Hebrews

Chapter 1

1 In many parts and in many ways of old God spoke to the fathers by the prophets,

2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the ages;

3 who, being the radiance of his glory and the exact image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, having made purification for sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

4 having become as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

5 For to which of the angels did he ever say, "You are my Son; today I have begotten you"? And again, "I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son"?

6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, "And let all the angels of God worship him."

7 And of the angels he says, "He who makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire,"

8 but of the Son, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions."

10 And, "You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands;

11 they will perish, but you remain; and they will all grow old like a garment,

12 and like a cloak you will roll them up, and like a garment they will be changed; but you are the same, and your years will not fail."

13 And to which of the angels has he ever said, "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet"?

14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out for service for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

Chapter 2

1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away.

2 For if the word spoken through angels proved firm, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense,

3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was first declared through the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard him,

4 while God bore witness together with them by signs and wonders and various miracles and by distributions of the Holy Spirit according to his own will.

5 For it was not to angels that he subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking.

6 But someone has testified somewhere, saying: "What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?

7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor,

8 you subjected all things under his feet." For in subjecting all things to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not yet see all things subjected to him;

9 but we see Jesus, who was made for a little while lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

10 For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the founder of their salvation through sufferings.

11 For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of one; for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brothers,

12 saying: "I will proclaim your name to my brothers; in the midst of the assembly I will sing your praise,"

13 and again: "I will put my trust in him," and again: "Behold, I and the children God has given me."

14 Since therefore the children have shared in blood and flesh, he likewise partook of the same, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,

15 and might deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

16 For surely it is not angels that he takes hold of, but he takes hold of the seed of Abraham.

17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

18 For in that he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Chapter 3

1 Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus,

2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, as Moses also was in [all] his house.

3 For he has been counted worthy of greater glory than Moses, inasmuch as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.

4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.

5 And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of the things that were to be spoken,

6 but Christ as a son over his house, whose house we are, if indeed we hold fast the confidence and the boast of our hope.

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear his voice,

8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,

9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works

10 for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with this generation and said: They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways,

11 as I swore in my wrath: They shall not enter into my rest.

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;

13 but exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin

14 for we have become partakers of Christ, if indeed we hold firm the beginning of our confidence to the end

15 while it is said: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.

16 For who were they who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who came out of Egypt through Moses?

17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

18 And to whom did he swear that they should not enter into his rest, but to those who disobeyed?

19 And we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.

Chapter 4

1 Let us fear, therefore, lest, while a promise of entering into his rest remains, any of you should seem to have fallen short of it.

2 For we also have had the good news preached to us, just as they did; but the word they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.

3 For we who have believed do enter into that rest, just as he has said: "As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest," although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.

4 For somewhere he has spoken of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all his works,"

5 and again in this passage: "They shall not enter into my rest."

6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had the good news preached to them did not enter because of disobedience,

7 he again appoints a certain day, "Today," saying through David after so long a time, as has been said before: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts."

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day.

9 There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

10 For whoever has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, just as God did from his own.

11 Let us therefore strive to enter into that rest, so that no one may fall by the same example of disobedience.

12 For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid bare before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

14 Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin.

16 Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Chapter 5

1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins,

2 being able to deal gently with the ignorant and the wayward, since he himself also is beset with weakness,

3 and because of it he is obligated, just as for the people, so also for himself, to make offerings for sins.

4 And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

5 So also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest, but he who spoke to him did: "You are my Son; today I have begotten you";

6 as he also says in another place: "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek."

7 In the days of his flesh, he offered up prayers and supplications, with loud crying and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence;

8 although he was a Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered,

9 and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,

10 being designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

11 Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you again have need of someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk, not solid food.

13 For everyone who partakes of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is an infant;

14 but solid food is for the mature, for those who through practice have their faculties trained to distinguish good from evil.

Chapter 6

1 Therefore, leaving behind the elementary teaching about Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

2 of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

3 And this we will do, if God permits.

4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift and become partakers of the Holy Spirit,

5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,

6 and then have fallen away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and hold him up to public shame.

7 For land that drinks the rain that often falls upon it, and produces vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God;

8 but if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

9 But we are persuaded of better things concerning you, beloved—things that belong to salvation, even though we speak in this way.

10 For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love you have shown for his name, in having served the saints and in still serving them.

11 And we desire that each of you show the same diligence toward the full assurance of hope until the end,

12 so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself,

14 saying, "Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you."

15 And thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

16 For men swear by one greater than themselves, and the oath serves as confirmation, putting an end to all dispute among them;

17 wherein God, wishing all the more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose, guaranteed it with an oath,

18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast the hope set before us;

19 which we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and entering into the inner place behind the veil,

20 where Jesus entered as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Chapter 7

1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,

2 to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth of everything—being first, by interpretation, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace,

3 without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest perpetually.

4 Consider how great this man was, to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils.

5 And those of the sons of Levi who receive the priesthood have a commandment to take tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brothers, though these too have come from the loins of Abraham;

6 but he whose genealogy is not traced from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.

7 And beyond all dispute, the lesser is blessed by the greater.

8 And here mortal men receive tithes, but there one of whom it is testified that he lives.

9 And, so to speak, through Abraham even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes;

10 for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.

11 Now if perfection had been through the Levitical priesthood, for on the basis of it the people received the law—what further need would there have been for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be named according to the order of Aaron?

12 For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity a change of law also takes place.

13 For he of whom these things are said belonged to another tribe, from which no one has attended at the altar;

14 for it is evident that our Lord has arisen from Judah, a tribe concerning which Moses said nothing about priests.

15 And it is even more abundantly clear if another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek,

16 who has become such not according to a law of fleshly commandment but according to the power of an indestructible life.

17 For it is testified: "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek."

18 For there is an annulment of the former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness

19 for the law perfected nothing—and an introduction of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.

20 And inasmuch as it was not without an oath—for they have become priests without an oath,

21 but he with an oath, through the one who says to him: "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: You are a priest forever"

22 by so much has Jesus become the guarantor of a better covenant.

23 And they who have become priests are many in number, because they are prevented by death from continuing;

24 but he, because he remains forever, holds his priesthood permanently.

25 Therefore he is also able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them.

26 For such a high priest was indeed fitting for us: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens,

27 who has no need, as the high priests do, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; for this he did once for all when he offered up himself.

28 For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son made perfect forever.

Chapter 8

1 Now the main point of what is being said is this: we have such a high priest, who has sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

2 a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.

3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; hence it was necessary that this one also have something to offer.

4 Now if he were on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the law;

5 who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned when he was about to complete the tabernacle; for "See," he says, "that you make everything according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain."

6 But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted upon better promises.

7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, no place would have been sought for a second.

8 For finding fault with them he says: "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will conclude with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant,

9 not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not remain in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord.

10 For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their mind, and I will write them upon their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

11 And they shall not teach, each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them,

12 because I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more."

13 In saying "new," he has made the first obsolete; and what is becoming obsolete and growing old is near to vanishing away.

Chapter 9

1 Now the first covenant also had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary.

2 For a tabernacle was prepared, the first one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the presentation of the loaves; this is called the Holy Place.

3 And behind the second curtain was a tabernacle called the Holy of Holies,

4 having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which were a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant;

5 and above it the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, concerning which things we cannot now speak in detail.

6 Now with these things thus prepared, the priests enter continually into the first tabernacle, performing the acts of worship;

7 but into the second only the high priest goes, once a year, and not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of ignorance of the people,

8 the Holy Spirit thereby signifying that the way into the sanctuary had not yet been disclosed while the first tabernacle was still standing.

9 This is a symbol for the present time, according to which gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the worshiper in conscience,

10 dealing only with foods and drinks and various washings—regulations of the flesh imposed until the time of reformation.

11 But Christ, having come as high priest of the good things that have come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation,

12 and not through the blood of goats and calves but through his own blood, entered once for all into the sanctuary, having obtained eternal redemption.

13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh,

14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

15 And for this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions committed under the first covenant, those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

16 For where there is a testament, the death of the one who made it must be established;

17 for a testament is valid upon deaths, since it is never in force while the one who made it lives.

18 Hence not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.

19 For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves [and the goats], with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,

20 saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded for you."

21 And likewise he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the service.

22 And according to the law nearly everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

23 It was necessary, then, for the copies of the things in the heavens to be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

24 For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf;

25 nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the sanctuary year by year with blood not his own,

26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now, once for all, at the consummation of the ages, he has been revealed for the abolition of sin through his sacrifice.

27 And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment,

28 so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, apart from sin, to those who eagerly await him, for salvation.

Chapter 10

1 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices which they offer year by year continually make perfect those who draw near.

2 For would they not otherwise have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins?

3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year;

4 for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

5 Therefore, when he comes into the world, he says: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me;

6 in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you took no pleasure.

7 Then I said, 'Behold, I have come, in the scroll of the book it is written of me—to do your will, O God.'"

8 When he said above, "Sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you did not desire, nor did you take pleasure in them" ,

9 then he said, "Behold, I have come to do your will." He takes away the first in order to establish the second.

10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

11 And every priest stands daily ministering and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;

12 but this one, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God,

13 waiting henceforth until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet.

14 For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,

16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and I will write them on their minds,"

17 then he adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."

18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

19 Therefore, brothers, having confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,

20 by the new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,

21 and having a great priest over the house of God,

22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful;

24 and let us consider one another to provoke to love and good works,

25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the custom of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

26 For if we sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

27 but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses;

29 how much worse punishment, do you think, will he deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?

30 For we know him who said, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people."

31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

32 But remember the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle of sufferings,

33 sometimes being made a spectacle by reproaches and afflictions, and sometimes becoming partners with those so treated.

34 For you had compassion on the prisoners, and you accepted with joy the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves have a better and abiding possession.

35 Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has a great reward.

36 For you have need of endurance, so that after doing the will of God you may receive the promise.

37 "For yet a very little while, and he who is coming will come and will not delay;

38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul takes no pleasure in him."

39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.

Chapter 11

1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.

3 By faith we understand that the ages were framed by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which appear.

4 By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he, being dead, still speaks.

5 By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, and was not found, because God had taken him; for before his removal he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

6 But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing where he was going.

9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;

10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

11 By faith Sarah herself, though barren, received power to conceive seed, and beyond the time of age, since she judged him faithful who had promised.

12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand by the seashore, innumerable.

13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off and greeted them, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.

15 And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.

16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac; and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,

18 of whom it was said, "In Isaac shall your seed be called,"

19 reckoning that God was able to raise him even from the dead, from which he also received him back in a figure.

20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.

21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.

22 By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones.

23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful; and they were not afraid of the king's decree.

24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,

25 choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,

26 esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he looked to the reward.

27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.

28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as through dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned.

30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.

31 By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, having received the spies with peace.

32 And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, and of David and Samuel and the prophets,

33 who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,

34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of foreigners.

35 Women received their dead raised to life again; and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.

36 Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, and moreover of chains and imprisonment.

37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented

38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and the holes of the earth.

39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,

40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.

Chapter 12

1 Therefore, since we too have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set before us,

2 looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3 For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.

4 You have not yet resisted to the point of blood in your struggle against sin.

5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, nor lose heart when you are reproved by him;

6 for whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and he chastises every son whom he receives."

7 Endure for the sake of discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom a father does not discipline?

8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

9 Moreover, we had our fathers in the flesh as disciplinarians, and we respected them; shall we not much more submit to the Father of spirits and live?

10 For they disciplined us for a few days as seemed best to them, but he does so for our benefit, so that we may share in his holiness.

11 All discipline seems for the present to be a matter not of joy but of grief; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

12 Therefore strengthen the drooping hands and the weakened knees,

13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

14 Pursue peace with all, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord,

15 watching carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble and by it many be defiled,

16 lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

17 For you know that afterward, when he wished to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no opportunity for repentance, though he sought it with tears.

18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a burning fire, and to darkness and gloom and a tempest,

19 and to the sound of a trumpet and a voice of words, whose hearers begged that no further word be spoken to them,

20 for they could not bear the command: "If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned."

21 And so fearful was the sight that Moses said, "I am terrified and trembling."

22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels in festal gathering,

23 and to the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,

24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks better than the blood of Abel.

25 See that you do not refuse him who speaks; for if those did not escape who refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape if we turn away from him who warns from heaven,

26 whose voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also heaven."

27 And the phrase "yet once more" indicates the removal of the things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, so that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.

28 Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and awe;

29 for indeed our God is a consuming fire.

Chapter 13

1 Let brotherly love continue.

2 Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have entertained angels without knowing it.

3 Remember those in prison as though bound with them, and those who are mistreated as though you yourselves were also in the body.

4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge fornicators and adulterers.

5 Let your way of life be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for he himself has said, "I will never leave you nor ever forsake you,"

6 so that we may say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear; what can man do to me?"

7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

9 Do not be carried away by various and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those who walk by them.

10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.

11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp.

12 Therefore Jesus also, in order to sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside the gate.

13 Let us therefore go out to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach;

14 for here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one to come.

15 Through him, then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.

16 And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, so that they may do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no benefit to you.

18 Pray for us; for we are persuaded that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things.

19 And I urge you all the more to do this, so that I may be restored to you the sooner.

20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus,

21 equip you with every good thing to do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

22 And I urge you, brothers, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.

23 Know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom, if he comes soon, I will see you.

24Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you.

25 Grace be with you all.