who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

saying: “I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You.”

Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?

The Promise of Rest

Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.

Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience,

For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Qualifications for High Priesthood

For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness.

Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins.

of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;

who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.

For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law;

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance;

For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives.

He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.

But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.

For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.