011:037 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tried by temptation, they were killed with the sword. They went from place to place in sheepskins or goatskins, enduring want, oppression and cruelty.
011:038 (They were men of whom the world was not worthy.) They wandered across deserts and mountains, or hid themselves in caves and in holes in the ground.
011:039 And although by their faith all these people won God's approval,
none of them received the fulfilment of His great promise;
011:040 for God had provided for them and us something better, so that
apart from us they were not to attain to full blessedness.
012:001 Therefore, surrounded as we are by such a vast cloud of witnesses, let us fling aside every encumbrance and the sin that so readily entangles our feet. And let us run with patient endurance the race that lies before us,
012:002 simply fixing our gaze upon Jesus, our Prince Leader in the faith, who will also award us the prize. He, for the sake of the joy which lay before Him, patiently endured the cross, looking with contempt upon its shame, and afterwards seated Himself— where He still sits—at the right hand of the throne of God.
012:003 Therefore, if you would escape becoming weary and faint-hearted, compare your own sufferings with those of Him who endured such hostility directed against Him by sinners.
012:004 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted so as to endanger your lives;
012:005 and you have quite forgotten the encouraging words which are addressed to you as sons, and which say, "My son, do not think lightly of the Lord's discipline, and do not faint when He corrects you;
012:006 for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines: and He scourges every son whom He acknowledges."