1Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. 4In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5And have you forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons? – »My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,nor lose courage when you are rebuked by him. 6For those whom the Lord loves he disciplines,and he scourges every son whom he receives.« 7It is for discipline that you endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8If you are left without discipline, in which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9Besides this, we have had fathers of our flesh to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 12Therefore lift your feeble hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. 14Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness spring up and cause trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16that no one be immoral or godless like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. 17For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears. 18For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, 19and the blast of a trumpet, and the sound of a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further word be spoken to them. 20For they could not endure the order that was given, »If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.« 21The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, »I am trembling with fear.« 22But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the joyful assembly 23and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, 24and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks better than the blood of Abel. 25See to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less shall we escape, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? 26Then his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, »Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also heaven.« 27This phrase, »Yet once more,« indicates the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain. 28Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, 29for our God is a consuming fire.