3:1Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus; 3:2who was faithful to him who appointed him, as also was Moses in all his house. 3:3For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, because he who built the house has more honor than the house. 3:4For every house is built by someone; but he who built all things is God. 3:5Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken, 3:6but Christ is faithful as a Son over his house; whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end. 3:7Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you will hear his voice, 3:8don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness, 3:9where your fathers tested me by proving me, and saw my deeds for forty years. 3:10Therefore I was displeased with that generation, and said, ‘They always err in their heart, but they didn’t know my ways;’ 3:11as I swore in my wrath, ‘They will not enter into my rest.’” 3:12Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God; 3:13but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called “today”; lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 3:14For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm to the end: 3:15while it is said, “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.” 3:16For who, when they heard, rebelled? No, didn’t all those who came out of Egypt by Moses? 3:17With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 3:18To whom did he swear that they wouldn’t enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 3:19We see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.
4:1Let us fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into his rest. 4:2For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn’t profit them, because it wasn’t mixed with faith by those who heard. 4:3For we who have believed do enter into that rest, even as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest”; although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4:4For he has said this somewhere about the seventh day, “God rested on the seventh day from all his works”; 4:5and in this place again, “They will not enter into my rest.” 4:6Seeing therefore it remains that some should enter into it, and they to whom the good news was preached before failed to enter in because of disobedience, 4:7he again defines a certain day, today, saying through David so long a time afterward (just as has been said), “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.” 4:8For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day. 4:9There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 4:10For he who has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his. 4:11Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience. 4:12For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 4:13There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. 4:14Having then a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold tightly to our confession. 4:15For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin. 4:16Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace for help in time of need.
5:1For every high priest, being taken from among men, is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. 5:2The high priest can deal gently with those who are ignorant and going astray, because he himself is also surrounded with weakness. 5:3Because of this, he must offer sacrifices for sins for the people, as well as for himself. 5:4Nobody takes this honor on himself, but he is called by God, just like Aaron was. 5:5So also Christ didn’t glorify himself to be made a high priest, but it was he who said to him, “You are my Son. Today I have become your father.” 5:6As he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” 5:7He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear, 5:8though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered. 5:9Having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him the author of eternal salvation, 5:10named by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. 5:11About him we have many words to say, and hard to interpret, seeing you have become dull of hearing. 5:12For although by this time you should be teachers, you again need to have someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the revelations of God. You have come to need milk, and not solid food. 5:13For everyone who lives on milk is not experienced in the word of righteousness, for he is a baby. 5:14But solid food is for those who are full grown, who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.
6:1Therefore leaving the teaching of the first principles of Christ, let us press on to perfection—not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith toward God, 6:2of the teaching of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 6:3This will we do, if God permits. 6:4For concerning those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 6:5and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, 6:6and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify the Son of God for themselves again, and put him to open shame. 6:7For the land which has drunk the rain that comes often on it, and produces a crop suitable for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receives blessing from God; 6:8but if it bears thorns and thistles, it is rejected and near being cursed, whose end is to be burned. 6:9But, beloved, we are persuaded of better things for you, and things that accompany salvation, even though we speak like this. 6:10For God is not unrighteous, so as to forget your work and the labor of love which you showed toward his name, in that you served the saints, and still do serve them. 6:11We desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fullness of hope even to the end, 6:12that you won’t be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherited the promises. 6:13For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, 6:14saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” 6:15Thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 6:16For men indeed swear by a greater one, and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation. 6:17In this way God, being determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath; 6:18that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us. 6:19This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil; 6:20where as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
7:1For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 7:2to whom also Abraham divided a tenth part of all (being first, by interpretation, “king of righteousness”, and then also “king of Salem”, which means “king of peace”; 7:3without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God), remains a priest continually. 7:4Now consider how great this man was, to whom even Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth out of the best plunder. 7:5They indeed of the sons of Levi who receive the priest’s office have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brothers, though these have come out of the body of Abraham, 7:6but he whose genealogy is not counted from them has accepted tithes from Abraham, and has blessed him who has the promises. 7:7But without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater. 7:8Here people who die receive tithes, but there one receives tithes of whom it is testified that he lives. 7:9We can say that through Abraham even Levi, who receives tithes, has paid tithes, 7:10for he was yet in the body of his father when Melchizedek met him. 7:11Now if there were perfection through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people have received the law), what further need was there for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be called after the order of Aaron? 7:12For the priesthood being changed, there is of necessity a change made also in the law. 7:13For he of whom these things are said belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar. 7:14For it is evident that our Lord has sprung out of Judah, about which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. 7:15This is yet more abundantly evident, if after the likeness of Melchizedek there arises another priest, 7:16who has been made, not after the law of a fleshly commandment, but after the power of an endless life: 7:17for it is testified, “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” 7:18For there is an annulling of a foregoing commandment because of its weakness and uselessness 7:19(for the law made nothing perfect), and a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. 7:20Inasmuch as he was not made priest without the taking of an oath 7:21(for they indeed have been made priests without an oath), but he with an oath by him that says of him, “The Lord swore and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.’” 7:22By so much, Jesus has become the collateral of a better covenant. 7:23Many, indeed, have been made priests, because they are hindered from continuing by death. 7:24But he, because he lives forever, has his priesthood unchangeable. 7:25Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them. 7:26For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; 7:27who doesn’t need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself. 7:28For the law appoints men as high priests who have weakness, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints a Son forever who has been perfected.
8:1Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this. We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 8:2a servant of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man. 8:3For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer. 8:4For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, seeing there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; 8:5who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses was warned by God when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, “See, you shall make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.” 8:6But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which on better promises has been given as law. 8:7For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8:8For finding fault with them, he said, “Behold, the days come”, says the Lord, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; 8:9not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they didn’t continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them,” says the Lord. 8:10“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days,” says the Lord; “I will put my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 8:11They will not teach every man his fellow citizen, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all will know me, from their least to their greatest. 8:12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more.” 8:13In that he says, “A new covenant”, he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing away.
9:1Now indeed even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service, and an earthly sanctuary. 9:2For a tabernacle was prepared. In the first part were the lamp stand, the table, and the show bread; which is called the Holy Place. 9:3After the second veil was the tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, 9:4having a golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which was a golden pot holding the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; 9:5and above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, of which things we can’t speak now in detail. 9:6Now these things having been thus prepared, the priests go in continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services, 9:7but into the second the high priest alone, once in the year, not without blood, which he offers for himself, and for the errors of the people. 9:8The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the Holy Place wasn’t yet revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing; 9:9which is a symbol of the present age, where gifts and sacrifices are offered that are incapable, concerning the conscience, of making the worshiper perfect; 9:10being only (with meats and drinks and various washings) fleshly ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation. 9:11But Christ having come as a high priest of the coming good things, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, 9:12nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption. 9:13For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify to the cleanness of the flesh: 9:14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 9:15For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. 9:16For where a last will and testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him who made it. 9:17For a will is in force where there has been death, for it is never in force while he who made it lives. 9:18Therefore even the first covenant has not been dedicated without blood. 9:19For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 9:20saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” 9:21Moreover he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry in the same way with the blood. 9:22According to the law, nearly everything is cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission. 9:23It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 9:24For Christ hasn’t entered into holy places made with hands, which are representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 9:25nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place year by year with blood not his own, 9:26or else he must have suffered often since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the ages, he has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 9:27Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment, 9:28so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, without sin, to those who are eagerly waiting for him for salvation.
10:1For the law, having a shadow of the good to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near. 10:2Or else wouldn’t they have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins? 10:3But in those sacrifices there is a yearly reminder of sins. 10:4For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. 10:5Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, “Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire, but you prepared a body for me. 10:6You had no pleasure in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. 10:7Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of me) to do your will, O God.’” 10:8Previously saying, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you didn’t desire, neither had pleasure in them” (those which are offered according to the law), 10:9then he has said, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He takes away the first, that he may establish the second, 10:10by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 10:11Every priest indeed stands day by day serving and often offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins, 10:12but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; 10:13from that time waiting until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet. 10:14For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. 10:15The Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, 10:16“This is the covenant that I will make with them: ‘After those days,’ says the Lord, ‘I will put my laws on their heart, I will also write them on their mind;’” then he says, 10:17“I will remember their sins and their iniquities no more.” 10:18Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. 10:19Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 10:20by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 10:21and having a great priest over God’s house, 10:22let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water, 10:23let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful. 10:24Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good works, 10:25not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as you see the Day approaching. 10:26For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, 10:27but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries. 10:28A man who disregards Moses’ law dies without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses. 10:29How much worse punishment do you think he will be judged worthy of who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? 10:30For we know him who said, “Vengeance belongs to me,” says the Lord, “I will repay.” Again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 10:31It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 10:32But remember the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings; 10:33partly, being exposed to both reproaches and oppressions; and partly, becoming partakers with those who were treated so. 10:34For you both had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an enduring one in the heavens. 10:35Therefore don’t throw away your boldness, which has a great reward. 10:36For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise. 10:37“In a very little while, he who comes will come, and will not wait. 10:38But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” 10:39But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul.
11:1Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen. 11:2For by this, the elders obtained testimony. 11:3By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible. 11:4By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had testimony given to him that he was righteous, God testifying with respect to his gifts; and through it he, being dead, still speaks. 11:5By faith, Enoch was taken away, so that he wouldn’t see death, and he was not found, because God translated him. For he has had testimony given to him that before his translation he had been well pleasing to God. 11:6Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. 11:7By faith, Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. 11:8By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went. 11:9By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. 11:10For he looked for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 11:11By faith, even Sarah herself received power to conceive, and she bore a child when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had promised. 11:12Therefore as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as innumerable as the sand which is by the sea shore, were fathered by one man, and him as good as dead. 11:13These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and embraced them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 11:14For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. 11:15If indeed they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had enough time to return. 11:16But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. 11:17By faith, Abraham, being tested, offered up Isaac. Yes, he who had gladly received the promises was offering up his one and only son, 11:18to whom it was said, “your offspring will be accounted as from Isaac”; 11:19concluding that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Figuratively speaking, he also did receive him back from the dead. 11:20By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even concerning things to come. 11:21By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. 11:22By faith, Joseph, when his end was near, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel; and gave instructions concerning his bones. 11:23By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment. 11:24By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 11:25choosing rather to share ill treatment with God’s people, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a time; 11:26accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he looked to the reward. 11:27By faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. 11:28By faith, he kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of the blood, that the destroyer of the firstborn should not touch them. 11:29By faith, they passed through the Red Sea as on dry land. When the Egyptians tried to do so, they were swallowed up. 11:30By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been encircled for seven days. 11:31By faith, Rahab the prostitute, didn’t perish with those who were disobedient, having received the spies in peace. 11:32What more shall I say? For the time would fail me if I told of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets; 11:33who, through faith subdued kingdoms, worked out righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 11:34quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, grew mighty in war, and caused foreign armies to flee. 11:35Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 11:36Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment. 11:37They were stoned. They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated 11:38(of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth. 11:39These all, having had testimony given to them through their faith, didn’t receive the promise, 11:40God having provided some better thing concerning us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
12:1Therefore let us 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 us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 12:2looking 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. 12:3For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls. 12:4You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin; 12:5and 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; 12:6For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.” 12:7It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline? 12:8But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then are you illegitimate, and not children. 12:9Furthermore, 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? 12:10For they indeed, for a few days, punished us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. 12:11All 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 exercised thereby. 12:12Therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees, 12:13and make straight paths for your feet, so what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. 12:14Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord, 12:15looking 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; 12:16lest there be any sexually immoral person, or profane person, like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal. 12:17For 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. 12:18For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm, 12:19the 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, 12:20for they could not stand that which was commanded, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned”; 12:21and so fearful was the appearance that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.” 12:22But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels, 12:23to 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, 12:24to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel. 12:25See 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, 12:26whose 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.” 12:27This 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. 12:28Therefore, receiving a Kingdom that can’t be shaken, let us have grace, through which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, 12:29for our God is a consuming fire.
13:1Let brotherly love continue. 13:2Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for in doing so, some have entertained angels without knowing it. 13:3Remember those who are in bonds, as bound with them; and those who are ill-treated, since you are also in the body. 13:4Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled: but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers. 13:5Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for he has said, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.” 13:6So that with good courage we say, “The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?” 13:7Remember your leaders, men who spoke to you the word of God, and considering the results of their conduct, imitate their faith. 13:8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 13:9Don’t be carried away by various and strange teachings, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not by food, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited. 13:10We have an altar from which those who serve the holy tabernacle have no right to eat. 13:11For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside of the camp. 13:12Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside of the gate. 13:13Let us therefore go out to him outside of the camp, bearing his reproach. 13:14For we don’t have here an enduring city, but we seek that which is to come. 13:15Through him, then, let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his name. 13:16But don’t forget to be doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. 13:17Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they watch on behalf of your souls, as those who will give account, that they may do this with joy, and not with groaning, for that would be unprofitable for you. 13:18Pray for us, for we are persuaded that we have a good conscience, desiring to live honorably in all things. 13:19I strongly urge you to do this, that I may be restored to you sooner. 13:20Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, 13:21make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. 13:22But I exhort you, brothers, endure the word of exhortation; for I have written to you in few words. 13:23Know that our brother Timothy has been freed, with whom, if he comes shortly, I will see you. 13:24Greet all of your leaders and all the saints. The Italians greet you. 13:25Grace be with you all. Amen.
James
1:1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion: Greetings. 1:2Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, 1:3knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 1:4Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 1:5But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him. 1:6But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. 1:7For that man shouldn’t think that he will receive anything from the Lord. 1:8He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. 1:9But let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position; 1:10and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will pass away. 1:11For the sun arises with the scorching wind, and withers the grass, and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in his pursuits. 1:12Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him. 1:13Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. 1:14But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. 1:15Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin; and the sin, when it is full grown, produces death. 1:16Don’t be deceived, my beloved brothers. 1:17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow. 1:18Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. 1:19So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; 1:20for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God. 1:21Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 1:22But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. 1:23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror; 1:24for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 1:25But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom, and continues, not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does. 1:26If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless. 1:27Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
2:1My brothers, don’t hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with partiality. 2:2For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your synagogue, and a poor man in filthy clothing also comes in; 2:3and you pay special attention to him who wears the fine clothing, and say, “Sit here in a good place”; and you tell the poor man, “Stand there,” or “Sit by my footstool”; 2:4haven’t you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 2:5Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him? 2:6But you have dishonored the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you, and personally drag you before the courts? 2:7Don’t they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called? 2:8However, if you fulfill the royal law, according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well. 2:9But if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors. 2:10For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. 2:11For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 2:12So speak, and so do, as men who are to be judged by a law of freedom. 2:13For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. 2:14What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him? 2:15And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, 2:16and one of you tells them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled”; and yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it? 2:17Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself. 2:18Yes, a man will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith. 2:19You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder. 2:20But do you want to know, vain man, that faith apart from works is dead? 2:21Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? 2:22You see that faith worked with his works, and by works faith was perfected; 2:23and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness”; and he was called the friend of God. 2:24You see then that by works, a man is justified, and not only by faith. 2:25In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way? 2:26For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.
3:1Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment. 3:2For in many things we all stumble. If anyone doesn’t stumble in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also. 3:3Indeed, we put bits into the horses’ mouths so that they may obey us, and we guide their whole body. 3:4Behold, the ships also, though they are so big and are driven by fierce winds, are yet guided by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires. 3:5So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest! 3:6And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by Gehenna. 3:7For every kind of animal, bird, creeping thing, and sea creature, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind; 3:8but nobody can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 3:9With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the image of God. 3:10Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 3:11Does a spring send out from the same opening fresh and bitter water? 3:12Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh water. 3:13Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good conduct that his deeds are done in gentleness of wisdom. 3:14But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and don’t lie against the truth. 3:15This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, sensual, and demonic. 3:16For where jealousy and selfish ambition are, there is confusion and every evil deed. 3:17But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. 3:18Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
4:1Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? 4:2You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask. 4:3You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4:4You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 4:5Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”? 4:6But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 4:7Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 4:8Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 4:9Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. 4:10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you. 4:11Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. 4:12Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another? 4:13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” 4:14Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. 4:15For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.” 4:16But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil. 4:17To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.
5:1Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you. 5:2Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. 5:3Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days. 5:4Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies. 5:5You have lived in luxury on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. 5:6You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous one. He doesn’t resist you. 5:7Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and late rain. 5:8You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 5:9Don’t grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won’t be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door. 5:10Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of perseverance, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 5:11Behold, we call them blessed who endured. You have heard of the perseverance of Job, and have seen the Lord in the outcome, and how the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. 5:12But above all things, my brothers, don’t swear— not by heaven, or by the earth, or by any other oath; but let your “yes” be “yes”, and your “no”, “no”; so that you don’t fall into hypocrisy. 5:13Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises. 5:14Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, 5:15and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 5:16Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective. 5:17Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it didn’t rain on the earth for three years and six months. 5:18He prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. 5:19Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, 5:20let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
1 Peter
1:1Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen ones who are living as foreigners in the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 1:2according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: Grace to you and peace be multiplied. 1:3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 1:4to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn’t fade away, reserved in Heaven for you, 1:5who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1:6Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief in various trials, 1:7that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ— 1:8whom not having known you love; in whom, though now you don’t see him, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory— 1:9receiving the result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1:10Concerning this salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, 1:11searching for who or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, pointed to, when he predicted the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that would follow them. 1:12To them it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to you, they ministered these things, which now have been announced to you through those who preached the Good News to you by the Holy Spirit sent out from heaven; which things angels desire to look into. 1:13Therefore prepare your minds for action, be sober, and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ— 1:14as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance, 1:15but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior; 1:16because it is written, “You shall be holy; for I am holy.” 1:17If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man’s work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear: 1:18knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, 1:19but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ; 1:20who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in this last age for your sake, 1:21who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God. 1:22Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth through the Spirit in sincere brotherly affection, love one another from the heart fervently: 1:23having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and remains forever. 1:24For, “All flesh is like grass, and all of man’s glory like the flower in the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls; 1:25but the Lord’s word endures forever.” This is the word of Good News which was preached to you.
2:1Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking, 2:2as newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, that with it you may grow, 2:3if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious: 2:4coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, precious. 2:5You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 2:6Because it is contained in Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, chosen, and precious: He who believes in him will not be disappointed.” 2:7For you who believe therefore is the honor, but for those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected, has become the chief cornerstone,” 2:8and, “a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” For they stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed. 2:9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: 2:10who in time past were no people, but now are God’s people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. 2:11Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 2:12having good behavior among the nations, so in that of which they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they see, glorify God in the day of visitation. 2:13Therefore subject yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether to the king, as supreme; 2:14or to governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evildoers and for praise to those who do well. 2:15For this is the will of God, that by well-doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: 2:16as free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God. 2:17Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. 2:18Servants, be in subjection to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the wicked. 2:19For it is commendable if someone endures pain, suffering unjustly, because of conscience toward God. 2:20For what glory is it if, when you sin, you patiently endure beating? But if, when you do well, you patiently endure suffering, this is commendable with God. 2:21For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps, 2:22who did not sin, “neither was deceit found in his mouth.” 2:23Who, when he was cursed, didn’t curse back. When he suffered, didn’t threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously. 2:24He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed. 2:25For you were going astray like sheep; but now have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.