Hebrews 12
1 We [know about] many people like that [who showed they trusted in God]. They are like a crowd of spectators [who are cheering for us inside a stadium] [MET]. Knowing that, we must put away all the things that hinder us, [as a runner puts aside everything that would hinder him because they are heavy] [MET]. Especially we must put away sinful actions that [hinder us, as a runner] sets aside clothes he does not need, clothes that would entangle him [MET]. Let us [wholeheartedly strive to achieve what God has planned for us, as someone] in a race wholeheartedly runs the course that is before him [MET].
Therefore 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 patience the race that is set before us,
2 And let us [keep our minds on] Jesus, [as a runner] keeps his eyes on [the goal] [MET]. Jesus is the one we should imitate in the way he perfectly trusted [God. When he died on] the cross he endured it as he suffered greatly [MTY], instead of [thinking about the things he would] rejoice about [later]. He disregarded being disgraced by [dying that way]. He is now sitting at the place of highest honor [MTY] at the throne [where God rules].
looking to Yeshua, the founder and completer of the faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 [Jesus] patiently endured it when sinful people acted so hostilely against him. Try to act the way he did, so that you do not give up [trusting] God or become discouraged.
For consider him who has endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you may not become tired and give up.
4 While you have struggled against [being tempted to] sin, you have not yet bled [and died because of resisting evil, as Jesus did].
You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your struggle against sin;
5 Do not forget [RHQ] these words [that Solomon spoke to his son, that are the same as God] would exhort you as his children: My child, pay attention [LIT] when the Lord is disciplining you, and do not be discouraged when the Lord punishes you [DOU],
and you have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, "My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose heart when you are corrected by him.
6 because it is everyone whom he loves whom the Lord disciplines, and he punishes everyone whom he accepts as his child.
For whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and punishes every son he accepts."
7 It is in order that God may discipline you that he requires you to endure the disagreeable things [that happen to you]. [When God disciplines you] he is treating you as a father treats his children. All fathers [RHQ] discipline their children [LIT].
If you are enduring discipline, God is dealing with you as children. For what child is there whom his father does not discipline?
8 So, if you have not experienced God disciplining you just like he disciplines all his other children, you are [not true children of God] [MET]. [You are like] illegitimate children; [no father disciplines them].
But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then you are illegitimate, and not children.
9 Furthermore, our natural fathers disciplined us [when we were young], and we respected them for doing that. So we should certainly more readily accept God our spiritual Father disciplining us, with the result that we live eternally [RHQ]!
Furthermore, we had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?
10 Our natural fathers disciplined us for a short time in a way that they considered right, [but it wasn’t always right], but God always disciplines us [in a right way], to help us. He does it so that we may be holy as he is.
For they indeed, for a few days, disciplined us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.
11 During the time that God is disciplining us, that does not seem to be something about which we should rejoice. Instead, it is something that pains us. But later it causes those who have learned from it to be peaceful and to [live] righteously.
All discipline seems for the moment painful, not joyful; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been exercised thereby.
12 So, [instead of acting as though you were spiritually exhausted], renew yourselves [MET] spiritually.
Therefore, lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees,
13 Go straight forward [in your Christian life] [MET], in order that believers who are uncertain about their faith [will imitate you] and not ([leave God’s way/] useless [to God]) [MET]. Instead, they will be spiritually restored [MET] as an injured and useless limb is restored.
and make straight paths for your feet, so that which is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
14 Try to live peacefully with all people. Seek to be holy, since no one will see the Lord if he is not holy.
Pursue peace with everyone, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord,
15 Beware that none of you stops [trusting in] God, [who has done kind things for us that we did not deserve] (OR, Beware that you have never [experienced] God kindly [saving you]). Be on guard lest any of you [act in an evil way towards others], because your doing that will [grow like] [MET] a root [grows into a big plant], and the result [of your] doing that will be that many believers will sin and become unacceptable to God.
looking carefully lest there be anyone who falls short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by it many become defiled;
16 Do not let anyone be immoral, or be irreligious as Esau was. He exchanged the rights he had as a firstborn son for only one meal.
that there be no sexually immoral or profane person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for one meal.
17 You know that after he did that, he wanted to receive [what his father would promise to give him if] he blessed him. But [his father] was unable [to change what he had already done]. And Esau found no way to change things, even though he sought tearfully to do that.
For 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.
18 In coming [to God] you have not [experienced things like what the Israeli people experienced] at [Sinai] Mountain. [They] approached [a mountain that God told them they] should not touch. [They approached] a blazing fire, and it was gloomy and dark [DOU], and there was a hurricane/cyclone.
For you have not come to something that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and darkness, gloom, and storm,
19 They heard a trumpet sounding and they heard [God] speak. The result was that those who heard it pleaded for God not to speak to them like that again.
the 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,
20 When [God] commanded them saying, “If [a person or] even an animal touches this mountain, [you] must [kill him/it by] throwing stones at him/it,” they were terrified.
for they could not stand that which was commanded, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned;"
21 Truly, because Moses was terrified after seeing what happened [on the mountain], he said, “I am trembling because I am very afraid!”
and so fearful was the appearance, that Mushe said, "I am terrified and trembling."
22 Instead, [it is as though] you have come to [the presence of God in heaven] [MET]. [That is like what your ancestors did when they came to worship] God on Zion Hill, in Jerusalem, in the city of God who is all-powerful. You have come (OR, you are coming) to where there are countless angels, who are rejoicing as they have gathered together.
But you have come to Mount Tsehyun, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Urishlim, and to innumerable multitudes of angels,
23 You have joined all the believers [who have privileges like] firstborn sons, whose names [God] has written down in heaven. You have come to God, who will judge everyone. You have come to where the spirits of God’s people are, people who lived righteously [before they died], and who now have been made perfect [in heaven].
to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect,
24 You have come to Jesus, who arranged a new covenant [between us and God]. You have accepted [what he accomplished when] his blood flowed [when he died on the cross. His doing that made it possible for God to forgive us]. That is better than the blood of Abel, [who just] wanted revenge because his brother Cain murdered him.
to Yeshua, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Habeil.
25 Beware that you do not refuse to listen to [God] who is speaking to you. The Israeli people did not escape [God punishing them] when [Moses] (OR, [God]) warned them here on earth. So we shall surely not escape [God punishing us] if we reject him when he warns us from heaven! [RHQ]
See that you do not refuse him who speaks. For if they did not 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,
26 The earth shook [PRS] then when he spoke [MTY] [at Sinai Mountain]. But now he has promised, “I will shake the earth again, one more time, but I will shake heaven too.”
whose 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."
27 The words “again, one more time” indicate that things [on earth] will be shaken {that [he] will shake things [on earth]}, meaning that he will set aside all that [he] has created, in order that the things [in heaven] that cannot be shaken {that nothing can shake} may remain forever.
This 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.
28 So, let us thank God that we are becoming members of a kingdom that nothing can shake. Let us worship/serve God in a way that pleases him by being greatly in awe [DOU] before him.
So since we are receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, through which we may offer service pleasing to God, with reverence and awe,
29 Remember that the God we [worship/serve] is like a fire that burns up everything [that is impure] [MET]!
for our God is a consuming fire.
