Beginning
7 For this Melchizedek - King of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he returned from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,
2 and to whom Abraham also gave a tithe of all things - is by first interpretation “King of Righteousness”, and after that “King of Salem” (that is, “King of Peace”);
3 without father or mother or family, having neither beginning of days nor end of life. But he is likened to the Son of God and continues as a priest forever.
4 Now consider how great this man was to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tithe of the spoils.
5 For indeed those who are the children of Levi (who receive the office of the priesthood) have a Commandment to take tithes from the people according to the Law (that is, from their brothers), though they came out of the loins of Abraham.
6 But the one whose family is not counted among them received tithes from Abraham, and blessed him who had the promises.
7 And without any dispute, the less is blessed by the greater.
8 And here, men who die receive tithes. But there, he who lives (about Whom it is witnessed).
9 And truth be told, Levi (who receives tithes) also paid tithes to Abraham.
10 For he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.
11 Therefore, if perfection had been by the priesthood of the Levites (for under it the people received the Law) what further need was there for another priest to rise after the order of Melchizedek, and not to be called after the order of Aaron?
12 For if the priesthood is changed, then the Law must be changed.
13 For He of Whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man served at the altar.
14 For it is evident that our Lord sprung out of Judah, about which tribe Moses spoke nothing regarding the priesthood.
15 And it is even more evident because there has risen up another priest in the likeness of Melchizedek,
16 Who is made priest not after the Law of carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
17 For He testifies, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”
18 For indeed the preceding commandment is annulled because of its weakness and uselessness.
19 For the Law made nothing perfect, but rather the introduction of a better hope (by which we draw near to God).
20 And inasmuch as it is not without an oath (for these priests are made without an oath,
21 but this One was made with an oath by Him Who said to Him, “The Lord has sworn, and will not repent. You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”)
22 By so much has Jesus made a surety of a better Testament.
23 And many were made priests among them, because they were not allowed to endure by the reason of death.
24 But this Man, because He endures forever, has an unchangeable priesthood.
25 Therefore, He is also able to perfectly save those who come to God through Him (seeing He forever lives to make intercession for them).
26 For it was fitting for us to have such a High Priest: holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
27 Who does not need to offer up daily sacrifices (first for His own sins, and then for the people’s) as those High Priests. For He did that once and for all when He offered up Himself.
28 For the Law makes men (who have weakness) High Priests. But the Word of the oath (which came after the Law) makes the Son, Who is consecrated for evermore.
8 Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum: that we have such a High Priest Who sits at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in Heaven,
2 and is a Minister of the Sanctuary, and of the true Tabernacle (which the Lord pitched, and not man).
3 For every High Priest is ordained to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore, it was necessary that this Man also have something to offer.
4 For if He were on the Earth, He would not be a priest, seeing there are priests that offer gifts according to the Law,
5 who serve the pattern and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was instructed by God when he was about to finish the Tabernacle. “See,” said He, “that you make all things according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain.”
6 But now, our High Priest has obtained a more excellent office, inasmuch as He is the Mediator of a better Testament, which is established upon better promises.
7 For if that first Testament had been blameless, no place would have been sought for the second.
8 For in rebuking them He said, “‘Behold, the days will come,’ says the Lord, ‘when I shall make a new Testament with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah -
9 ‘unlike the Testament that I made with their fathers on the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my Testament. And I disregarded them,’ says the Lord.
10 “For this is the Testament that I will make with the House of Israel, ‘After those days,’ says the Lord, ‘I will put My Laws in their mind, And I will write them on their heart. And I will be their God. And they shall be my people.
11 ‘And no one shall teach his neighbor, or every man his brother, saying, “Know the Lord.” For all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.
12 ‘For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. And I will remember their sins and their iniquities no more.’”
13 In saying, “a New Testament”, He has rendered the first obsolete. Now that which has aged and grown old is ready to vanish.
9 Then, indeed, the first Testament had ordinances of religion, and a worldly sanctuary.
2 For the first Tabernacle was made - in which was the candlestick, and the table, and the showbread - which is called the Holy Place.
3 And after the second veil, the Tabernacle - which is called the Holiest of All -
4 which had the golden censer and the Ark of the Testament, overlaid all around with gold (in which was the golden pot which had manna and Aaron’s rod that had budded and the tables of the Testament).
5 And over the Ark were the glorious cherubims shadowing the mercy seat, of which we will not now speak particularly.
6 Now when these things were thus prepared, the priest always went into the first Tabernacle and completed the service.
7 But only the High Priest went into the second - once every year - and not without blood (which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins of ignorance).
8 By this, the Holy Ghost signified that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing.
9 It was a symbol of that present time in which was offered gifts and sacrifices that could not make the worshiper holy concerning the conscience,
10 but consisted only of foods and drinks and diverse washings and carnal rituals imposed until the time of reformation.
11 But Christ - being a High Priest of good things to come - came by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle (not made with hands - that is, not of this creation -
12 nor by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood), entering in once to the Holy Place and obtaining eternal redemption.
13 For if the sprinkling of the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who are unclean (as touching the purifying of the flesh),
14 how much more shall the blood of Christ - Who, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without fault to God - purge your conscience from dead works, to serve the living God?
15 And because of this, He is the Mediator of the new Testament, so that through death (which was for the redemption of the transgressions in the former Testament) those who were called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
16 For where there is a Testament, there must be the death of the one who made it.
17 For the Testament is confirmed after death. It is still of no force so long as the one who made it lives.
18 Therefore, nor was the first ordained without blood.
19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to the people (according to the Law), he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and purple wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people,
20 saying, “This is the blood of the Testament which God has commanded you.”
21 Moreover, he likewise sprinkled the Tabernacle with blood, and all the implements of ministry.
22 And by the Law, almost all things are purged with blood. And there is no remission without shedding of blood.
23 It was necessary, then, that the representations of heavenly things should be purified with such things. But the heavenly things themselves are purified with better sacrifices than these.
24 For Christ has not entered into the Holy Places that are made with hands - which are representations of the true things - but into Heaven itself, to appear now in the sight of God for us.
25 Not that He should offer himself often, as the High Priest entered into the Holy Place every year with others’ blood.
26 For then He would have had to suffer often, since the foundation of the world. But now, in the end of the world, He has appeared once, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
27 And as much as it has been appointed to man that he shall die once (and after that comes the Judgment),
28 so Christ was once offered to take away the sins of many. And to those who look for Him, He shall appear a second time - without sin - for salvation.
10 For the law, having the shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things, can never - with those sacrifices which they offer year by year continually - sanctify those who come to it.
2 For would they not, then, have ceased to have been offered, because those who offer (once purged) would have had no more consciousness of sins?
3 But in those sacrifices, there is a remembrance of sins again every year.
4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “Sacrifice and offering You do not desire, but a body have You prepared for Me.
6 “In burnt offerings and sin offerings You have had no pleasure.
7 “Then I said, ‘Lo, I come. In the beginning of the book it is written of Me, that I should do Your will, O God’.”
8 Previously, when He said, “Sacrifice and offering, and burnt offerings, and sin offerings, You do not desire, nor had pleasure therein (which are offered by the Law).”
9 Then He said, “Lo, I come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first, so that He may establish the second.
10 By which will we are sanctified; by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands daily, ministering, frequently offering the same sacrifice (which can never take away sins).
12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins, sits forever at the right hand of God.
13 And since that time, He waits for His enemies to be made His footstool.
14 For with one offering, He has forever consecrated those who are sanctified.
15 For the Holy Ghost also bears us witness. For after He had said before,
16 “This is the Testament that I will make to them after those days, says the Lord, ‘I will put my Laws in their heart, and I will write them in their minds.’”
17 And, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”
18 Now where there is remission of these things, there is no more offering for sin.
19 Seeing therefore, brothers, that by the blood of Jesus we may be bold to enter into the Holy Place,
20 By the new and living way through the veil, which He has prepared for us (that is, His flesh).
21 And seeing we have a High Priest over the house of God,
22 let us draw near with a true heart, in assurance of faith; our hearts being sprinkled clean from an evil conscience
23 and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us keep the profession of our hope without wavering. For He Who promised is faithful.
24 And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and to good works,
25 not forsaking the fellowship that we have among ourselves (as is the manner of some). But let us exhort one another, and so much more so because you see that the Day draws near.
26 For if we sin willingly after we have received and acknowledged the Truth, sacrifice for sins no longer remains;
27 but rather a fearful expectation of judgment and violent fire, which shall devour the adversaries.
28 Anyone who ignores Moses’ Law dies without mercy upon two or three witnesses.
29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, shall he be worthy who treads the Son of God under foot, and counts the blood of the Testament (with which he was sanctified) as an unholy thing, insulting the Spirit of Grace?
30 For we know Him Who has said, “Vengeance belongs to Me. I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord shall judge His people.”
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32 Now call to remembrance the days that are passed in which - after you had received light - you endured a great fight in afflictions;
33 partly while you were made a spectacle by both reproaches and afflictions and partly while you became companions of those who were so tossed to and fro.
34 For you sorrowed with me for my bonds; and also joyfully suffered the plundering of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have a better and an enduring substance in Heaven.
35 Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.
36 For you need patience, so that after you have done the will of God you might receive the promise.
37 For yet a very little while and He Who shall come, will come, and will not wait.
38 For “The just shall live by faith. But if anyone withdraws himself, My soul shall have no pleasure in him.”
39 However, we are not those who withdraw into destruction, but those who follow faith to the preservation of the soul.
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