1 The first covenant then had ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary.
2 For the first tabernacle was provided, in which were the candlestick and the table and the show bread, which is called the sanctuary.
3 But behind the second vail is the tabernacle, called the inner sanctuary,
4 having the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on every side with gold, in which were the golden vase that had the manna and Aaron's rod that budded and the tables of the covenant,
5 and over it were the cherubs of glory, overshadowing the propitiation; of which it is not necessary now to speak particularly.
6 And these being thus provided, the priests enter into the first tabernacle continually, performing the services,
7 but into the second once a year only the chief priest [enters], not without blood, which he offers for his errors and those of the people,
8 the Holy Spirit showing this, that the way into the sanctuary is not made manifest while the first tabernacle yet has a standing,
9 which is a type of the time at hand, in which gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the worshipper as to the conscience,
10 only in meats and drinks and different baptisms, and external ordinances, imposed till the time of reformation.
11 But Christ having come, a chief priest of the good times that were to come, with a greater and a more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation,
12 not with blood of goats and bullocks, but with his own blood, entered once into the sanctuary having found eternal redemption.
13 For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the defiled, sanctifies to the purification of the flesh,
14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who with an eternal spirit offered himself without fault to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new covenant, that death having been for a redemption of transgressions [transgressors] under the first covenant, the called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
16 For where there is a covenant, there must follow the death of the covenant-maker.
17 For a covenant is strong for the dead, since it is never strong [unalterable] when the covenant-maker lives;
18 whence also the first [covenant] was not initiated without blood.
19 For every commandment of the law having been spoken by Moses to all the people, taking the blood of bullocks and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, he sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
20 saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God has enjoined upon you.
21 And he sprinkled also the tabernacle, and all the implements of the service, in like manner, with blood.
22 And almost all things, according to the law, are purified with blood, and without the pouring out of blood there is no forgiveness.
23 It was necessary, therefore, that the symbols of things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24 For Christ did not enter into the sanctuary made with hands, a type of the true, but into heaven itself, and already has appeared before God for us,
25 not that he may often present himself, as the chief priest enters into the sanctuary once a year with the blood of another [being];
26 since it was necessary that it should suffer often from the foundation of the world, but now once at the consummation of the world he has been manifested to destroy sins by the sacrifice of himself.
27 And as it is appointed to men once to die, but after this is the judgment,
28 so also Christ having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time without sin, to those who look for him for salvation.