¹⁰ There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets ^(A)that Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel, when they came out of Egypt.

⁴ having the golden ^(A)altar of incense and ^(B)the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was ^(C)a golden urn holding the manna, and ^(D)Aaron's staff that budded, and ^(E)the tablets of the covenant.

¹¹ And there I have set the ark, ^(A)in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made with the people of Israel.”

² And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and ^(A)you shall put them in the ark.’ ³ So I made an ark ^(B)of acacia wood, and ^(C)cut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. ⁴ And ^(D)he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments^{[a] (E)}that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire ^(F)on the day of the assembly. And the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ Then I turned and ^(G)came down from the mountain and ^(H)put the tablets in the ark that I had made. ^(I)And there they are, as the Lord commanded me.”

⁷ Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, ^(A)“All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” ^8 (B)And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

⁵ Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be ^(A)my treasured possession among all peoples, for ^(B)all the earth is mine;

⁶ But as it is, Christ^[a] has obtained a ministry that is ^(A)as much more excellent than the old as ^(B)the covenant ^(C)he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. ^7 (D)For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

⁸ For he finds fault with them when he says:^[b]

¹³ In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And ^(J)what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

The New Covenant

^31 (A)“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make ^(B)a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, ³² not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when ^(C)I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, ^(D)though I was their husband, declares the Lord. ^33 (E)For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: ^(F)I will put my law within them, and I will write it ^(G)on their hearts. ^(H)And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ ^(I)for they shall all know me, ^(J)from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For ^(K)I will forgive their iniquity, and ^(L)I will remember their sin no more.”

¹⁰ “You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God: the heads of your tribes,^[a] your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel, ¹¹ your little ones, your wives, and the ^(A)sojourner who is in your camp, from ^(B)the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, ¹² so that you may enter into the ^(C)sworn covenant of the Lord your God, which the Lord your God is making with you today, ¹³ that he may ^(D)establish you today as his people, and that ^(E)he may be your God, as he promised you, and ^(F)as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. ¹⁴ It is not with you alone ^(G)that I am making this sworn covenant,