Jesus, High Priest of a Better Covenant
1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is eseated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 a minister in the holy places, in the ftrue gtent1 that the Lord set up, hnot man. 3 For ievery high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus 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 jcopy and kshadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, l“See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” 6 But as it is, Christ2 has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the mcovenant he nmediates is obetter, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For pif that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
8 For he finds fault with them when he says:3
q“Behold, the days are coming, declares 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 bring them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant,
and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
10 rFor this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and sI will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and tI will remember their sins no more.”
13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
15 Therefore he is the wmediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal xinheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.1
