⁶ Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.

³ Another angel with a golden censer came and stood at the altar; he was given a great quantity of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne.^{(A) 4} And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.^{(B) 5} Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.^(C)

²² Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.^(A)

Christ’s Sacrifice Takes Away Sin

²³ Thus it was necessary for the sketches of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves need better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.^{(B) 25} Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the holy place year after year with blood that is not his own, ²⁶ for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself.^(C)

⁷ Of the angels he says,

² He said to the man clothed in linen, “Go within the wheelwork underneath the cherubim; fill your hands with burning coals from among the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.” He went in as I looked on.^(A)

² Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.^(A)

¹² He shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of crushed sweet incense, and he shall bring it inside the curtain^(A)

¹⁰ We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent^[a] have no right to eat.^(A)

¹⁴ Are not all angels^[a] spirits in the divine service, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?^(A)

³ Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.