Hebrews 8-10

21st Century King James Version

8 Now of the things of which we have spoken, this is the sum: We have such a High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

² 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 gifts and sacrifices; therefore it is of necessity that this Man have something also to offer.

⁴ For if He were on earth, He should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests who offer gifts according to the law,

⁵ and who serve unto the copy and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished by God when he was about to make the tabernacle. For, “See,” saith He, “that thou make all things according to the pattern shown to thee on the mount.”

⁶ But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

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

⁸ For finding fault with them, He saith, “Behold, the days come,” saith the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—

⁹ not 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 continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.

¹⁰ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people.

¹¹ And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest.

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

¹³ In that He saith “a new covenant,” He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

9 Then verily, the first covenant also had ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary.

² For there was a tabernacle made, the first, wherein was the candlestick and the table and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary.

³ And after the second veil was the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All,

⁴ which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant;

⁵ and over it were the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat, of which we cannot now speak particularly.

⁶ Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service to God.

⁷ But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people,

⁸ the Holy Ghost by this signifying that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest so long as the first tabernacle was yet standing.

⁹ It was a figure for the time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, which could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience,

¹⁰ since it concerned only meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation.

¹¹ But Christ, having come a High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands (that is to say, not of this building),

¹² neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

¹³ For if sprinkling the unclean with the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh,

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

¹⁵ And for this cause He is the Mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were covered under the first testament, those who are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

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

¹⁷ For a testament is of force after men are dead, otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.

¹⁸ And so not even the first testament was dedicated without blood.

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

²⁰ saying, “This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.”

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

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

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

²⁴ For Christ has not entered into 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.

²⁵ Nor yet should He offer Himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place with blood of others every year;

²⁶ for then would He have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once, in the end of the world, hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

²⁷ And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment,

²⁸ so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto those who look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin, unto salvation.

10 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image of those things, can never, with those sacrifices which they offered continually year by year, make those who come unto it perfect.

² For then would not sacrifices have ceased to be offered? For worshipers once purged should have had no more consciousness of sins.

³ But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year,

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

⁵ Therefore when He cometh into the world, He saith, “Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not have, but a body hast Thou prepared for Me.

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

⁷ Then said I, ‘Lo, I come (in the volume of the Book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, O God.’”

⁸ Above when He said, “Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings, and offering for sin Thou wouldest not have, neither hadst pleasure therein” (which are offered in accordance with the law),

⁹ then said He, “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God,” He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second.

¹⁰ By this will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

¹¹ And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering time and again the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

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

¹³ from henceforth to wait until His enemies be made His footstool.

¹⁴ For by one offering He hath perfected for ever those who are sanctified.

¹⁵ Of this the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us; for after He had said before,

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

¹⁷ and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”

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

¹⁹ Having therefore boldness, brethren, to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,

²⁰ by a new and living Way, which He hath consecrated for us through the veil (that is to say, His flesh),

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

²² let 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.

²³ Let us hold fast to the profession of our faith without wavering (for He is faithful who promised),

²⁴ and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works,

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

²⁶ For if we sin willfully after having received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,

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

²⁸ He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

²⁹ Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath accounted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath despised the Spirit of grace?

³⁰ For we know Him that hath said, “Vengeance belongeth unto Me; I will recompense,” saith 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 But call to remembrance the former days in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions,

³³ partly while ye were being made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while ye became companions of those who were so used.

³⁴ For ye had compassion on me in my bonds and took joyfully the despoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in Heaven a better and an enduring substance.

³⁵ Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.

³⁶ For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

³⁷ “For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry.

³⁸ Now the just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him.”

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