5. Have you forgotten the warning addressed to you as sons? “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of Adonai or lose heart when you are corrected by Him,
6. because Adonai disciplines the one He loves and punishes every son He accepts.”
7. It is for discipline that you endure. God is treating you as sons—for what son does a father not discipline?
8. But if you are without discipline—something all have come to share—then you are illegitimate and not sons.
9. Besides, we are used to having human fathers as instructors—and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?
10. Indeed, for a short time they disciplined us as seemed best to them; but He does so for our benefit, so that we may share in His holiness.
11. Now all discipline seems painful at the moment—not joyful. But later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
12. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble!
13. And make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame will not be pulled out of joint but rather be healed.
14. Pursue shalom with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
15. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God; and see to it that no bitter root springs up and causes trouble, and by it many be defiled.
16. Also see to it that there is no immoral or godless person—like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal.
17. For you know that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. He found no chance for repentance, though he begged for it with tears.
18. For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched, and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and storm,
19. and to the blast of a shofar and a voice whose words made those who heard it beg that not another word be spoken to them.