Hebrews 12
1 Therefore we also, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, having put off every weight and cleverly entangling sin, let us run by perseverance the contest being set before us.
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].
2 Looking to Jesus the pathfinder and perfecter of the faith, who, against the joy set before him, endured a cross, having despised the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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].
3 For consider the man who endured such hostility against him by sinners, so that ye may not be weary in your souls, being disheartened.
[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.
4 Ye have not yet resisted as far as blood, struggling against sin.
While you have struggled against [being tempted to] sin, you have not yet bled [and died because of resisting evil, as Jesus did].
5 And have ye forgotten the exhortation that reasons with you as with sons, My son, do not disparage the chastening of the Lord, nor become disheartened when punished by him?
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],
6 For whom the Lord loves he chastens. And he whips every son whom he receives.
because it is everyone whom he loves whom the Lord disciplines, and he punishes everyone whom he accepts as his child.
7 Because of chastening ye endure; God is treating you as with sons, for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
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].
8 And if ye are without chastening, of which all have become participants, then ye are bastards, and not sons.
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].
9 Besides, we indeed have had chastisers-the fathers of our flesh-and we were turned around. Shall we not much more be subordinate to the Father of the spirits, and we will live?
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]!
10 For those men indeed for a few days chastened us according to that which seemed good to them, but he for that which is advantageous, in order to be partakers of his holiness.
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.
11 But of course no chastening for the present seems to be of joy but of sorrow, yet afterward it yields peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
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.
12 Therefore lift up the drooping hands, and the feeble knees,
So, [instead of acting as though you were spiritually exhausted], renew yourselves [MET] spiritually.
13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be turned away, but may be healed instead.
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.
14 Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord.
Try to live peacefully with all people. Seek to be holy, since no one will see the Lord if he is not holy.
15 Looking carefully lest any man fall short, away from the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness sprouting up would cause trouble, and by this many may be defiled,
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.
16 lest a fornicator or profane man like Esau, who, in place of one meal sold his birthright.
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.
17 For ye also know that wanting afterward to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though having sought it with tears.
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.
18 For ye have not come to a mountain being felt, and which burned with fire, and to darkness, and gloom, and a tempest,
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.
19 and a sound of a trumpet, and a voice of words, of which those who heard begged that a word not be added to them.
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.
20 For they did not bear that which was commanded, if even a beast should touch the mountain, it shall be stoned.
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.
21 And so fearful was that which was made visible, that Moses said, I am terrified and trembling.
Truly, because Moses was terrified after seeing what happened [on the mountain], he said, “I am trembling because I am very afraid!”
22 But ye have come to mount Zion, and to the city of a living God, a heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of agents,
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.
23 to a festal gathering and assembly of firstborn sons who were enrolled in the heavens, and to God, a Judge of all, and to spirits of righteous men who were made fully perfect,
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].
24 and to Jesus a mediator of a new covenant, and to blood of sprinkling that speaks better than Abel.
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.
25 Watch, that ye not refuse him who speaks. For if those men did not escape, having refused him who spoke a divine message on earth, much more we, those who turn away from him from the heavens,
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]
26 whose voice then shook the earth. But now he has promised, saying, Yet once, I shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.
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.”
27 And the, Yet once, signifies the removal of the things being shaken-as of things that were made-so that the things not being shaken may remain.
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.
28 Therefore, receiving an immovable kingdom, we may have grace, through which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and awe.
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.
29 For our God is also a consuming fire.
Remember that the God we [worship/serve] is like a fire that burns up everything [that is impure] [MET]!
