Hebrews 12

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,

1Many people trusted God before us. They are like a huge crowd around us. So let us drop everything that weighs us down. Let us drop the sin that trips us so easily. Let us keep running the race God has set for us.

2Looking 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.

2Keep your eyes on Jesus. He is the one who starts our trust in God and finishes it. He knew a great joy was coming. So he put up with the cross and did not care about the shame. Now he sits at God's right side, in the place of highest honor.

3For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

3Think about Jesus. Bad people said cruel things against him, and he kept going. Think about him, so you do not get tired inside and give up.

4Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

4You are fighting hard against sin. But you have not yet had to bleed for it.

5And 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:

5You have forgotten the words that speak to you as God's children. They say, "My son, do not brush off the Lord when he corrects you. Do not lose heart when he tells you that you are wrong.

6For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

6The Lord corrects the people he loves. He trains every child he takes as his own."

NoteThe old words "chasten" and "scourge" here mean to train and correct a child, the way a good parent teaches.

7If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

7When you go through hard things, take them as training. God is treating you as his children. Every father corrects his own child.

8But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

8All of God's children get this training. If you never got any, you would not really be his children.

9Furthermore 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?

9Our own fathers here on earth corrected us, and we respected them. So we should listen even more to God, the Father of our spirits, and live.

10For 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.

10Our fathers trained us for a short time, in the way they thought best. God trains us for our good. He wants us to share in his holiness, his pure and good life.

11Now 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.

11No correction feels happy while it is happening. It hurts. But later it grows peace and right living in the people it has trained.

12Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

12So lift up your tired hands. Strengthen your weak knees.

13And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.

13Make smooth, straight paths for your feet. Then a hurt leg will not get worse. It will get better instead.

14Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

14Try hard to live at peace with everyone. Try hard to live a holy life. Without that, no one will see the Lord.

15Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

15Watch out that no one misses God's kindness. Watch out that no bitter feeling grows up like a weed. That kind of weed causes trouble and spoils many people.

16Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

16Watch out that no one uses their body for wrong kinds of sex. Watch out that no one treats holy things as nothing. Esau did that. He sold his rights as the oldest son for one meal.

NoteIn old English, "meat" meant food of any kind. A "birthright" was the extra share and blessing that went to the oldest son in a family.

17For 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.

17You know what happened later. He wanted the blessing that went with those rights. But he was turned away. There was no way to undo what he had done, even though he cried and begged.

18For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,

18You have not come to a mountain that you can touch. That mountain burned with fire. There was darkness, gloom, and a wild storm.

19And 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:

19There was a loud trumpet blast and a voice speaking words. The people who heard that voice begged for it to stop.

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:

20They could not bear the command they were given. It said that even an animal touching the mountain must be killed with stones or a spear.

21And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)

21What they saw was so frightening that even Moses said, "I am shaking with fear."

22But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

22Instead you have come to Mount Sion. That is the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to angels too many to count.

Note"Sion" is the old spelling of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. Here it stands for God's own city.

23To 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,

23You have come to a great, happy gathering. It is the family of God's firstborn children, whose names are written down in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of everyone. You have come to the spirits of good people who have now been made perfect.

24And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

24You have come to Jesus. He brings God and people together in a new agreement. You have come to his sprinkled blood, which says something better than Abel's blood said.

NoteA "mediator" is someone who brings two sides together and makes an agreement work.

25See 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:

25Be careful. Do not refuse the one who is speaking. The people back then refused the one who warned them on earth, and they did not get away. We will not get away either if we turn from the one who warns from heaven.

26Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

26Back then his voice shook the earth. Now he promises, "One more time I will shake the earth, and the heavens too."

27And 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.

27The words "one more time" mean this. Everything that can be shaken will be taken away. Those are the things that were made. Then what cannot be shaken will stay.

28Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

28We are getting a kingdom that can never be shaken. So let us be thankful. Let us worship God in the way that pleases him, with deep respect and wonder.

29For our God is a consuming fire.

29For our God is a fire that burns things up.