¹⁷ “On the second day: twelve young bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish,

³ Behind the second curtain was a tent^[a] called the holy of holies.^{(A) 4} In it stood the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which there were a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant;^{(B) 5} above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.^[b] Of these things we cannot speak now in detail.^(C)

⁶ These preparations having thus been made, the priests go continually into the first tent^[c] to carry out their ritual duties, ⁷ but only the high priest goes into the second, and he but once a year and not without taking the blood that he offers for himself and for the sins committed unintentionally by the people.^{(D) 8} By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the sanctuary has not yet been disclosed as long as the first tent^[d] is still standing.^{(E) 9} This is a symbol^[e] of the present time, indicating that gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper^{(F) 10} but deal only with food and drink and various baptisms, regulations for the body imposed until the time comes to set things right.^(G)

¹¹ But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come,^[f] then through the greater and more perfect tent^[g] (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation),^{(H) 12} he entered once for all into the holy place, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.^{(I) 13} For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified,^{(J) 14} how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit^[h] offered himself without blemish to God, purify our^[i] conscience from dead works to worship the living God!^(K)

¹³ In speaking of a new covenant, he has made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.^(A)

The New Life in Christ

12 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship.^(A)

²² For in the day that I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to them or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.^{(A) 23} But this command I gave them, “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.”^(B)