1. Furthermore, since we also have so great a cloud of witnesses over us, let us set aside every burden and sin which may surround us, and advance, through patience, to the struggle offered to us.
2. Let us gaze upon Jesus, as the Author and the completion of our faith, who, having joy laid out before him, endured the cross, disregarding the shame, and who now sits at the right hand of the throne of God.
3. So then, meditate upon him who endured such adversity from sinners against himself, so that you may not become weary, failing in your souls.
4. For you have not yet resisted unto blood, while striving against sin.
5. And you have forgotten the consolation which speaks to you like sons, saying: "My son, do not be willing to neglect the discipline of the Lord. Neither should you become weary, while being rebuked by him."
6. For whomever the Lord loves, he chastises. And every son whom he accepts, he scourges.
7. Persevere in discipline. God presents you to himself as sons. But what son is there, whom his father does not correct?
8. But if you are without that discipline in which all have become sharers, then you are of adultery, and you are not sons.
9. Then, too, we have certainly had the fathers of our flesh as instructors, and we reverenced them. Should we not obey the Father of spirits all the more, and so live?
10. And indeed, for a few days and according to their own wishes, they instructed us. But he does so to our benefit, so that we may receive his sanctification.
11. Now every discipline, in the present time, does not seem a gladness, of course, but a grief. But afterwards, it will repay a most peaceful fruit of justice to those who become trained in it.
12. Because of this, lift up your lazy hands and your lax knees,
13. and straighten the path of your feet, so that no one, being lame, may wander astray, but instead may be healed.
14. Pursue peace with everyone. Pursue sanctity, without which no one shall see God.
15. Be contemplative, lest anyone lack the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up and impede you, and by it, many might be defiled,
16. lest any fornicator or worldly person be like Esau, who, for the sake of one meal, sold his birthright.
17. For you know that afterwards, when he desired to inherit the benediction, he was rejected. For he found no place for repentance, even though he had sought it with tears.
18. But you have not drawn near to a tangible mountain, or a burning fire, or a whirlwind, or a mist, or a storm,
19. or the sound of a trumpet, or a voice of words. Those who had experienced these things excused themselves, lest the Word be spoken to them.