--- title: "Hebrews 12 - Study King James Bible with burkitts expository notes with practical observations on the nt" description: "Read Hebrews 12 with burkitts expository notes with practical observations on the nt commentary. 1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset u" image: "/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg" url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/burkitts-expository-notes-with-practical-observations-on-the-nt/hebrews/12" --- [ Read](/kjv/hebrews/12)[ Commentary](/study/hebrews/12)[ Interlinear](/interlinear/hebrews/12) Audio 1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset *us*, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of *our* faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. 4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. 5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected *us*, and we gave *them* reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they verily for a few days chastened *us* after their own pleasure; but he for *our* profit, that *we* might be partakers of his holiness. 11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. 12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; 13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. 14 Follow peace with all *men*, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: 15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble *you*, and thereby many be defiled; 16 Lest there *be* any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. 17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. 18 For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, 19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which *voice* they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: 20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: 21 And so terrible was the sight, *that* Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) 22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than *that of* Abel. 25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more *shall not* we *escape*, if we turn away from him that *speaketh* from heaven: 26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 27 And this *word*, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: 29 For our God *is* a consuming fire. [Hebrews 11](/study/hebrews/11) [Hebrews 13](/study/hebrews/13) ## Commentary To verse 1 As if our apostle had said, "Seeing we who are now called forth to suffer, have before us so many instances of the faithful, who like a cloud of witnesses have gone before us, and by the help of their faith conquered all impediments that lay in the way of their salvation, let us take encouragement from them to quit ourselves like men; and, as runners in a race, let us cast off all worldly encumbrances which will entangle us, and avoid all sin, especially a bosom corruption, which easily besets us, and as easily overcomes us, and let us run with patience and perserverance the race of Christianity set before us." Note, 1. That the Old-Testament saints are here called **witnesses, a cloud of witnesses,** and **a cloud encompassing us;** they are witnesses of this grand truth, namely, that faith will carry believers safely through all that they may be called to do and suffer in the profession of the gospel; they are called **a cloud of witnesses,** partly for their number, there being a great multitude of them; partly, for their direction, there being a leading virtue in them. As there was a cloud that went before the children of Israel to lead them in the wilderness, so this cloud of witnesses leads us up and down in the wilderness of this world, in the darkest night of our sorrows and sufferings; and they are said to encompass us, because the scripture everywhere encompasses us with them, so that we can be in no suffering state or condition, be it never so sad, but we may turn our eye, and behold the face of some or other of these worthies looking upon us, and encouraging of us to patience and perseverance; and we are encompassed with such a cloud of witnesses, is a great aggravation of our sin. Learn hence, That it is a special honour which God put upon his saints departed, especially such as suffered and died for the truth, that even after their death they are witnesses to faith and obedience in all generations: **We are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.** Note here, 1. Christianity is a race, a race set before us by God, and it is our duty faithfully and perseveringly to run it. Note, 2. That in order to the running of this race, all impediments must be laid aside: **Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us.** By **every weight,** is generally understood the world, its riches, honours, pleasures, preferments, which oftimes are a peculiar obstruction to constancy and perseverance in the profestion and practice of Christianity; this dead weight must be **laid aside,** by mortifying our hearts and affections towards the world, for it is inordinate love to these things which gives them their weight and encumbrance; where this grace is in its due exercise, the world cannot influence the mind into any disorder, nor make it unready for its race. By **the sin which doth so easily beset us,** some understand all sin in general, others a bosom-beloved sin in special, others timorousness and fear in particular; all softness and tenderness, with respect to suffering. In the original words, rendered **easily beset us,** some think there is an allusion to the long garments worn in the eastern countries; which dangling about a man's heels, unfit him for running a race. As a man that has a burden on his back,, or a long garment hanging down to his heels, is altogether unfit to run a race; so unready are they for the spiritual race, who are entangled with the love of the world, or with any sinful compliances. Note, 3. That patience is a grace very necessary to enable a person to run the race of Christianity which God has set before him. **Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.** Such is the inevitableness and unavoidableness of the Christian's trials, such the multiplicilty and varity of them, such the long duration and continuance of them, that there can be no perseverance without patience. Note, 4. The way discovered, and the means declared, how and by which we attain this grace and patience, namely, by **looking unto Jesus.** Learn hence, That looking unto, and beholding of Christ in looking unto, and beholding of Christ in his patience, is a notable mean to excite and stir us up to the practice and performance of our duty. Note, 5. The special title given here to Christ, he is styled **the author and finisher of faith** in his people; he is deservedly styled the **author** of our faith, because his holy ordinances are special means of faith, and his Holy Spirit the producer of faith in the souls of his people, and his precious blood the purchaser of faith and all grace for his people. And he is the **finisher** of our faith too, as well as the author of it, inasmuch as he has by his promise engaged to perfect what he has begun, Php_1:6 "Being confident of this very thing, that he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it, &c." And inasmuch as he doth by his intercession plead with the Father for the believer's preservation in faith, and perseverance in holiness unto the end: **I have prayed that thy faith fail not,** [Luke 22:32](/kjv/luke/22/32). ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#website","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com","name":"Real Bible Believers","description":"RBB","publisher":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/search?q={search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/burkitts-expository-notes-with-practical-observations-on-the-nt/hebrews/12#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg","contentUrl":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg","width":672,"height":448,"caption":"Real Bible Believers"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/burkitts-expository-notes-with-practical-observations-on-the-nt/hebrews/12#webpage","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/burkitts-expository-notes-with-practical-observations-on-the-nt/hebrews/12","name":"Hebrews 12 - Study King James Bible with burkitts expository notes with practical observations on the nt","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/burkitts-expository-notes-with-practical-observations-on-the-nt/hebrews/12#primaryimage"},"author":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509"},"description":"Read Hebrews 12 with burkitts expository notes with practical observations on the nt commentary. 1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset u","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/burkitts-expository-notes-with-practical-observations-on-the-nt/hebrews/12#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/burkitts-expository-notes-with-practical-observations-on-the-nt/hebrews/12"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/burkitts-expository-notes-with-practical-observations-on-the-nt/hebrews/12#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study","name":"Study Bible"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/burkitts-expository-notes-with-practical-observations-on-the-nt","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/burkitts-expository-notes-with-practical-observations-on-the-nt","name":"burkitts expository notes with practical observations on the nt"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/burkitts-expository-notes-with-practical-observations-on-the-nt/hebrews","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/burkitts-expository-notes-with-practical-observations-on-the-nt/hebrews","name":"Hebrews"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":5,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/burkitts-expository-notes-with-practical-observations-on-the-nt/hebrews/12","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/burkitts-expository-notes-with-practical-observations-on-the-nt/hebrews/12","name":"12"}}]},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/android-chrome-512x512.png","contentUrl":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/android-chrome-512x512.png","width":512,"height":512},"logo":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#personlogo"},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/RBiblebeliever","https://www.facebook.com/RBibleBelievers"]}]} ```