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Here is the whole point of what we have been saying: we do have just such a cohen gadol as has been described. And he does sit at the right hand of HaG’dulah in heaven.[a] There he serves in the Holy Place, that is, in the true Tent of Meeting, the one erected not by human beings but by Adonai.

For every cohen gadol is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; so this cohen gadol too has to have something he can offer. Now if he were on earth, he wouldn’t be a cohen at all, since there already are cohanim offering the gifts required by the Torah. But what they are serving is only a copy and shadow of the heavenly original; for when Moshe was about to erect the Tent, God warned him, “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern you were shown on the mountain.”[b]

But now the work Yeshua has been given to do is far superior to theirs, just as the covenant he mediates is better. For this covenant has been given as Torah on the basis of better promises. Indeed, if the first covenant had not given ground for faultfinding, there would have been no need for a second one. For God does find fault with the people when he says,

“‘See! The days are coming,’ says Adonai,
‘when I will establish
over the house of Isra’el and over the house of Y’hudah
a new covenant.

“‘It will not be like the covenant
which I made with their fathers
on the day when I took them by their hand
and led them forth out of the land of Egypt;
because they, for their part,
did not remain faithful to my covenant;
so I, for my part,
stopped concerning myself with them,’
says Adonai.

10 “‘For this is the covenant which I will make
with the house of Isra’el after those days,’
says Adonai:

‘I will put my Torah in their minds
and write it on their hearts;
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.

11 “‘None of them will teach his fellow-citizen
or his brother, saying, “Know Adonai!”
For all will know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,
12 because I will be merciful toward their wickednesses
and remember their sins no more.’”[c]

13 By using the term, “new,” he has made the first covenant “old”; and something being made old, something in the process of aging, is on its way to vanishing altogether.

Footnotes

  1. Hebrews 8:1 Psalm 110:1
  2. Hebrews 8:5 Exodus 25:40
  3. Hebrews 8:12 Jeremiah 31:30–33(31–34)

Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of majesty in the heavens,

A minister of the holies, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord hath pitched, and not man.

For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is necessary that he also should have some thing to offer.

If then he were on earth, he would not be a priest: seeing that there would be others to offer gifts according to the law,

Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things. As it was answered to Moses, when he was to finish the tabernacle: See (saith he) that thou make all things according to the pattern which was shewn thee on the mount.

But now he hath obtained a better ministry, by how much also he is a mediator of a better testament, which is established on better promises.

For if that former had been faultless, there should not indeed a place have been sought for a second.

For finding fault with them, he saith: Behold, the days shall come, saith the Lord: and I will perfect unto the house of Israel, and unto the house of Juda, a new testament:

Not according to the testament which I made to their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt: because they continued not in my testament: and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.

10 For this is the testament which I will make to the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will give my laws into their mind, and in their heart will I write them: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:

11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me from the least to the greatest of them:

12 Because I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more.

13 Now in saying a new, he hath made the former old. And that which decayeth and groweth old, is near its end.