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Hebrews 12

The long list of chapter 11 becomes a metaphor: those names are now a "cloud of witnesses" ringing a stadium, and the reader is told to drop every weight and run, eyes fixed on Jesus, who endured the cross. The argument then turns to hardship as discipline, not abandonment. Notice the two mountains at the end. Sinai is touchable, burning, terrifying; Mount Zion is a festal gathering. The chapter contrasts the covenant of dread with one of welcome.

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Hebrews 12 (WEB)

1
Therefore let’s 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’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
2
looking 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.
3
For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls.
4
You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin.
5
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;
6
for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7
It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline?
8
But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then you are illegitimate, and not children.
9
Furthermore, 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?
10
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
All 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 trained by it.
12
Therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees,
13
and make straight paths for your feet, so what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
14
Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord,
15
looking 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,
16
lest there be any sexually immoral person or profane person, like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal.
17
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
For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm,
19
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
for they could not stand that which was commanded, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned”.
21
So fearful was the appearance that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.”
22
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels,
23
to 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,
24
to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.
25
See 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,
26
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
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
Therefore, receiving a Kingdom that can’t be shaken, let’s have grace, through which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe,
29
for our God is a consuming fire.

Hebreos 12 (RV1909)

1
POR tanto nosotros también, teniendo en derredor nuestro una tan grande nube de testigos, dejando todo el peso del pecado que nos rodea, corramos con paciencia la carrera que nos es propuesta,
2
Puestos los ojos en al autor y consumador de la fe, en Jesús; el cual, habiéndole sido propuesto gozo, sufrió la cruz, menospreciando la vergüenza, y sentóse á la diestra del trono de Dios.
3
Reducid pues á vuestro pensamiento á aquel que sufrió tal contradicción de pecadores contra sí mismo, porque no os fatiguéis en vuestros ánimos desmayando.
4
Que aun no habéis resistido hasta la sangre, combatiendo contra el pecado:
5
Y estáis ya olvidados de la exhortación que como con hijos habla con vosotros, diciendo : Hijo mío, no menosprecies el castigo del Señor, ni desmayes cuando eres de él reprendido.
6
Porque el Señor al que ama castiga, y azota á cualquiera que recibe por hijo.
7
Si sufrís el castigo, Dios se os presenta como á hijos; porque ¿qué hijo es aquel á quien el padre no castiga?
8
Mas si estáis fuera del castigo, del cual todos han sido hechos participantes, luego sois bastardos, y no hijos.
9
Por otra parte, tuvimos por castigadores á los padres de nuestra carne, y los reverenciábamos, ¿por qué no obedeceremos mucho mejor al Padre de los espíritus, y viviremos?
10
Y aquéllos, á la verdad, por pocos días nos castigaban como á ellos les parecía, mas éste para lo que nos es provechoso, para que recibamos su santificación.
11
Es verdad que ningún castigo al presente parece ser causa de gozo, sino de tristeza; mas después da fruto apacible de justicia á los que en él son ejercitados.
12
Por lo cual alzad las manos caídas y las rodillas paralizadas;
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Y haced derechos pasos á vuestros pies, porque lo que es cojo no salga fuera de camino, antes sea sanado.
14
Seguid la paz con todos, y la santidad, sin la cual nadie verá al Señor:
15
Mirando bien que ninguno se aparte de la gracia de Dios, que ninguna raíz de amargura brotando os impida, y por ella muchos sean contaminados;
16
Que ninguno sea fornicario, ó profano, como Esaú, que por una vianda vendió su primogenitura.
17
Porque ya sabéis que aun después, deseando heredar la bendición, fué reprobado (que no halló lugar de arrepentimiento), aunque la procuró con lágrimas.
18
Porque no os habéis llegado al monte que se podía tocar, y al fuego encendido, y al turbión, y á la oscuridad, y á la tempestad,
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Y al sonido de la trompeta, y á la voz de las palabras, la cual los que la oyeron rogaron que no se les hablase más;
20
Porque no podían tolerar lo que se mandaba: Si bestia tocare al monte, será apedreada, ó pasada con dardo.
21
Y tan terrible cosa era lo que se veía, que Moisés dijo: Estoy asombrado y temblando.
22
Mas os habéis llegado al monte de Sión, y á la ciudad del Dios vivo, Jerusalem la celestial, y á la compañía de muchos millares de ángeles,
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Y á la congregación de los primogénitos que están alistados en los cielos, y á Dios el Juez de todos, y á los espíritus de los justos hechos perfectos,
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Y á Jesús el Mediador del nuevo testamento, y á la sangre del esparcimiento que habla mejor que la de Abel.
25
Mirad que no desechéis al que habla. Porque si aquellos no escaparon que desecharon al que hablaba en la tierra, mucho menos nosotros, si desecháramos al que habla de los cielos.
26
La voz del cual entonces conmovió la tierra; mas ahora ha denunciado, diciendo: Aun una vez, y yo conmoveré no solamente la tierra, mas aun el cielo.
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Y esta palabra , Aun una vez, declara la mudanza de las cosas movibles, como de cosas hechas, para que queden las cosas que son firmes.
28
Así que, tomando el reino inmóvil, retengamos la gracia por la cual sirvamos á Dios agradándole con temor y reverencia;
29
Porque nuestro Dios es fuego consumidor.

Esau as the cautionary case

Mid-chapter the writer warns against any "root of bitterness" and points to Esau, "who sold his birthright for one meal." Verse 17 adds the sting: when he later wanted the blessing he was rejected and "found no place for a change of mind," though he sought it with tears.

Esau anchors the discipline theme. The letter is not threatening loss of grace casually; it is showing a man whose single careless trade could not be undone, so the audience treats their own endurance as something with stakes.