It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline?
Parallel translations
- KJV If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
- BSB Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?
- NKJV If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
- NASB It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
- NLT As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father?
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
Endure hardship as discipline, for God is treating you as his children—what child is not disciplined by a father? Suffering rightly understood is proof of sonship.
Overview
The author applies the principle: the readers should endure their trials precisely because they are God's fatherly discipline. Just as every genuine son is disciplined by his father, so God's correction marks believers as his true children. This reframes endurance not as bare survival but as the experience of being parented by God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Prov 19:18Discipline your son, for there is hope; don’t be a willing party to his death.
- Deut 8:5You shall consider in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so Yahweh your God disciplines you.
- Prov 13:24One who spares the rod hates his son, but one who loves him is careful to discipline him.
- Prov 29:15The rod of correction gives wisdom, but a child left to himself causes shame to his mother.
- Prov 29:17Correct your son, and he will give you peace; yes, he will bring delight to your soul.
- Prov 23:13–14Don’t withhold correction from a child. If you punish him with the rod, he will not die.
- 2 Sam 7:14I will be his father, and he will be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men;
- Job 34:31–32“For has any said to God, ‘I am guilty, but I will not offend any more.
- 1 Sam 3:13For I have told him that I will judge his house forever, for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons brought a curse on themselves, and he didn’t restrain them.
- 1 Kgs 2:24–25Now therefore as Yahweh lives, who has established me, and set me on my father David’s throne, and who has made me a house as he promised, surely Adonijah shall be put to death today.”
- 1 Sam 2:34“‘This will be the sign to you, that will come on your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they will both die.
- 1 Sam 2:29Why do you kick at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded in my habitation, and honor your sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel my people?’
- 1 Kgs 1:6His father had not displeased him at any time in saying, “Why have you done so?” and he was also a very handsome man; and he was born after Absalom.
- Prov 22:15Folly is bound up in the heart of a child: the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
- Acts 14:22confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many afflictions we must enter into God’s Kingdom.
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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 12:7 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
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