Bible Strands
Hebrews 12:13
Make straight paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The anonymous author of Hebrews addresses Jewish believers growing weary under persecution and tempted to drift back. This verse sits in a brief exhortation (12:12–14) to steady themselves and press on.
The words — Τροχιὰς (trochias, "paths") is a hapax legomenon in the New Testament; its root τροχός (trochos) means "wheel" or "circular track," giving the image of a deliberate, repeated route rather than a single step.
The thread — Proverbs 4:26 uses nearly identical language ("Make a level path for your feet"), and Isaiah 35:3 supplies the "limp hands and feeble knees" imagery that Hebrews 12:12 echoes directly.
Why it lands — The reader is the one who is lame; the task is to correct one's own crooked course so that the weakness becomes the occasion for healing rather than a permanent disability.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 4:26 Make a level path for your feet, and all your ways will be sure.
- Galatians 6:1 Brothers, if someone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.
- Isaiah 35:3 Strengthen the limp hands and steady the feeble knees!
- Isaiah 35:6 Then the lame will leap like a deer and the mute tongue will shout for joy. For waters will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.
- Isaiah 40:3 A voice of one calling: “Prepare the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert.
- James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.
- Jude 1:22 And indeed, have mercy on those who doubt;
- Jeremiah 31:8 Behold, I will bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, including the blind and the lame, expectant mothers and women in labor. They will return as a great assembly!
- Luke 3:5 Every valley shall be filled in, and every mountain and hill made low. The crooked ways shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth.
- Isaiah 35:8 And there will be a highway called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not travel it—only those who walk in the Way—and fools will not stray onto it.