The Letters · New Testament

Hebrews 12

Hebrews 12: running the race, chastening as sons, and two mountains

General context

Because of the witnesses just listed, the hearers are told to lay aside every weight and the besetting sin and to run with patience, looking to Jesus, who endured the cross, despised the shame, and is set down at God's right hand. They are to consider him so as not to grow weary, and are reminded that they have not yet resisted unto blood. A quotation they are said to have forgotten follows, about not despising the chastening of the Lord, who chastens whom he loves. Chastening, the writer argues, shows they are treated as sons, and its absence would make them bastards; fathers of the flesh corrected them for a few days, so much more the Father of spirits, who acts for their profit. It is grievous now and yields peaceable fruit afterward. Instructions follow: lift hanging hands and feeble knees, make straight paths, follow peace and holiness, let no one fall short of grace or spring up as a root of bitterness, and let no one be like Esau, who sold his birthright for a meal and afterward found no place of repentance though he sought it with tears. Then two mountains are set side by side. The hearers have not come to a mountain burning with fire, with blackness, darkness, tempest, a trumpet and a voice they begged to stop, where a beast touching it was to be killed and Moses said he quaked. They have come to mount Sion, the heavenly Jerusalem, angels, the church of the firstborn, God the Judge of all, the spirits of just men made perfect, and Jesus. The warning is not to refuse him that speaks, since what can be shaken will be removed and an unmoveable kingdom remains.

Cited passages: Hebrews 12:1, Hebrews 12:2, Hebrews 12:4, Hebrews 12:5, Hebrews 12:6, Hebrews 12:8, Hebrews 12:9, Hebrews 12:11, Hebrews 12:12, Hebrews 12:14, Hebrews 12:15, Hebrews 12:16, Hebrews 12:17, Hebrews 12:18, Hebrews 12:19, Hebrews 12:21, Hebrews 12:22, Hebrews 12:24, Hebrews 12:25, Hebrews 12:28

Hebrews 12 (KJV)

¹Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

²Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

³For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

⁴Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

⁵And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

⁶For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

⁷If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

⁸But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

⁹Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

¹⁰For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

¹¹Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

¹²Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

¹³And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.

¹⁴Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

¹⁵Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

¹⁶Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

¹⁷For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

¹⁸For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,

¹⁹And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:

²⁰(For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:

²¹And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)

²²But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

²³To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

²⁴And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

²⁵See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

²⁶Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

²⁷And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

²⁸Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

²⁹For our God is a consuming fire.

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Historical context

Verse 4 states a limit on what the readers have suffered: "Ye have not yet resisted unto blood". Set beside chapter 10, which says they lost goods and were made a spectacle, this marks a distinction the letter draws itself between affliction and death. The quoted exhortation at verses 5 and 6 differs from Proverbs 3: Hebrews reads "nor faint when thou art rebuked of him" where Proverbs 3:11 reads "neither be weary of his correction", and Hebrews reads "and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth" where Proverbs 3:12 reads "even as a father the son in whom he delighteth". The command quoted at verse 20, "And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart", stands beside Exodus 19:13, "There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man". The words given to Moses, "I exceedingly fear and quake", are attributed to him by this letter. The promise quoted at verse 26 reads "Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven", where Haggai 2:6 reads "Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land". The mountain of verses 18 to 21 is never named.

Cited passages: Hebrews 12:4, Hebrews 12:5, Proverbs 3:11, Hebrews 12:6, Proverbs 3:12, Hebrews 12:20, Exodus 19:13, Hebrews 12:21, Hebrews 12:26, Haggai 2:6

Literary context

Chapter 11 ends in a crowd and chapter 12 puts that crowd around a track: "compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses". The race image lasts three verses and then gives way to a household, where the same hardship is renamed as a father's correction and the argument turns on what chastening proves rather than on how it feels. Two short imperatives about hands, knees and paths keep the running language alive. The chapter's largest structure is a pair of arrivals, "ye are not come" against "But ye are come", the first built from things that frighten, fire, darkness, tempest, trumpet and a voice people begged to stop, the second from a list of company that runs on without a new verb. Both mountains speak, and the blood of sprinkling is said to speak "better things than that of Abel", which reaches back to the first name in chapter 11. The last line is left standing alone without comment: "For our God is a consuming fire."

Cited passages: Hebrews 12:1, Hebrews 12:2, Hebrews 12:7, Hebrews 12:13, Hebrews 12:18, Hebrews 12:22, Hebrews 12:23, Hebrews 12:24, Hebrews 12:29

Key moments

A cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1). The people of chapter 11 become spectators of the readers' race.
Not yet unto blood (Hebrews 12:4). The letter states a limit on what the readers have so far suffered.
A forgotten exhortation (Hebrews 12:5). A quotation reframes hardship as the chastening of a father.
Grievous now, fruit after (Hebrews 12:11). The letter concedes that correction does not feel good at the time.
Esau found no place (Hebrews 12:17). A sold birthright is used as a warning about what cannot be undone.
The mountain not come to (Hebrews 12:18). Fire, darkness and a voice describe the place they have not reached.
But ye are come to Sion (Hebrews 12:22). A second arrival lists the company the readers have joined.

For reflection

The chapter tells readers already tired from affliction that the hardship is a father's correction, and also that they have not yet resisted unto blood. How do those two sentences sit together for someone in the middle of it?