumerable company of angels ,
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn , which are written 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 the new covenant , and to the blood of sprinkling , that speaketh better things than that of Abel .
25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh . For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth , much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven :
26 Whose voice then shook the earth : but now he hath promised , saying , Yet once more I shake not the earth only , but also heaven .
27 And this word, Yet once more , signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken , as of things that are made , that those things which cannot be shaken may remain .
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved , let us have grace , whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear :
29 For our God is a consuming fire .
