Hebrews 12:7
What does Hebrews 12:7 mean?
A plain-English look at Hebrews 12:7 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Hebrews 12:7 means
Endurance under hardship is reframed as God’s fatherly training. The argument is simple and weighty: if you are disciplined, you are being treated as sons. In ordinary families, a loving father corrects his children; the absence of correction would be abnormal. So believers should not resent discipline but persevere through it, recognizing it as proof of adoption. The verse shifts the stance from passive suffering to active, faithful endurance. It invites trust: the Father is at work through these trials. Our task is to submit to His training, confident that He is shaping us as His true children rather than abandoning us to ourselves.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000It is for chastening that ye endure; God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father chasteneth not?
KJV
King James Version · 1611If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901It is for chastening that ye endure; God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father chasteneth not?
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949It is for your training that you undergo these things; God is acting to you as a father does to his sons; for what son does not have punishment from his father?
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862if chastening ye endure, as to sons God beareth Himself to you, for who is a son whom a father doth not chasten?
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Persevere under discipline. God dealeth with you as with his sons. For what son is there whom the father doth not correct?
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890Ye endure for chastening,God conducts himself towards you as towards sons; for who is the son that the father chastens not?
Context
After stating that God disciplines those He loves (v. 6), verse 7 draws the inference: your endurance itself is evidence that God is treating you as sons. The rhetorical question underscores the normalcy of parental discipline. The next verse (v. 8) will present the negative contrast—no discipline indicates illegitimacy. Then verses 9–11 will develop the benefits and purpose of God’s fatherly correction. The argument tightens so the readers re-interpret their hardships as signs of their secure place in God’s family.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- 2 Samuel 7:14
I will be his father, and he shall be my son: if he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men;
- 1 Kings 1:6
And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so? and he was also a very goodly man; and he was born after Absalom.
- Proverbs 23:13
Withhold not correction from the child; Forif thou beat him with the rod, he will not die.
- Proverbs 29:15
The rod and reproof give wisdom; But a child left to himself causeth shame to his mother.
- Proverbs 19:18
Chasten thy son, seeing there is hope; And set not thy heart on his destruction.
- 1 Samuel 3:13
For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever, for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons did bring a curse upon themselves, and he restrained them not.
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