Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Hebrews 12:12-17

Hebrews 12:12-17. Further exhortations. Hebrews 12:12. Wherefore (connecting the practical appeals, as is usual in this Epistle, with the reasoning and imagery of the previous verses) lift up (make straight) the hands that hang down, and the weak (the loose or the palsied) knees. The figure of a race is still preserved, and perhaps of a fight also; the last requiring the strong hands, and the first firm knees; or perhaps the drooping hands and the palsied knees denote simply the complete collapse which threatened the Hebrew Christians in the race set before them.

And make straight (or level) paths for your feet (the same verb as above), that that which is lame, that part of the Church which is stumbling between Christianity and Judaism, may walk in plain, beaten tracks, and so be kept from turning aside. Some interpret ‘that that which is lame may not be put out of joint' a possible meaning of the verb. It is used, however, in the New Testament only in the pastoral Epistles, 1 Timothy 1:6; 1Ti 5:15; 1 Timothy 6:20; 2 Timothy 4:4, and has always the sense given to it above. Who can estimate the power of a few courageous, consistent men in any struggle, and not least in Christian churches!

Nay, rather than let it suffer further infirmity, as it is needlessly doing, let it be healed.

Meanwhile here, as in the Church at Rome, the weak, the lame, are to be treated with great forbearance, and peace is to be carefully cultivated, not division.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Hebrews 12:12-17

Old Testament

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