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Mediator of a Better Covenant

Now the main point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,(A) a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent[a] that the Lord, and not any mortal, has set up.(B) For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.(C) Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are already those[b] who offer gifts according to the law. They offer worship in a sanctuary that is[c] a sketch and shadow of the heavenly one, just as Moses was warned when he was about to erect the tent.[d] For, God[e] said, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.”(D) But Jesus[f] has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on the basis of better promises.(E) For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one.(F)

God[g] finds fault with them when he says:

“The days are surely coming, says the Lord,
    when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
    and with the house of Judah,(G)
not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors
    on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt,
for they did not continue in my covenant,
    and so I had no concern for them, says the Lord.
10 This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
    after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their minds
    and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.(H)
11 And they shall not teach one another
    or say to each other,[h] ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
    from the least of them to the greatest.(I)
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
    and I will remember their sins[i] no more.”(J)

13 In speaking of a new covenant, he has made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.(K)

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Footnotes

  1. 8.2 Or tabernacle
  2. 8.4 Other ancient authorities read priests
  3. 8.5 Gk lacks a sanctuary that is
  4. 8.5 Or tabernacle
  5. 8.5 Gk he
  6. 8.6 Gk he
  7. 8.8 Gk He
  8. 8.11 Or teach each one their fellow-citizen and each one their sibling, saying
  9. 8.12 Other ancient authorities add and their lawless deeds