Beginning

He compares the priesthood of Christ to Melchizedek, but declares it to be far more excellent.

7 This Melchizedek, king of Salem (who, being priest of the most high God, met Abraham as he returned from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, ² to whom also Abraham gave tithes of all the spoils) is by translation of his name, king of righteousness. After that, he is king of Salem; that is to say, king of peace. ³ Without father, without mother, without kin, and having neither a beginning of his days nor yet end of his life, he is likened to the Son of God and continues a priest forever.

⁴ Consider what a man this was, to whom the patriarch Abraham gave tithes of the spoils. ⁵ And now, those children of Levi that received the office of the priests have a commandment to take tithes from the people according to the law; that is to say from their brethren, yea though they came out of the loins of Abraham. ⁶ But he whose kindred is not counted among them received tithes from Abraham, and blessed him who had the promises. ⁷ And without argument, he who is less receives blessing from him who is greater. ⁸ And here, men who die receive tithes. But there, he receives tithes of whom it is witnessed that he lives. ⁹ And to say the truth, Levi himself also, who receives tithes, paid tithes in Abraham. ¹⁰ For he was yet in the loins of his father Abraham when Melchizedek met him.

¹¹ If now therefore perfection came by the priesthood of the Levites (for under that priesthood the people received the law), what further need was there for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, and not after the order of Aaron? ¹² Now no doubt if the priesthood is translated, then of necessity the law must be translated also. ¹³ For he of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, of which no man ever served at the altar. ¹⁴ For it is evident that our Lord came from the tribe of Judah, of which tribe Moses said nothing concerning priesthood.

¹⁵ And it is yet a more evident thing if another priest in the similitude of Melchizedek arises, ¹⁶ who is not made priest by the law of the carnal commandment, but by the power of the endless life. ¹⁷ For he testifies: You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.

¹⁸ So then, the previous commandment is abrogated, because of its weakness and unprofitableness. ¹⁹ For the law made nothing perfect, but was a preparation for a better hope, by which hope we draw near to God.

²⁰ And it is a better hope in that it was not promised without an oath. ²¹ Those priests were made without an oath, but this priest with an oath, by him that said to him: The Lord swore and will not repent: You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. ²² And thus did Jesus establish and secure a better testament.

²³ And among the Levites many were made priests, because they were prevented from continuing by death. ²⁴ But this man, because he endures forever, has an everlasting priesthood. ²⁵ Therefore he is able also to save to all eternity those who come to God by him, seeing he lives eternally to make intercession for us.

²⁶ Such a high priest it behoved us to have, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than heaven; ²⁷ who does not need (like those high priests) daily to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then for the people’s sins. For Jesus did that once and for all when he offered up himself. ²⁸ For the law makes priests of men who have infirmity, but the word of the oath that came since the law makes the Son priest, who is perfect forevermore.

The office of Christ is more worthy than the office of the priests under the old law, which was imperfect, and was therefore abrogated.

8 Of the things which we have spoken, this is the pith: that we have such a high priest as sits on the right hand of the seat of majesty in heaven, ² and is a minister of holy things, and of the very tabernacle that God pitched, and not man.

³ For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices, and therefore it is necessary that this man also have something to offer. ⁴ For he would not be a priest if he were on the earth, where are the priests who offer gifts according to the law. ⁵ Such priests serve in the figure and shadow of heavenly things, in accordance with the oracle of God given to Moses when he was about to make the tabernacle: Take heed (said he) that you fashion all things according to the pattern shown to you in the mount.

⁶ Now he has obtained a more excellent office, inasmuch as he is the mediator of a better testament, which was made for better promises. ⁷ For if that first testament had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for the second.

⁸ For in rebuking the people, he says: Behold, the days will come (says the Lord) when I will make a new testament with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, ⁹ not like the testament that I made with their fathers at the time when I took them by the hands to lead them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my testament, and I regarded them not, 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 minds, and I will write them in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ¹¹ And they shall not teach everyone his neighbour and everyone his brother, saying, Know the Lord! For they shall all know me, from the least to the greatest of them. ¹² For I will be merciful over their unrighteousness, and over their sins and their iniquities.

¹³ In that he says a new testament, he has abrogated the old. Now that which is abolished and grown old, is ready to vanish away.

The value and significance of the old testament, and how far the new excels it.

9 That first tabernacle indeed had observances, and the serving of God, and temporal holiness. ² For a foretabernacle was made, where the candlestick and the table and the showbread were, which is called holy. ³ But within the second veil there was a tabernacle that is called holiest of all. ⁴ It had the golden censer, and the ark of the testament overlaid round about with gold, in which was the golden pot with manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the testament. ⁵ Over the ark were the cherubims of glory covering the seat of grace – of which things we will not now speak particularly.

⁶ When these things had been set up accordingly, the priests went constantly into the first tabernacle and executed the service of God. ⁷ But into the second went the high priest alone, once every year – and not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the ignorance of the people. ⁸ By this the Holy Spirit was signifying that the way of holy things was not yet opened, while as yet the first tabernacle was standing. ⁹ That tabernacle was a similitude for the time then present, and in which gifts and sacrifices were offered that could not make the offerer perfect as pertaining to the conscience, ¹⁰ with only foods and drinks, and various washings and observances of the flesh, which were prescribed until the time of reformation.

¹¹ But Christ, being a high priest of good things to come, came by a greater and a more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands; that is to say, not of this creation. ¹² Neither was it by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered once and for all into the holy place, and found eternal redemption. ¹³ For if the blood of oxen and of goats and the ashes of a heifer when sprinkled purified the unclean insofar as the purifying of the flesh is concerned, ¹⁴ how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works in order to serve the living God?

¹⁵ And therefore he is the mediator of the new testament, so that through death, which effected the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, those who are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance. ¹⁶ For where there is a testament, there must also be the death of him who makes the testament, ¹⁷ because a testament takes authority when men are dead. It is of no effect as long as he who made it is alive.

¹⁸ For which reason also, neither was that first testament ordained without blood. ¹⁹ For when all the commandments were read by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and of 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 that God has appointed unto you. ²¹ Moreover, he sprinkled the tabernacle with blood also, and all the ministering vessels. ²² And also almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission.

²³ It is needful then that the similitudes of heavenly things be purified with such things, but the heavenly things themselves are purified with better sacrifices than are those. ²⁴ For Christ has not entered into the holy places that are made with hands, which are but similitudes of true things, but has entered into very heaven, to appear now in the sight of God for us – ²⁵ not to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters into the holy place every year with strange blood. ²⁶ For then he must have repeatedly suffered since the world began. But now, in the end of the world, he has appeared once and for all to put sin to flight by the offering up of himself. ²⁷ And as it is appointed unto men once to die, and then comes the judgment, ²⁸ so Christ was offered once to take away the sins of many, and to those who look for him, he will appear again without sin for salvation.

The old law has no power to cleanse away sin, but Christ did it with the offering of his body once and for all. An exhortation to receive this goodness of God thankfully, with patience and steadfast faith.

10 For the law, which has but the shadow of good things to come, and not the real things themselves, can never, with the sacrifices that the priests offer year by year continually, make those who come to it perfect. ² For would not then those sacrifices have ceased to be offered, because the offerers, once purged, would have had no more conscience of sins? ³ But in those sacrifices, mention is made of sins every year. ⁴ For it is impossible that the blood of oxen and of goats should take away sins. ⁵ Therefore when he comes into the world he says: Sacrifice and offering you would not have, but a body you have made ready for me. ⁶ In sacrifices and sin-offerings you have no pleasure. ⁷ Then I said, Lo, I come! In the chief part of the book it is written of me, that I will do your will, O God.

⁸ Above – when he said sacrifice and offering, and burnt sacrifices and sin-offerings you would not have, neither have accepted (which yet are offered according to the law), ⁹ and then said, Lo, I come to do your will, O God – he takes away the first in order to establish the latter. ¹⁰ In accordance with this God’s will, we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.

¹¹ And every priest is ready daily ministering, and repeatedly offers one manner of offering that can never take away sins. ¹² But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down forever on the right hand of God, ¹³ and from henceforth waits till his enemies be made his footstool. ¹⁴ For with one offering, he has made perfect forever those who are sanctified.

¹⁵ And the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us of this, namely when he foretold: ¹⁶ This is the testament that I will make unto them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and in their mind I will write them, ¹⁷ and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more.

¹⁸ Now where there is remission of these things, there is no more offering for sin.

¹⁹ Seeing, brethren, that by the means of the blood of Jesus we may be bold to enter into that holy place, ²⁰ by the new and living way that he has prepared for us through the veil (that is to say, by his flesh), ²¹ and seeing also that we have a high priest who is ruler over the house of God, ²² let us draw near with a true heart, in full faith, sprinkled in our hearts from an evil conscience, and washed in our bodies with pure water. ²³ And let us keep the profession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider one another, to encourage to love and to good works. ²⁵ And let us not forsake the fellowship that we have among ourselves, as the manner of some is, but let us exhort one another, and that so much the more because you see that the day draws near.

²⁶ For if we sin willingly after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but a fearful looking for judgment and violent fire, which will devour the adversaries. ²⁸ He who despises Moses’ law dies without mercy under two or three witnesses: ²⁹ of how much sorer punishment do you suppose that person will be counted deserving who treads under foot the Son of God, and counts as an unholy thing the blood of the testament by which he was sanctified, and does dishonour to the Spirit of Grace? ³⁰ For we know him who has said: Vengeance belongs to me; I will recompense, 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 Call to remembrance the days that are past, in which, after you had received light, you endured a great fight in adversities – ³³ at times when everyone wondered and gazed at you for the shame and tribulation that was done to you, and other times when you became companions of those in such circumstances. ³⁴ For you suffered also with my bonds. And you bore patiently the spoiling of your goods, and that with gladness, knowing in yourselves that you had in heaven a better and an enduring substance.

³⁵ Cast not away therefore your confidence, which earns great reward. ³⁶ For you have need of patience, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: ³⁷ For yet a very little while, and he who is to come will come, and will not be long. ³⁸ But the just shall live by faith. And if a person withdraws himself, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

³⁹ But we are not of those who withdraw ourselves unto damnation, but are of faith to the winning of the soul.