Hebrews 12:12-18
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
12 So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees.(A) 13 Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed.(B)
Penalties of Disobedience. 14 (C)Strive for peace with everyone, and for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 [a]See to it that no one be deprived of the grace of God, that no bitter root spring up and cause trouble, through which many may become defiled,(D) 16 that no one be an immoral or profane person like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.(E) 17 For you know that later, when he wanted to inherit his father’s blessing, he was rejected because he found no opportunity to change his mind, even though he sought the blessing with tears.(F)
18 [b]You have not approached that which could be touched[c](G) and a blazing fire and gloomy darkness and storm
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 12:15–17 Esau serves as an example in two ways: his profane attitude illustrates the danger of apostasy, and his inability to secure a blessing afterward illustrates the impossibility of repenting after falling away (see Hb 6:4–6).
- 12:18–29 As a final appeal for adherence to Christian teaching, the two covenants, of Moses and of Christ, are compared. The Mosaic covenant, the author argues, is shown to have originated in fear of God and threats of divine punishment (Hb 12:18–21). The covenant in Christ gives us direct access to God (Hb 12:22), makes us members of the Christian community, God’s children, a sanctified people (Hb 12:23), who have Jesus as mediator to speak for us (Hb 12:24). Not to heed the voice of the risen Christ is a graver sin than the rejection of the word of Moses (Hb 12:25–26). Though Christians fall away, God’s kingdom in Christ will remain and his justice will punish those guilty of deserting it (Hb 12:28–29).
- 12:18 This remarkably beautiful passage contrasts two great assemblies of people: that of the Israelites gathered at Mount Sinai for the sealing of the old covenant and the promulgation of the Mosaic law, and that of the followers of Jesus gathered at Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the assembly of the new covenant. This latter scene, marked by the presence of countless angels and of Jesus with his redeeming blood, is reminiscent of the celestial liturgies of the Book of Revelation.
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