The Bible (Old and New Testaments)

For finding fault, He saith to them, 'Lo, days come, saith the Lord, and I will complete with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, a new covenant,

not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day of My taking [them] by their hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt — because they did not remain in My covenant, and I did not regard them, saith the Lord, —

because this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord, giving My laws into their mind, and upon their hearts I will write them, and I will be to them for a God, and they shall be to Me for a people;

and they shall not teach each his neighbour, and each his brother, saying, Know thou the Lord, because they shall all know Me from the small one of them unto the great one of them,

because I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawlessnesses I will remember no more;' —

in the saying 'new,' He hath made the first old, and what doth become obsolete and is old [is] nigh disappearing.

It had, indeed, then (even the first tabernacle) ordinances of service, also a worldly sanctuary,

for a tabernacle was prepared, the first, in which was both the lamp-stand, and the table, and the bread of the presence — which is called 'Holy;'

and after the second vail a tabernacle that is called 'Holy of holies,'

having a golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid all round about with gold, in which [is] the golden pot having the manna, and the rod of Aaron that budded, and the tables of the covenant,

and over it cherubim of the glory, overshadowing the mercy-seat, concerning which we are not now to speak particularly.

And these things having been thus prepared, into the first tabernacle, indeed, at all times the priests do go in, performing the services,

and into the second, once in the year, only the chief priest, not apart from blood, which he doth offer for himself and the errors of the people,

the Holy Spirit this evidencing that not yet hath been manifested the way of the holy [places], the first tabernacle having yet a standing;

which [is] a simile in regard to the present time, in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which are not able, in regard to conscience, to make perfect him who is serving,

only in victuals, and drinks, and different baptisms, and fleshly ordinances — till the time of reformation imposed upon [them].

And Christ being come, chief priest of the coming good things, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands — that is, not of this creation —

neither through blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, did enter in once into the holy places, age-during redemption having obtained;

for if the blood of bulls, and goats, and ashes of an heifer, sprinkling those defiled, doth sanctify to the purifying of the flesh,

how much more shall the blood of the Christ (who through the age-during Spirit did offer himself unblemished to God) purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

And because of this, of a new covenant he is mediator, that, death having come, for redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, those called may receive the promise of the age-during inheritance,

for where a covenant [is], the death of the covenant-victim to come in is necessary,

for a covenant over dead victims [is] stedfast, since it is no force at all when the covenant-victim liveth,

whence not even the first apart from blood hath been initiated,

for every command having been spoken, according to law, by Moses, to all the people, having taken the blood of the calves and goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, he both the book itself and all the people did sprinkle,

saying, 'This [is] the blood of the covenant that God enjoined unto you,'

and both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the service with blood in like manner he did sprinkle,

and with blood almost all things are purified according to the law, and apart from blood-shedding forgiveness doth not come.

[It is] necessary, therefore, the pattern indeed of the things in the heavens to be purified with these, and the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these;

for not into holy places made with hands did the Christ enter — figures of the true — but into the heaven itself, now to be manifested in the presence of God for us;

nor that he may many times offer himself, even as the chief priest doth enter into the holy places every year with blood of others;

since it had behoved him many times to suffer from the foundation of the world, but now once, at the full end of the ages, for putting away of sin through his sacrifice, he hath been manifested;

and as it is laid up to men once to die, and after this — judgment,

so also the Christ, once having been offered to bear the sins of many, a second time, apart from a sin-offering, shall appear, to those waiting for him — to salvation!

For the law having a shadow of the coming good things — not the very image of the matters, every year, by the same sacrifices that they offer continually, is never able to make perfect those coming near,

since, would they not have ceased to be offered, because of those serving having no more conscience of sins, having once been purified?

but in those [sacrifices] is a remembrance of sins every year,

for it is impossible for blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Wherefore, coming into the world, he saith, 'Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not will, and a body Thou didst prepare for me,

in burnt-offerings, and concerning sin-offerings, Thou didst not delight,

then I said, Lo, I come, (in a volume of the book it hath been written concerning me,) to do, O God, Thy will;'

saying above — 'Sacrifice, and offering, and burnt-offerings, and concerning sin-offering Thou didst not will, nor delight in,' — which according to the law are offered —

then he said, 'Lo, I come to do, O God, Thy will;' he doth take away the first that the second he may establish;

in the which will we are having been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once,

and every priest, indeed, hath stood daily serving, and the same sacrifices many times offering, that are never able to take away sins.

And He, for sin one sacrifice having offered — to the end, did sit down on the right hand of God, —

as to the rest, expecting till He may place his enemies [as] his footstool,

for by one offering he hath perfected to the end those sanctified;

and testify to us also doth the Holy Spirit, for after that He hath said before,

'This [is] the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, giving My laws on their hearts, and upon their minds I will write them,'

and 'their sins and their lawlessness I will remember no more;'

and where forgiveness of these [is], there is no more offering for sin.

Having, therefore, brethren, boldness for the entrance into the holy places, in the blood of Jesus,

which way he did initiate for us — new and living, through the vail, that is, his flesh —

and a high priest over the house of God,

may we draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having the hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having the body bathed with pure water;

may we hold fast the unwavering profession of the hope, (for faithful [is] He who did promise),

and may we consider one another to provoke to love and to good works,

not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as a custom of certain [is], but exhorting, and so much the more as ye see the day coming nigh.

For we — wilfully sinning after the receiving the full knowledge of the truth — no more for sins doth there remain a sacrifice,

but a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery zeal, about to devour the opposers;

any one who did set at nought a law of Moses, apart from mercies, by two or three witnesses, doth die,

of how much sorer punishment shall he be counted worthy who the Son of God did trample on, and the blood of the covenant did count a common thing, in which he was sanctified, and to the Spirit of the grace did despite?

for we have known Him who is saying, 'Vengeance [is] Mine, I will recompense, saith the Lord;' and again, 'The Lord shall judge His people;' —

fearful [is] the falling into the hands of a living God.

And call to your remembrance the former days, in which, having been enlightened, ye did endure much conflict of sufferings,

partly both with reproaches and tribulations being made spectacles, and partly having become partners of those so living,

for also with my bonds ye sympathised, and the robbery of your goods with joy ye did receive, knowing that ye have in yourselves a better substance in the heavens, and an enduring one.

Ye may not cast away, then, your boldness, which hath great recompense of reward,

for of patience ye have need, that the will of God having done, ye may receive the promise,

for yet a very very little, He who is coming will come, and will not tarry;

and 'the righteous by faith shall live,' and 'if he may draw back, My soul hath no pleasure in him,'

and we are not of those drawing back to destruction, but of those believing to a preserving of soul.

And faith is of things hoped for a confidence, of matters not seen a conviction,

for in this were the elders testified of;

by faith we understand the ages to have been prepared by a saying of God, in regard to the things seen not having come out of things appearing;

by faith a better sacrifice did Abel offer to God than Cain, through which he was testified to be righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and through it, he being dead, doth yet speak.

By faith Enoch was translated — not to see death, and was not found, because God did translate him; for before his translation he had been testified to — that he had pleased God well,

and apart from faith it is impossible to please well, for it behoveth him who is coming to God to believe that He is, and to those seeking Him He becometh a rewarder.

By faith Noah, having been divinely warned concerning the things not yet seen, having feared, did prepare an ark to the salvation of his house, through which he did condemn the world, and of the righteousness according to faith he became heir.

By faith Abraham, being called, did obey, to go forth to the place that he was about to receive for an inheritance, and he went forth, not knowing whither he doth go;

by faith he did sojourn in the land of the promise as a strange country, in tabernacles having dwelt with Isaac and Jacob, fellow-heirs of the same promise,

for he was looking for the city having the foundations, whose artificer and constructor [is] God.

By faith also Sarah herself did receive power to conceive seed, and she bare after the time of life, seeing she did judge Him faithful who did promise;

wherefore, also from one were begotten — and that of one who had become dead — as the stars of the heaven in multitude, and as sand that [is] by the sea-shore — the innumerable.

In faith died all these, not having received the promises, but from afar having seen them, and having been persuaded, and having saluted [them], and having confessed that strangers and sojourners they are upon the earth,

for those saying such things make manifest that they seek a country;

and if, indeed, they had been mindful of that from which they came forth, they might have had an opportunity to return,

but now they long for a better, that is, an heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God, for He did prepare for them a city.

By faith Abraham hath offered up Isaac, being tried, and the only begotten he did offer up who did receive the promises,

of whom it was said — 'In Isaac shall a seed be called to thee;'

reckoning that even out of the dead God is able to raise up, whence also in a figure he did receive [him].

By faith, concerning coming things, Isaac did bless Jacob and Esau;

by faith Jacob dying — each of the sons of Joseph did bless, and did bow down upon the top of his staff;

by faith, Joseph dying, concerning the outgoing of the sons of Israel did make mention, and concerning his bones did give command.

By faith Moses, having been born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw the child comely, and were not afraid of the decree of the king;

by faith Moses, having become great, did refuse to be called a son of the daughter of Pharaoh,

having chosen rather to be afflicted with the people of God, than to have sin's pleasure for a season,

greater wealth having reckoned the reproach of the Christ than the treasures in Egypt, for he did look to the recompense of reward;

by faith he left Egypt behind, not having been afraid of the wrath of the king, for, as seeing the Invisible One — he endured;