Study Desk

For it has been testified: You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

(for the law perfected nothing), but a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

None of this happened without an oath. For others became priests without an oath,

Therefore, He is always able to save those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.

For this is the kind of high priest we need: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

He doesn't need to offer sacrifices every day, as high priests do—first for their own sins, then for those of the people. He did this once for all when He offered Himself.

For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak, but the promise of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son, who has been perfected forever.

For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; therefore it was necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.

These serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was warned when he was about to complete the tabernacle. For God said, Be careful that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second one.

For I will be merciful to their wrongdoing, and I will never again remember their sins.

Now the first covenant also had regulations for ministry and an earthly sanctuary.

For a tabernacle was set up, and in the first room, which is called the holy place, were the lampstand, the table, and the presentation loaves.

But the high priest alone enters the second room, and he does that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance.

This is a symbol for the present time, during which gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the worshiper's conscience.

He entered the most holy place once for all, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh,

Therefore, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

For a will is valid only when people die, since it is never in force while the one who made it is living.

For when every command had been proclaimed by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll itself and all the people,