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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Heb_12:12-13
12Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, 13and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
Heb_12:12 This is an allusion to Isa_35:3, which may be the background of the whole discussion in chapter 12. The mature ought to strengthen the weak (those close to shrinking back). "Strengthen" is literally "make straight," which is a word play on the next vers.
Heb_12:13 "make straight paths for your feet" This may be an allusion to Pro_4:26 in the Septuagint (LXX) or to a well known proverb using "straight paths" as an OT metaphor for righteousness.
▣ "put out of joint" This phrase can be understood
1. in its OT sense (cf. 1Ki_18:21) of a metaphor for alternating between two opinions, like the people of Israel alternating between YHWH and Ba'al
2. in Greek literature of fixing the road so that the lame will not fall and hurt themselves (cf. M. R. Vincent's Word Studies in the New Testament, p. 1168)
▣ "but rather be healed" Encouraging one another leads to restoration (cf. Gal_6:1; Jas_5:16).