¹³ All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised;^(A) they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance,^(B) admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.^{(C) 14} People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.^{(D) 16} Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one.^(E) Therefore God is not ashamed^(F) to be called their God,^(G) for he has prepared a city^(H) for them.

⁹ Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.^(A) It is good for our hearts to be strengthened^(B) by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods,^(C) which is of no benefit to those who do so.^{(D) 10} We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle^(E) have no right to eat.^(F)

¹¹ The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering,^(G) but the bodies are burned outside the camp.^{(H) 12} And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate^(I) to make the people holy^(J) through his own blood.^{(K) 13} Let us, then, go to him^(L) outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.^{(M) 14} For here we do not have an enduring city,^(N) but we are looking for the city that is to come.^(O)