Hebrews 12:14–17

Verse 12–14. Wherefore life up the [4] hands, and so forth Be fervent in piety, walk firmly in the way of virtue, make straight [5] steps, without declining to one side or the other, without halting or going astray, and strive to be healed from your sins by his grace.—Follow and seek peace, as much as lies in you, with all men, and [6]purity of life, without which no man shall see and enjoy God. Witham.

Verse 15. Be wanting to the grace of God, by resisting and abusing his favours, or by falling from the grace of God received.—Lest any root of bitterness, and so forth He means scandalous wicked persons, by whom others are infected, defiled, and corrupted. Witham.

Verse 16. Or profane person, as Esau, who had so little regard for the blessing and inheritance of his father, that he sold his right of first-begotten for one mess of broth, and afterwards found no place for repentance, although with tears he had sought for it; that is, he could not make his father repent or change what he had once done, though he endeavoured with his tears and lamentable outcries. Or if any one will have repentance referred to Esau himself, still the Novatian heretics can have no advantage in favour of their error, when they deny that sinners can repent, because Esau’s tears might only be for a temporal loss, not for God’s sake, nor for the guilt of his sins, so that he wanted the dispositions of a true penitent and of a contrite heart. Witham.—Βεβηλος, profane, like Esau, who for a trifling meal could forfeit his right of primogeniture, and the honour of priesthood thereto attached. Oh, how many give up all right to a heavenly and eternal inheritance for even a mere trifling consideration! And how will they one day, with Esau, regret the same inflexibility on the part of God, their Father!

Verse 17. He found, and so forth That is, he found no way to bring his father to repent, or change his mind, with relation to his having given the blessing to his younger brother, Jacob. Challoner.