The Second Pair of Tablets^(A)

10 “At that time the Lord said to me, ^[a]‘Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain and make yourself an ^(B)ark of wood. ² And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and ^(C)you shall put them in the ark.’

³ “So I made an ark of acacia wood, hewed two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand. ⁴ And He wrote on the tablets according to the first writing, the Ten ^[b]Commandments, ^(D)which the Lord had spoken to you in the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ Then I turned and ^(E)came down from the mountain, and ^(F)put the tablets in the ark which I had made; ^(G)and there they are, just as the Lord commanded me.”

⁶ (Now the children of Israel journeyed from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah, where Aaron ^(H)died, and where he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered as priest in his ^[c]stead. ^7 (I)From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of ^[d]rivers of water. ⁸ At that time ^(J)the Lord ^[e]separated the tribe of Levi ^(K)to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, ^(L)to stand before the Lord to minister to Him and ^(M)to bless in His name, to this day. ^9 (N)Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, just as the Lord your God promised him.)

¹⁰ “As at the first time, ^(O)I stayed in the mountain forty days and forty nights; ^(P)the Lord also heard me at that time, and the Lord chose not to destroy you. ^11 (Q)Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, begin your journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.’

The East Gate and the Prince

44 Then He brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary ^(A)which faces toward the east, but it was shut. ² And the Lord said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it, ^(B)because the Lord God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut. ³ As for the ^(C)prince, because he is the prince, he may sit in it to ^(D)eat bread before the Lord; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gateway, and go out the same way.”

Those Admitted to the Temple

⁴ Also He brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the ^[a]temple; so I looked, and ^(E)behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord; ^(F)and I fell on my face. ⁵ And the Lord said to me, ^(G)“Son of man, ^[b]mark well, see with your eyes and hear with your ears, all that I say to you concerning all the ^(H)ordinances of the house of the Lord and all its laws. Mark well who may enter the house and all who go out from the sanctuary.

⁶ “Now say to the ^(I)rebellious, to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “O house of Israel, ^(J)let Us have no more of all your abominations. ^7 (K)When you brought in ^(L)foreigners, ^(M)uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to defile it—My house—and when you offered ^(N)My food, ^(O)the fat and the blood, then they broke My covenant because of all your abominations. ⁸ And you have not ^(P)kept charge of My holy things, but you have set others to keep charge of My sanctuary for you.” ⁹ Thus says the Lord God: ^(Q)“No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart or uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter My sanctuary, including any foreigner who is among the children of Israel.

Laws Governing Priests

^10 (R)“And the Levites who went far from Me, when Israel went astray, who strayed away from Me after their idols, they shall bear their iniquity. ¹¹ Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, ^(S)as gatekeepers of the house and ministers of the house; ^(T)they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and ^(U)they shall stand before them to minister to them. ¹² Because they ministered to them before their idols and ^(V)caused^[c] the house of Israel to fall into iniquity, therefore I have ^(W)raised My hand in an oath against them,” says the Lord God, “that they shall bear their iniquity.

¹⁵ And for this reason ^(A)He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that ^(B)those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

The Mediator’s Death Necessary

¹⁶ For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. ¹⁷ For ^(C)a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives. ^18 (D)Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. ¹⁹ For when Moses had spoken every ^[a]precept to all the people according to the law, ^(E)he took the blood of calves and goats, ^(F)with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, ²⁰ saying, ^(G)“This is the ^(H)blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” ²¹ Then likewise ^(I)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 ^(J)without shedding of blood there is no ^[c]remission.

Greatness of Christ’s Sacrifice

²³ Therefore it was necessary that ^(K)the copies of the things in the heavens should be ^[d]purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For ^(L)Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are ^[e]copies of ^(M)the true, but into heaven itself, now ^(N)to appear in the presence of God for us; ²⁵ not that He should offer Himself often, as ^(O)the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another— ²⁶ He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. ^27 (P)And as it is appointed for men to die once, ^(Q)but after this the judgment, ²⁸ so ^(R)Christ was ^(S)offered once to bear the sins ^(T)of many. To those who ^(U)eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.