012:010 It is true that they disciplined us for a few years according as they thought fit; but He does it for our certain good, in order that we may become sharers in His own holy character. 012:011 Now, at the time, discipline seems to be a matter not for joy, but for grief; yet it afterwards yields to those who have passed through its training a result full of peace--namely, righteousness. 012:012 Therefore strengthen the drooping hands and paralysed knees, 012:013 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put entirely out of joint 012:014 but may rather be restored. Persistently strive for peace with all men, and for that growth in holiness apart from which no one will see the Lord. 012:015 Be carefully on your guard lest there be any one who falls back from the grace of God; lest any root bearing bitter fruit spring up and cause trouble among you, and through it the whole brotherhood be defiled; 012:016 lest there be a fornicator, or an ungodly person like Esau, who, in return for a single meal, parted with the birthright which belonged to him. 012:017 For you know that even afterwards, when he wished to secure the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no opportunity for undoing what he had done, though he sought the blessing earnestly with tears. 012:018 For you have not come to a material object all ablaze with fire, and to gloom and darkness and storm and trumpet-blast and the sound of words-- 012:019 a sound of such a kind that those who heard it entreated that no more should be added. 012:020 For they could not endure the order which had been given, "Even a wild beast, if it touches the mountain, shall be stoned to death;" 012:021 and so terrible was the scene that Moses said, "I tremble with fear." 012:022 On the contrary you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the ever-living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to countless hosts of angels, 012:023 to the great festal gathering and Church of the first-born, whose names are recorded in Heaven, and to a Judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, 012:024 and to Jesus the negotiator of a new Covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks in more gracious tones than that of Abel. 012:025 Be careful not to refuse to listen to Him who is speaking to you. For if they of old did not escape unpunished when they refused to listen to him who spoke on earth, much less shall we escape who turn a deaf ear to Him who now speaks from Heaven. 012:026 His voice then shook the earth, but now we have His promise, "Yet again I will, once for all, cause not only the earth to tremble, but Heaven also."