¹⁸ For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of ^(A)its weakness and unprofitableness,

³ For ^(A)what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, ^(B)God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,

³⁹ and ^(A)by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

¹⁹ for ^(A)the law made nothing ^[a]perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of ^(B)a better hope, through which ^(C)we draw near to God.

Need for a New Priesthood^(A)

^11 (B)Therefore, if 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? ¹² For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law.

⁹ But now ^(A)after you have known God, or rather are known by God, ^(B)how is it that you turn again to ^(C)the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?

A New Covenant^(A)

⁷ For if that ^(B)first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. ⁸ Because finding fault with them, He says: ^(C)“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 ^(D)Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and ^(E)I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ^11 (F)None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the ^(G)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, ^(H)and their sins ^[a]and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

^13 (I)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.

⁸ For ^(A)bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, ^(B)having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.

¹⁷ And this I say, that the law, ^(A)which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God ^[a]in Christ, ^(B)that it should make the promise of no effect.