1 So then, with so great a cloud of witnesses encircling us, let us too strip off every weight and the sin that hems us in on every side, and let us run with patience the contest that lies ahead of us,
2 looking away to Jesus, the founder and finisher of our faith, who in exchange for the joy set before him bore the cross, thinking nothing of its shame, and is seated at the right hand of God's throne.
3 Weigh carefully the one who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you may not become weary, fainting in your souls.
4 Not yet have you stood against sin, wrestling with it, to the point of blood.
5 And have you forgotten the encouragement that speaks to you as to sons? "My son, do not treat lightly the Lord's discipline, and do not give up when he corrects you;
6 for the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and whips every son he accepts."
7 If you endure discipline, God is dealing with you as with sons; for who is a son whom a father does not discipline?
8 But if you are left without discipline, which all have shared, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
9 Besides, we had fathers in the flesh to correct us, and we respected them; should we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?
10 They, for a few days, corrected us as seemed right to them, but he corrects us for our benefit, to have us partake of his holiness.
11 All discipline, for the present, seems a matter not of joy but of sorrow; afterward, though, to those exercised by it, it pays back the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
12 So raise your drooping hands and steady your weak knees,
13 and make straight tracks for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.
14 Seek peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
15 Watch over one another, lest anyone fail to obtain the grace of God, lest some root of bitterness spring up and cause disturbance, and through it many be defiled;
16 lest anyone be a fornicator or profane, like Esau, who gave up his birthright for one meal.
17 For you know that later on, when he wished to inherit the blessing, he was turned away; he found no opportunity for repentance, although he sought the blessing with tears.
18 For you have not drawn near to a mountain that may be felt with the hand, and to burning fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest,
19 and to the sound of a trumpet and a voice uttering words, a voice which those who heard begged that no further message be given them,
20 for they could not bear the order: "Even if a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or struck through with a dart."
21 So fearful was the sight that Moses said, "I am terrified and trembling."
22 No, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to tens of thousands of angels,
23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, who are registered in the heavens, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a fresh covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaks better than Abel's.
25 Beware of refusing the one who speaks. For if those men did not get away when they rejected the one who gave them oracles on earth, much less shall we, who turn from the one who speaks from heaven.
26 His voice shook the earth then; but now he has given this promise: "Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but heaven too."
27 Now the phrase "Yet once more" makes plain the removal of the things being shaken, as of things that were made, so that the things not shaken may abide.
28 Since, then, we are receiving a kingdom that is unshakable, let us have grace, through which we may serve God acceptably, with modesty and reverent fear;
29 for our God is indeed a fire that consumes.