Hebrews 12:12-24

English Standard Version

¹² Therefore ^(A)lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, ¹³ and ^(B)make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint ^(C)but rather be healed. ^14 (D)Strive for peace with everyone, and for the ^(E)holiness ^(F)without which no one will see the Lord. ¹⁵ See to it that no one ^(G)fails to obtain the grace of God; that no ^(H)“root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; ¹⁶ that no one is ^(I)sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. ¹⁷ For you know that ^(J)afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

A Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken

¹⁸ For you have not come to ^(K)what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest ¹⁹ and ^(L)the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words ^(M)made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. ²⁰ For they could not endure the order that was given, ^(N)“If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” ²¹ Indeed, ^(O)so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” ²² But you have come to ^(P)Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, ^(Q)the heavenly Jerusalem, and to ^(R)innumerable angels in festal gathering, ²³ and to ^(S)the assembly^[a] of the firstborn who are ^(T)enrolled in heaven, and to ^(U)God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, ²⁴ and to Jesus, ^(V)the mediator of a new covenant, and to ^(W)the sprinkled blood ^(X)that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.