Hebrews 8:6-13
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
6 Now he has obtained so much more excellent a ministry as he is mediator of a better covenant, enacted on better promises.(A)
Old and New Covenants.[a] 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, no place would have been sought for a second one. 8 But he finds fault with them and says:[b]
“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord,(B)
when I will conclude a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
9 It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers
the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt;
for they did not stand by my covenant
and I ignored them, says the Lord.
10 But this is the covenant I will establish with the house of Israel
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their minds
and I will write them upon their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.(C)
11 And they shall not teach, each one his fellow citizen
and kinsman, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for all shall know me,
from least to greatest.
12 For I will forgive their evildoing
and remember their sins no more.”
13 [c](D)When he speaks of a “new” covenant, he declares the first one obsolete. And what has become obsolete and has grown old is close to disappearing.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 8:7–13 Since the first covenant was deficient in accomplishing what it signified, it had to be replaced (Hb 8:7), as Jeremiah (Jer 31:31–34) had prophesied (Hb 8:8–12). Even in the time of Jeremiah, the first covenant was antiquated (Hb 8:13). In Hb 7:22–24, the superiority of the new covenant was seen in the permanence of its priesthood; here the superiority is based on better promises, made explicit in the citation of Jer 31:31–34 (LXX: 38), namely, in the immediacy of the people’s knowledge of God (Hb 8:11) and in the forgiveness of sin (Hb 8:12).
- 8:8–12 In citing Jeremiah the author follows the Septuagint; some apparent departures from it may be the result of a different Septuagintal text rather than changes deliberately introduced.
- 8:13 Close to disappearing: from the prophet’s perspective, not that of the author of Hebrews.
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