12:1  THEREFORE THEN, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off {and} throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to {and} entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance {and} steady {and} active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us,

12:2  Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader {and} the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising {and} ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

12:3  Just think of Him Who endured from sinners such grievous opposition {and} bitter hostility against Himself [reckon up and consider it all in comparison with your trials], so that you may not grow weary {or} exhausted, losing heart {and} relaxing {and} fainting in your minds.

12:4  You have not yet struggled {and} fought agonizingly against sin, {nor} have you yet resisted {and} withstood to the point of pouring out your [own] blood.

12:5  And have you [completely] forgotten the divine word of appeal {and} encouragement in which you are reasoned with {and} addressed as sons? My son, do not think lightly {or} scorn to submit to the correction {and} discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage {and} give up {and} faint when you are reproved {or} corrected by Him;

12:6  For the Lord corrects {and} disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts {and} welcomes to His heart {and} cherishes.

12:7  You must submit to {and} endure [correction] for discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not [thus] train {and} correct {and} discipline?

12:8  Now if you are exempt from correction {and} left without discipline in which all [of God's children] share, then you are illegitimate offspring {and} not true sons [at all].

12:9  Moreover, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we yielded [to them] {and} respected [them for training us]. Shall we not much more cheerfully submit to the Father of spirits and so [truly] live?

12:10  For [our earthly fathers] disciplined us for only a short period of time {and} chastised us as seemed proper {and} good to them; but He disciplines us for our certain good, that we may become sharers in His own holiness.

12:11  For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievous {and} painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it [a harvest of fruit which consists in righteousness--in conformity to God's will in purpose, thought, and action, resulting in right living and right standing with God].

12:12  So then, brace up {and} reinvigorate {and} set right your slackened {and} weakened {and} drooping hands and strengthen your feeble {and} palsied {and} tottering knees,

12:13  And cut through {and} make firm {and} plain {and} smooth, straight paths for your feet [yes, make them safe and upright and happy paths that go in the right direction], so that the lame {and} halting [limbs] may not be put out of joint, but rather may be cured.

12:14  Strive to live in peace with everybody and pursue that consecration {and} holiness without which no one will [ever] see the Lord.

12:15  Exercise foresight {and} be on the watch to look [after one another], to see that no one falls back from {and} fails to secure God's grace (His unmerited favor and spiritual blessing), in order that no root of resentment (rancor, bitterness, or hatred) shoots forth and causes trouble {and} bitter torment, and the many become contaminated {and} defiled by it--

12:16  That no one may become guilty of sexual vice, or become a profane (godless and sacrilegious) person as Esau did, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.

12:17  For you understand that later on, when he wanted [to regain title to] his inheritance of the blessing, he was rejected (disqualified and set aside), for he could find no opportunity to repair by repentance [what he had done, no chance to recall the choice he had made], although he sought for it carefully with [bitter] tears.

12:18  For you have not come [as did the Israelites in the wilderness] to a [material] mountain that can be touched, [a mountain] that is ablaze with fire, and to gloom and darkness and a raging storm,

12:19  And to the blast of a trumpet and a voice whose words make the listeners beg that nothing more be said to them.

12:20  For they could not bear the command that was given: If even a wild animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death.

12:21  In fact, so awful {and} terrifying was the [phenomenal] sight that Moses said, I am terrified (aghast and trembling with fear).

12:22  But rather, you have come to Mount Zion, even to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless multitudes of angels in festal gathering,

12:23  And to the church (assembly) of the Firstborn who are registered [as citizens] in heaven, and to the God Who is Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous (the redeemed in heaven) who have been made perfect,

12:24  And to Jesus, the Mediator (Go-between, Agent) of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks [of mercy], a better {and} nobler {and} more gracious message than the blood of Abel [which cried out for vengeance].

12:25  So see to it that you do not reject Him {or} refuse to listen to {and} heed Him Who is speaking [to you now]. For if they [the Israelites] did not escape when they refused to listen {and} heed Him Who warned {and} divinely instructed them [here] on earth [revealing with heavenly warnings His will], how much less shall we escape if we reject {and} turn our backs on Him Who cautions {and} admonishes [us] from heaven?

12:26  Then [at Mount Sinai] His voice shook the earth, but now He has given a promise: Yet once more I will shake {and} make tremble not only the earth but also the [starry] heavens.

12:27  Now this expression, Yet once more, indicates the final removal {and} transformation of all [that can be] shaken--that is, of that which has been created--in order that what cannot be shaken may remain {and} continue.

12:28  Let us therefore, receiving a kingdom that is firm {and} stable {and} cannot be shaken, offer to God pleasing service {and} acceptable worship, with modesty {and} pious care and godly fear {and} awe;

12:29  For our God [is indeed] a consuming fire.