1Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the agon(contest) that is set before us,
2looking to Yeshua(Jesus), the archegos(pioneer-leader) and perfecter of faith, who for the chara(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.
3Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted in your psychai(souls).
4In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.
5And have you forgotten the paraklesis(the act of coming alongside to call, comfort, exhortation) that addresses you as sons? "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, nor be weary when reproved by Him,
6for the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son He accepts."
7Endure it for the sake of discipline; God is treating you as sons, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
8But if you are without the discipline in which all have become metochos(fellow-participant), then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
9Moreover, we had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them; shall we not much more be subject to the Father of pneumata(spirits) and live?
10For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness.
11For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of dikaiosyne(righteousness) to those who have been trained by it.
12Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,
13and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather may be healed.
14Strive for eirene(peace) with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
15See to it that no one fails to obtain the charis(grace) of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;
16that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
17For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of metanoia(repentance, spiritual domain), even though he sought it with tears.
18For you have not come to what can be touched — a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a whirlwind
19and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose rhemata(spoken-words) made the hearers beg that not another logos(word) be spoken to them.
20For they could not endure the order that was given: "If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned."
21Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I tremble with fear."
22But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable myriads of angels,
23to the festal gathering and ekklesia(called-out community) of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the krites(Judge) of all, and to the pneumata(spirits) of the righteous who have been made perfect,
24and to Yeshua(Jesus), the mediator of a new diatheke(covenant), and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
25See that you do not refuse Him who is speaking, for if those who refused the one who warned them on earth did not escape, much less shall we escape if we reject the One who warns from heaven.
26His voice then shook the earth, but now He has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens."
27This phrase, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of things that are shaken — that is, things that have been made — in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.
28Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer acceptable leitourgia(priestly-service) to God with reverence and awe,
29for our God is a consuming fire.