Chronological Plan

¹For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,

²to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,”

³without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.

⁴Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils.

⁵And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham;

⁶but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.

⁷Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better.

⁸Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives.

⁹Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak,

¹⁰for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.

¹¹Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron?

¹²For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law.

¹³For He of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar.

¹⁴For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.

¹⁵And it is yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest

¹⁶who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life.

¹⁷For He testifies: “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.”

¹⁸For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness,

¹⁹for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.

²⁰And inasmuch as He was not made priest without an oath

²¹(for they have become priests without an oath, but He with an oath by Him who said to Him: “The LORD has sworn And will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek’ ”),

²²by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.

²³Also there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing.

²⁴But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood.

²⁵Therefore 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.

²⁶For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;

²⁷who 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.

²⁸For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.

¹Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

²a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.

³For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer.

⁴For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law;

⁵who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”

⁶But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

⁷For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.

⁸Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—

⁹not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD.

¹⁰For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

¹¹None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.

¹²For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

¹³In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

¹Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary.

²For a tabernacle was prepared: the first part, in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary;

³and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All,

⁴which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant;

⁵and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

⁶Now when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services.

⁷But 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;

⁸the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.

⁹It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience—

¹⁰concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation.

¹¹But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.

¹²Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

¹³For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh,

¹⁴how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

¹⁵And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

¹⁶For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.

¹⁷For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives.

¹⁸Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood.

¹⁹For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,

²⁰saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.”

²¹Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry.

²²And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.

²³Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

²⁴For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;

²⁵not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another—

²⁶He 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.

²⁷And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,

²⁸so 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.

¹For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.

²For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.

³But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.

⁴For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

⁵Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me.

⁶In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure.

⁷Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come— In the volume of the book it is written of Me— To do Your will, O God.’ ”

⁸Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law),

⁹then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second.

¹⁰By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

¹¹And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

¹²But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,

¹³from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.

¹⁴For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

¹⁵But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,

¹⁶“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,”

¹⁷then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

¹⁸Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

¹⁹Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,

²⁰by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,

²¹and having a High Priest over the house of God,

²²let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

²³Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

²⁴And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,

²⁵not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

²⁶For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

²⁷but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.

²⁸Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

²⁹Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

³⁰For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The LORD will judge His people.”

³¹It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

³²But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings:

³³partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated;

³⁴for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.

³⁵Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.

³⁶For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:

³⁷“For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.

³⁸Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.”

³⁹But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.