[1] Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high
priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in
heaven, [2] a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent which is set up
not by man but by the Lord. [3] For every high priest is appointed to offer
gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary for this priest also to have
something to offer. [4] Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest
at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. [5]
They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary; for when Moses was
about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, "See that you
make everything according to the pattern which was shown you on the
mountain." [6] But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry which is as
much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better,
since it is enacted on better promises. [7] For if that first covenant had
been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second. [8] For he
finds fault with them when he says: "The days will come, says the Lord,
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the
house of Judah; [9] not like the covenant that 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, and so I paid no heed to them,
says the Lord. [10] This is the covenant that 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, and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. [11] And they shall not teach every one his fellow or
every one his brother, saying, `Know the Lord,' for all shall know me, from
the least of them to the greatest. [12] For I will be merciful toward their
iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." [13] In speaking of a
new covenant he treats the first as obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete
and growing old is ready to vanish away.
