^2 (A)The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.

²³ Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, ^(A)and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you.

⁵ Now ^(A)therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and ^(B)keep My covenant, then ^(C)you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is ^(D)Mine. ⁶ And you shall be to Me a ^(E)kingdom of priests and a ^(F)holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”

⁷ So Moses came and called for the ^(G)elders of the people, and ^[a]laid before them all these words which the Lord commanded him. ⁸ Then ^(H)all the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” So Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord.

⁸ And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is ^(A)the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.”

¹⁹ For when Moses had spoken every ^[a]precept to all the people according to the law, ^(A)he took the blood of calves and goats, ^(B)with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, ²⁰ saying, ^(C)“This is the ^(D)blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” ²¹ Then likewise ^(E)he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. ²² And according to the law almost all things are ^[b]purified with blood, and ^(F)without shedding of blood there is no ^[c]remission.

Greatness of Christ’s Sacrifice

²³ Therefore it was necessary that ^(G)the copies of the things in the heavens should be ^[d]purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

⁶ But now ^(A)He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a ^(B)better covenant, which was established on better promises.

A New Covenant^(C)

⁷ For if that ^(D)first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. ⁸ Because finding fault with them, He says: ^(E)“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— ⁹ not 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 did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. ¹⁰ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the ^(F)Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and ^(G)I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ^11 (H)None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the ^(I)Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. ¹² For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, ^(J)and their sins ^[a]and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

^13 (K)In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.