Heb 12:1
12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great
     a cloud of witnesses, {1} let us lay aside every weight,
     and the sin which {a} doth so easily beset [us], and let us
     run with patience the race that is set before us,

 (1) An applying of the former examples, by which we ought to be
     stirred up to run the whole race, casting away all
     hindrances and impediments.
     (a) For sin besieges us on all sides, so that we cannot
         escape.

Heb 12:2
12:2 {2} {b} Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our]
     faith; who for the {c} 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.

 (2) He sets before us, as the mark of this race, Jesus himself
     our captain, who willingly overcame all the roughness of
     the same way.
     (b) As it were upon the mark of our faith.
     (c) While he had every type of blessedness in his hand and
         power, yet suffered willingly the shame of the cross.

Heb 12:3
12:3 {3} For consider him that endured such contradiction of
     sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in
     your minds.

 (3) An amplification, taken from the circumstance of the person
     and the things themselves, which he compares between
     themselves: for how great is Jesus in comparison of us, and
     how far more grievous things did he suffer than we?

Heb 12:4
12:4 {4} Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against
     sin.

 (4) He takes an argument from the profit which comes to us by
     God's chastisements, unless we are at fault. First of all
     because sin, or that rebellious wickedness of our flesh, is
     by this means tamed.

Heb 12:5
12:5 {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:

 (5) Secondly, because they are testimonies of his fatherly good
     will towards us, in that they show themselves to be
     illegitimate, if they cannot abide to be chastened by God.

Heb 12:9
12:9 {6} 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?

 (6) Thirdly, if all men yield this right to fathers, to whom
     next after God we owe this life, that they may rightfully
     correct their children, shall we not be much more subject to
     our Father, who is the author of spiritual and everlasting
     life?

Heb 12:10
12:10 {7} 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.

 (7) An amplification of the same argument: Those fathers have
     corrected us after their fancy, for some frail and
     temporary good: but God chastens and instructs us for our
     singular good to make us partakers of his holiness: which
     although our senses do not presently perceive it, yet the
     end of the matter proves it.

Heb 12:12
12:12 {8} Wherefore lift up the hands which {d} hang down, and
      the feeble knees;

 (8) The conclusion: we must go forward courageously and keep
     always a right course and (as far forth as we may) without
     any staggering or stumbling.
      (d) The description of a man that is out of heart and
          completely discouraged.

Heb 12:13
12:13 And make {e} straight paths for your feet, lest that which
      is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be
      healed.

      (e) Keep a right course, and so, that you show examples of
          good life for others to follow.

Heb 12:14
12:14 {9} Follow peace with all [men], and holiness, without
      which no man shall see the Lord:

 (9) We must live in peace and holiness with all men.

Heb 12:15
12:15 {10} Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of
      God; lest any {f} root of bitterness springing up trouble
      [you], and thereby many be defiled;

 (10) We must study to edify one another both in doctrine and
      example of life.
      (f) That no heresy, or backsliding be an offence.

Heb 12:16
12:16 {11} Lest there [be] any fornicator, or profane person, as
      Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

 (11) We must shun immorality, and a profane mind, that is,
      such a mind as does not give God his due honour, which
      wickedness, how severely God will at length punish, the
      horrible example of Esau teaches us.

Heb 12:17
12:17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have
      inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no
      {g} place of repentance, though he sought it carefully
      with tears.

      (g) There was no room left for his repentance: and it
          appears by the effects, what his repentance really
          was, for when he left his father's presence, he
          threatened to kill his brother.

Heb 12:18
12:18 {12} For ye are not come unto the mount that might be {h}
      touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness,
      and darkness, and tempest,

 (12) Now he applies the same exhortation to the prophetic and
      kingly office of Christ compared with Moses, after this
      sort.  If the majesty of the law was so great, how great
      do you think the glory of Christ and the gospel is? This
      comparison he declares also particularly.
      (h) Which might be touched with hands, which was of a
          gross and earthly matter.

Heb 12:21
12:21 And so terrible was the {i} sight, [that] Moses said, I
      exceedingly fear and quake:)

      (i) The shape and form which he saw, which was no
          counterfeit and forged shape, but a true one.

Heb 12:23
12:23 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 {k} perfect,

      (k) So he calls them that are taken up to heaven, although
          one part of them sleeps in the earth.

Heb 12:25
12:25 {13} 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:

 (13) The applying of the former comparison: If it were not
      lawful to condemn his word which was spoken on the earth,
      how much less his voice which is from heaven?

Heb 12:26
12:26 {14} Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath
      promised, saying, {l} Yet once more I shake not the earth
      only, but also heaven.

 (14) He compares the steadfast majesty of the gospel, with
      which the whole world was shaken, and even the very frame
      of heaven was astonished, with the small and vanishing
      sound of the governance by the law.
      (l) It appears evidently in this that the prophet speaks
          of the calling of the Gentiles, that these words must
          refer to the kingdom of Christ.

Heb 12:28
12:28 {15} Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be
      moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God
      acceptably with {m} reverence and godly {n} fear:

 (15) A general exhortation to live reverently and religiously
      under the most happy subjection of so mighty a King, who
      as he blesses his most mightily, so does he most severely
      revenge the rebellious. This is the sum of a Christian
      life, respecting the first table of the law.
      (m) By reverence is meant that honest modesty which keeps
          them in their duties.
      (n) Religious and godly fear.