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Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
Hebrews 12:16 · King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB lest there be any sexually immoral person, or profane person, like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal.
  • BSB See to it that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his birthright.
  • NKJV lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.
  • NASB that there be no sexually immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.
  • NLT Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau, who traded his birthright as the firstborn son for a single meal.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

See that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. Do not trade eternal blessings for fleeting gratification.

Overview

The author warns against immorality and the godless spirit of Esau, who despised his birthright for momentary appetite (Genesis 25:29–34). Esau becomes a sobering example of valuing the temporal over the eternal. Believers are cautioned not to forfeit the lasting inheritance God offers in Christ for the passing pleasures of sin.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 19

  • Gen 25:31–34And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.
  • 1 Cor 6:15–20Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
  • Heb 13:4Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
  • Rev 22:15For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
  • Mark 7:21For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
  • 1 Th 4:3–7For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
  • Acts 15:29That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
  • 1 Cor 5:9–11I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
  • Col 3:5Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
  • 1 Cor 5:1–6It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
  • Gal 5:19–21Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
  • 1 Cor 10:8Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.
  • 2 Cor 12:21And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.
  • Acts 15:20But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
  • Gen 27:36And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?
  • Eph 5:5For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
  • Rev 2:20–23Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
  • Eph 5:3But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
  • Rev 21:8But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (8)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Hebrews videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Hebrews 12:16YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on HebrewsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Hebrews is sustained worship of Christ: better than angels, Moses, and the priests; the great High Priest after Melchizedek who by one sacrifice perfects forever those he saves.

How Hebrews 12:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.