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Hebrews 12

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📖 Hebrews introduction

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1Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before 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 has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ✦ 3For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. ✦ 4You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. ✦ 5And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; ✦ 6For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” ✦ 7If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? ✦ 8But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. ✦ 9Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? ✦ 10For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. ✦ 11Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. ✦ 12Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, ✦ 13and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. ✦ 14Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: ✦ 15looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; ✦ 16lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. ✦ 17For you know that afterward, when he wanted 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 the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, ✦ 19and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. ✦ 20(For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.” ✦ 21And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”) ✦ 22But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, ✦ 23to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, ✦ 24to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. ✦ 25See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, ✦ 26whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” ✦ 27Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. ✦ 28Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. ✦ 29For our God is a consuming fire. ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

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

Where this chapter connects

Heb 12 ·15Heb 10 ·13Ps 119 ·8Eph 5 ·81 Pet 1 ·8Heb 11 ·8Exod 19 ·71 Pet 2 ·7

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 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.

Resources, by level

Lay

  • ★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical

    A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

  • VideoMike Winger — BibleThinkerMike Winger · Free · reformed

    Free verse-by-verse studies through whole books plus careful apologetics — "learn to think biblically about everything." (Reformed-leaning, non-denominational.)

Pastoral

  • SermonGrace to You — John MacArthurJohn MacArthur · Free · reformed

    Decades of careful verse-by-verse expository sermons, especially through the New Testament. (MacArthur, d. 2025; archive remains free.)

  • ArticleRecommended NT commentaries (9Marks / Schreiner)Thomas R. Schreiner · Free · reformed

    A trusted pastor-oriented guide to the best commentary on each New Testament book.

  • SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical

    Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

  • VideoVerse By Verse Ministry InternationalVerse By Verse Ministry Int'l · Free · evangelical

    In-depth, verse-by-verse expository teaching book-by-book — strong for working straight through a whole New Testament book.

Commentaries & study tools

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