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Hebrews 12

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📖 Hebrews introduction

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1Therefore let us also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, 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, ✦ 2looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ✦ 3For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls. ✦ 4You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin; ✦ 5and you have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him; ✦ 6For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.” ✦ 7It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline? ✦ 8But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then are you illegitimate, and not children. ✦ 9Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? ✦ 10For they indeed, for a few days, punished us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. ✦ 11All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been exercised thereby. ✦ 12Therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees, ✦ 13and make straight paths for your feet, so that which is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. ✦ 14Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord, ✦ 15looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and many be defiled by it; ✦ 16lest there be any sexually immoral person, or profane person, like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal. ✦ 17For you know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for a change of mind though he sought it diligently with tears. ✦ 18For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm, ✦ 19the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which those who heard it begged that not one more word should be spoken to them, ✦ 20for they could not stand that which was commanded, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned”; ✦ 21and so fearful was the appearance that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.” ✦ 22But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels, ✦ 23to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, ✦ 24to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel. ✦ 25See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven, ✦ 26whose voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.” ✦ 27This phrase, “Yet once more”, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain. ✦ 28Therefore, receiving a Kingdom that can’t be shaken, let us have grace, through which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, ✦ 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.

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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