They will perish, but you always remain; they all will grow old like a coat,

And you will fold them up just like a robe, and they will be changed like the changing of one's coat, but you are the same, and your years will never cease."

You must not harden your hearts as they did in provoking me, as on the day in the desert they tested me,

Where your forefathers found I stood their test, because they saw my works for forty years,

So I was indignant with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have never come to know my ways.'

So in my anger I took oath, 'They shall not be admitted to my rest!'"

and yet the warning continues to be spoken: "If you but hear His voice, you must not harden your hearts as they did in provoking me."

To whom did He take oath that they should not be admitted to His rest, if it was not to those who disobeyed Him?

So we see that it was because of their unbelief that they could not be admitted to it.

For we have had the good news told to us as well as they, but the message heard did them no good, because they were not by faith made one with those who heeded it.

For we who have believed are being admitted to that rest, just as He has said: "As in my anger I took oath, they shall not be admitted to my rest," although God's works had been completed at the creation of the world.

while in this passage again He says: "They shall not be admitted to my rest."

and then have fallen by the wayside -- it is impossible, I say, to keep on restoring them to their first repentance, since they continue to crucify the Son of God to their detriment and hold Him up to contempt.

And those of the descendants of Levi who accept the priesthood are authorized by the law to collect a tenth from the people; that is, from their own brothers, though they have sprung from Abraham.

And the Levitical priests, on the one hand, have become numerous, because they have been prevented by death from continuing in office,

and yet they officiate in a sanctuary that is a mere copy and shadow of the heavenly one, as Moses, when he was about to make the tent of worship, was warned, for, said He, "See to it that you make it all just like the pattern shown you on the mountain."

Unlike the one that I made with their forefathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them out from the land of Egypt, for they did not abide by their covenant with me, so I did not care for them,' says the Lord.

'For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel in 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 will be my people. And nevermore will each one need to teach his fellow-citizen,

for it is merely a symbol of the present time in connection with which gifts and sacrifices are repeatedly offered though they cannot make the conscience of the worshiper perfect,

since they deal only with food and drink and various washings, that is, with mere material regulations which are in force only until the time of setting things straight.

Otherwise, would they not have ceased offering them, because those who offered them, having once been purified, would have had no further consciousness of sins?

Every other priest stands officiating day after day and over and over again offering the same sacrifices, although they are unable to take away our sins.

These people all died victoriously as a result of their faith, although they did not receive the blessings promised; that is, because they really saw them in the far-off future and welcomed them, and so professed to be only foreigners and strangers here on earth.

For people who make such a profession as this show that they are in search of a country of their own.

And if they had been cherishing the memory of the country they had left, they would have had an opportunity to go back.

But in reality they were aspiring for a better country, I mean, a heavenly one. This is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

By faith, Moses, at his birth was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king's decree.

By faith they crossed the Red Sea as though it were dry land, while the Egyptians, in attempting it, were drowned.

Women by a resurrection received their dead again; others endured tortures, because they would not accept release, that they might rise to a better life.

They were stoned to death, they were tortured to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. With nothing on their bodies but skins of sheep or goats they wandered here and there, destitute, oppressed, mistreated --

for God had provided something still better for us, that they, apart from us might not attain perfection.

For they disciplined us only a short time, as it seemed proper to them, but He does it for our good, in order that we may share His holy character.

for they did not try to bear the order, "Even if a wild animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death,"

See to it that you do not refuse to listen to Him who is speaking to you. For if they did not escape, because they refused to listen to him who warned them here on earth, how much less can we, if we reject Him who is from heaven?

You must not forget your former leaders, for it was they who brought you the message of God. Consider how they closed their lives; imitate their faith.

Continue to obey and to be submissive to your leaders, for they are ever watching in defense of your souls, as men who will have to give account of their trust. Treat them in this way, so that they may work with joy and not with grief.