Wherefore - In view of the facts which have been now stated - that afflictions are sent from God, and are evidences of his paternal watchfulness.

Lift up the hands which hang down - As if from weariness and exhaustion. Renew your courage; make a new effort to bear them. The hands fall by the side when we are exhausted with toil, or worn down by disease; see the notes on Isaiah 35:3, from which place this exhortation is taken.

And the feeble knees - The knees also become enfeebled by long effort, and tremble as if their strength were gone. Courage and resolution may do much, however, to make them firm, and it is to this that the apostle exhorts those to whom he wrote. They were to make every effort to bear up under their trials. The hope of victory will do much to strengthen one almost exhausted in battle; the desire to reach home invigorates the frame of the weary traveler. So it is with the Christian. In persecution, and sickness, and bereavement, he may be ready to sink under his burdens. The hands fall, and the knees tremble, and the heart sinks within us. But confidence in God, and the hope of heaven, and the assurance that all this is for our good, will reinvigorate the enfeebled frame, and enable us to bear what we once supposed would crush us to the dust. A courageous mind braces a feeble body, and hope makes it fresh for new conflicts.

Wherefore lift up the hands - The apostle refers to Isaiah 35:3. The words are an address to persons almost worn out with sickness and fatigue, whose hands hang down, whose knees shake, and who are totally discouraged. These are exhorted to exert themselves, and take courage, with the assurance that they shall infallibly conquer if they persevere.

These words may be considered as spoken to the Hebrews, with respect to themselves; accordingly, the Syriac version reads, "your hands", and "your knees"; who were sluggish, and inactive in prayer, in hearing the word, in attendance on ordinances, in holding fast their profession, and in the performance of those things which adorn it; they were weary and fatigued with weights and burdens of sins and afflictions; and were faint, fearful, and timorous, through distrust of the promised good, because of their persecutions, being in present distress, and in a view of approaching danger, with which they might be surprised, as well as affected with their present afflictions: and then the exhortation to "lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees", is to be active in every duty; to be courageous against every enemy: to bear patiently every burden; to take heart, and be of good cheer under every afflictive providence: or else they may be considered as an exhortation to them with respect to others, which seems to be most agreeable to Isaiah 35:3 from whence they are taken; and then what is signified in them is done by sympathizing with persons in distress; by speaking comfortably to them, and by bearing their burdens.

Wherefore (διὸ)

Because chastening is thus necessary, and serves for wholesome discipline, and issues in holiness.

Lift up (ἀνορθώσατε)

Found in Luke 13:13; Acts 15:16 (citn). Occasionally in lxx. It signifies to set up, make, erect. In O.T. to establish, as a throne (2 Samuel 7:13, 2 Samuel 7:16); a house (2 Samuel 7:26; 1 Chronicles 17:24); to raise up one who is down (Psalm 145:9; Sir. 11:12). In Acts 15:16, to build anew. By medical writers, to straighten; to set dislocated parts of the body. See Luke 13:13. The translation here should be more general: not lift up, which is inappropriate to paralyzed knees, but set right; brace. As falling in with the thought of this passage, comp. the lxx of Psalm 17:35, which, for the A.V. "thy gentleness hath made me great," gives "thy discipline hath established me or set me up." See also Psalm 19:8.

The hands which hang down (τὰς παρειμένας χεῖρας)

Rend. the slackened or weakened hands. Comp. Isaiah 35:3; Sir. 25:23; 2 Samuel 4:1. The verb παριέναι (only here and Luke 11:42) originally means to let pass, disregard, neglect; thence to relax, loosen. See Clem. Rom. Ad 1 Corinthians 34, who associates it with νωθρὸς slothful (comp. Hebrews 5:11).

And the feeble knees (καὶ τὰ παραλελυμένα γόνατα)

For feeble rend. palsied. See on Luke 5:18.

{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.

12:12 Lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees. See Job 4:3 Isa 35:3 Eze 7:17. The thought is, shake off all weariness, all lameness, and push right on.

12:12 Wherefore lift up the hands - Whether your own or your brethren's. That hang down - Unable to continue the combat. And the feeble knees - Unable to continue the race. Isa 35:3.

12. He addresses them as runners in a race, and pugilists, and warriors [Chrysostom]. The "wherefore" is resumed from Heb 12:1.

lift up-In Isa 35:3, from which Paul here quotes, it is, "Strengthen ye the weak hands." The hand is the symbol of one's strength. Alford translates, "Put straight again the relaxed hands." English Version expresses the sense well.

feeble-literally, "paralyzed"; a word used only by Luke, Paul's companion, in the New Testament. The exhortation has three parts: the first relates to ourselves, Heb 12:12, 13; the second, to others, Heb 12:14, "peace with all men"; the third, to God, "holiness, without which," &c. The first is referred to in Heb 12:15, "test any man fail of the grace of God"; the second in the words, "lest any root of bitterness," &c.; the third in Heb 12:16, "Lest there be any fornicator or profane person," &c. This threefold relation often occurs in Paul's Epistles. Compare Note, see on [2596]Tit 2:12, "soberly, righteously, and godly." The Greek active verb, not the middle or reflexive, requires the sense to be, Lift up not only your own hands and knees, but also those of your brethren (compare Heb 12:15; Isa 35:4).

12:12-17 A burden of affliction is apt to make the Christian's hands hang down, and his knees grow feeble, to dispirit him and discourage him; but against this he must strive, that he may better run his spiritual race and course. Faith and patience enable believers to follow peace and holiness, as a man follows his calling constantly, diligently, and with pleasure. Peace with men, of all sects and parties, will be favourable to our pursuit of holiness. But peace and holiness go together; there can be not right peace without holiness. Where persons fail of having the true grace of God, corruption will prevail and break forth; beware lest any unmortified lust in the heart, which seems to be dead, should spring up, to trouble and disturb the whole body. Falling away from Christ is the fruit of preferring the delights of the flesh, to the blessing of God, and the heavenly inheritance, as Esau did. But sinners will not always have such mean thoughts of the Divine blessing and inheritance as they now have. It agrees with the profane man's disposition, to desire the blessing, yet to despise the means whereby the blessing is to be gained. But God will neither sever the means from the blessing, nor join the blessing with the satisfying of man's lusts. God's mercy and blessing were never sought carefully and not obtained.