Dual Panel1Now [this is] the main point in what has been said: we have a high priest such as this, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,
2a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord set up, not man.
3For every high priest is appointed in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices; therefore [it was] necessary [for] this one also to have something that he offers.
4Now if he were on earth, he would not even be a priest, [because there] are those who offer the gifts according to the law,
5who serve a sketch and shadow of the heavenly [things], just as Moses was warned [when he] was about to complete the tabernacle, for he says, "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern which was shown to you on the mountain."
6But now he has attained a more excellent ministry, by as much as he is also mediator of a better covenant which has been enacted upon better promises.
7For if that first [covenant] had been faultless, occasion would not have been sought for a second.
8For in finding fault with them he says, "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
9not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day I took hold of them by my hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I disregarded them, says the Lord.
10For this [is] the covenant that I will decree with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I am putting my laws in their minds and I will write them on their hearts, and I will be _their_ God and they will be _my_ people.
11And they will not teach each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
12For I will be merciful toward their wrongdoings, and I will not remember their sins [any] longer.
13In calling [it] new, he has declared the former [to be old]. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old [is] near to disappearing.