Hebrews 7-10 (21st Century King James Version)

Hebrews 7

 ¹For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham, who was returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him.

   
 ²To him also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, Melchizedek first being by interpretation "king of righteousness," and after that also king of Salem, which means "king of peace."

   
 ³Without father, without mother and without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, he abideth a priest continually.

   
 ⁴Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils.

   
 ⁵And verily, those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes from the people according to the law -- that is, from their brethren -- though they come out of the loins of Abraham.

   
 ⁶But Melchizedek, whose descent is not counted from them, received tithes from Abraham and blessed him that had the promises.

   
 ⁷And beyond all contradiction, the lesser is blessed by the greater.

   
 ⁸And here men who die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.

   
 ⁹And, as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, paid tithes through Abraham,

   
 ¹⁰for he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met Abraham.

   
 ¹¹If therefore perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron?

   
 ¹²For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.

   
 ¹³For He of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar.

   
 ¹⁴For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.

   
 ¹⁵And this is yet far more evident when there ariseth another priest according to the similitude of Melchizedek,

   
 ¹⁶who is made not according to the law of a carnal commandment, but according to the power of an endless life.

   
 ¹⁷For He testifieth: "Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek."

   
 ¹⁸For there is verily an annulling of the former commandment because of the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.

   
 ¹⁹For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by which we draw nigh unto God.

   
 ²⁰And inasmuch as it was not without an oath that He was made priest

   
 ²¹(for those priests were made without an oath, but He with an oath by Him who said unto Him: "The Lord swore and will not repent, `Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.'"),

   
 ²²by so much more was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.

   
 ²³And those priests truly were many, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death;

   
 ²⁴but this Man, because He continueth forever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.

   
 ²⁵Therefore He is able also to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.

   
 ²⁶For such a High Priest who is befitting for us, holy, undisposed to harm, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens,

   
 ²⁷who needeth not, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice daily first for His own sins and then for the people's; for this He did once when He offered up Himself.

   
 ²⁸For the law maketh men high priests who have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which came since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.

   

Hebrews 8

 ¹Now of the things of which we have spoken, this is the sum: We have such a High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

   
 ²a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man.

   
 ³For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices; therefore it is of necessity that this Man have something also to offer.

   
 ⁴For if He were on earth, He should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests who offer gifts according to the law,

   
 ⁵and who serve unto the copy and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished by God when he was about to make the tabernacle. For,"See," saith He, "that thou make all things according to the pattern shown to thee on the mount."

   
 ⁶But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

   
 ⁷For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.

   
 ⁸For finding fault with them, He saith, "Behold, the days come," saith the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah--

   
 ⁹not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.

   
 ¹⁰For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people.

   
 ¹¹And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, `Know the Lord,' for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest.

   
 ¹²For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."

   
 ¹³In that He saith "a new covenant," He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

   

Hebrews 9

 ¹Then verily, the first covenant also had ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary.

   
 ²For there was a tabernacle made, the first, wherein was the candlestick and the table and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary.

   
 ³And after the second veil was the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All,

   
 ⁴which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant;

   
 ⁵and over it were the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat, of which we cannot now speak particularly.

   
 ⁶Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service to God.

   
 ⁷But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people,

   
 ⁸the Holy Ghost by this signifying that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest so long as the first tabernacle was yet standing.

   
 ⁹It was a figure for the time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, which could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience,

   
 ¹⁰since it concerned only meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation.

   
 ¹¹But Christ, having come a High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands (that is to say, not of this building),

   
 ¹²neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

   
 ¹³For if sprinkling the unclean with the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh,

   
 ¹⁴how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

   
 ¹⁵And for this cause He is the Mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were covered under the first testament, those who are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

   
 ¹⁶For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.

   
 ¹⁷For a testament is of force after men are dead, otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.

   
 ¹⁸And so not even the first testament was dedicated without blood.

   
 ¹⁹For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people,

   
 ²⁰saying, "This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you."

   
 ²¹Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry.

   
 ²²And by the law almost all things are purged with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.

   
 ²³It was therefore necessary that the copies of things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

   
 ²⁴For Christ has not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

   
 ²⁵Nor yet should He offer Himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place with blood of others every year;

   
 ²⁶for then would He have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once, in the end of the world, hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

   
 ²⁷And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment,

   
 ²⁸so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto those who look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin, unto salvation.

   

Hebrews 10

 ¹For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image of those things, can never, with those sacrifices which they offered continually year by year, make those who come unto it perfect.

   
 ²For then would not sacrifices have ceased to be offered? For worshipers once purged should have had no more consciousness of sins.

   
 ³But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year,

   
 ⁴for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

   
 ⁵Therefore when He cometh into the world, He saith, "Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not have, but a body hast Thou prepared for Me.

   
 ⁶In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast had no pleasure.

   
 ⁷Then said I, `Lo, I come (in the volume of the Book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, O God.'"

   
 ⁸Above when He said, "Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings, and offering for sin Thou wouldest not have, neither hadst pleasure therein" (which are offered in accordance with the law),

   
 ⁹then said He, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God," He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second.

   
 ¹⁰By this will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

   
 ¹¹And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering time and again the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

   
 ¹²But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down at the right hand of God,

   
 ¹³from henceforth to wait until His enemies be made His footstool.

   
 ¹⁴For by one offering He hath perfected for ever those who are sanctified.

   
 ¹⁵Of this the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us; for after He had said before,

   
 ¹⁶"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;

   
 ¹⁷and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more."

   
 ¹⁸Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

   
 ¹⁹Having therefore boldness, brethren, to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,

   
 ²⁰by a new and living Way, which He hath consecrated for us through the veil (that is to say, His flesh),

   
 ²¹and having a High Priest over the house of God,

   
 ²²let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

   
 ²³Let us hold fast to the profession of our faith without wavering (for He is faithful who promised),

   
 ²⁴and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works,

   
 ²⁵not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the Day approaching.

   
 ²⁶For if we sin willfully after having received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,

   
 ²⁷but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

   
 ²⁸He that despised Moses' law died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

   
 ²⁹Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath accounted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath despised the Spirit of grace?

   
 ³⁰For we know Him that hath said, "Vengeance belongeth unto Me; I will recompense," saith the Lord. And again, "The Lord shall judge His people."

   
 ³¹It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

   
 ³²But call to remembrance the former days in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions,

   
 ³³partly while ye were being made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while ye became companions of those who were so used.

   
 ³⁴For ye had compassion on me in my bonds and took joyfully the despoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in Heaven a better and an enduring substance.

   
 ³⁵Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.

   
 ³⁶For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

   
 ³⁷"For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry.

   
 ³⁸Now the just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him."

   
 ³⁹But we are not of those who draw back unto perdition, but of those who believe, to the saving of the soul.