English Standard Version  
Chapter 10
Christ's Sacrifice Once for All
1For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.
2Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin?
3But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin every year.
4For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5Consequently, when ChristGreek he came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body have you prepared for me;
6in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
7Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”
8When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law),
9then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second.
10And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
12But when ChristGreek this one had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
13waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.
14For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
15And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
16“This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts,
and write them on their minds,”
17then he adds,
“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
18Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
The Full Assurance of Faith
19Therefore, brothers,Or brothers and sisters since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,
20by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,
21and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
22let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
23Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
24And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
25not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
26For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
27but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
28Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
29How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?
30For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”
31It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings,
33sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.
34For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
35Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
36For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
37For,
“Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;
38but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”
39But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
Chapter 11
By Faith
1Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
2For by it the people of old received their commendation.
3By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
4By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.
5By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.
6And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
7By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
8By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
9By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.
10For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
11By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.
12Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
13These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
14For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
15If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.
16But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
17By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son,
18of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”
19He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
20By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.
21By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.
22By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.
23By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.
24By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
25choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
26He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
27By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
28By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.
29By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as if on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.
30By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.
31By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.
32And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—
33who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
34quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
35Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life.
36Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.
37They were stoned, they were sawn in two,Some manuscripts add they were tempted they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—
38of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
39And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised,
40since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
Chapter 12
Jesus, Founder and Perfecter of Our Faith
1Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Do Not Grow Weary
3Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
4In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
5And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
6For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
8If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
9Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?
10For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
11For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of 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 be healed.
14Strive for 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 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 chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
A Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken
18For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest
19and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages 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 angels in festal gathering,
23and to the assemblyOr church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
24and to Jesus, the mediator of a new 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 they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.
26At that time his voice 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 to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,
29for our God is a consuming fire.

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