The High Priest of the New Covenant

1Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the Majesty's throne in heaven,

2where he serves as a minister of the holy places and the true tabernacle, which was set up by the Lord, not by man.

3For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; therefore, it was necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.

4²³For if he were on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there are already priests who offer gifts according to the law.

5They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to build the tabernacle, he was warned by God, “Be sure to make everything according to the pattern that was shown to yoʋ on the mountain.”

6But as it is, the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to the old priesthood as the covenant he mediates is superior to the old covenant, since it has been enacted on better promises.

7For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one.

8But finding fault with ²⁴it, God says to the people,
“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord,
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah,

9not like the covenant I made with their fathers
on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant,
so I had no regard for them, says the Lord.

10For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.

11No longer will a man teach his ²⁵fellow citizen
or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.

12For I will be merciful toward their iniquities;
their sins ²⁶and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

13In speaking of “a new covenant,” he has made the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.