Hebrews 12:18–29

¹⁸For you have not come to something that can be touched, and to a burning fire, and to darkness, and to gloom, and to a whirlwind, ¹⁹and to the noise of a trumpet, and to the sound of words which those who heard begged that not another word be spoken to them. ²⁰For they could not endure what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.”^{d 21}And the spectacle was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.”^{e 22}But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to tens of thousands of angels, to the festal gathering ²³and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, ²⁴and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood^f that speaks better than Abel’s does.

²⁵Watch out that you do not refuse the one who is speaking! For if those did not escape when they^* refused the one who warned them on earth, much less will we escape,^* if we^* reject the one who warns from heaven, ²⁶whose voice shook the earth at that time, but now he has promised, saying,

“Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also heaven.”^g

²⁷Now the phrase “yet once more” indicates the removal of what is shaken, namely, things that have been created, in order that the things that are not shaken may remain. ²⁸Therefore, since we^* are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be thankful, through which let us serve God acceptably, with awe and reverence. ²⁹For indeed our God is a consuming fire.