In times past the word of God came to our fathers through the prophets, in different parts and in different ways;

Because if the word which came through the angels was fixed, and in the past every evil act against God's orders was given its full punishment;

What will come on us, if we do not give our minds to such a great salvation? a salvation of which our fathers first had knowledge through the words of the Lord, and which was made certain to us by those to whom his words came;

For it is clear that he did not come to help angels. No, he came to help Abraham's descendants,

For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.

And with whom was he angry for forty years? was it not with those who did evil, who came to their deaths in the waste land?

For indeed we have had the good news [of salvation] preached to us, just as the Israelites also [when the good news of the promised land came to them]; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not united with faith [in God] by those who heard.

Since therefore it remains for some to come into it, and they before announced of the good news came not in through unbelief:

And though he was a Son, through the pain which he underwent, the knowledge came to him of what it was to be under God's orders;

For if those who were once for all brought into the Light, and learned to appreciate the gift from Heaven, and came to share in the Holy Spirit,

For this Melchizedek, the king of Salem, a priest of the Most High God, who gave Abraham his blessing, meeting him when he came back after putting the kings to death,

and those, indeed, out of the sons of Levi receiving the priesthood, a command have to take tithes from the people according to the law, that is, their brethren, even though they came forth out of the loins of Abraham;

Because he was still in his father's body when Melchizedek came to him.

If then, perfection came through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there for another priest to appear, said to be in the order of Melchizedek and not in the order of Aaron?

Now it is evident that our Lord came from Judah, and Moses said nothing about that tribe concerning priests.

who came not according to the law of a fleshly command, but according to the power of an endless life,

For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak, but the promise of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son, who has been perfected forever.

And these thus prepared, truly to the first tent the priests always came in, to complete the divine services.

They served only for matters of food and drink and various washings; they are external regulations imposed until the new order came.

But when Christ appeared as a High Priest of the good things to come [that is, true spiritual worship], He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not a part of this [material] creation.

neither through the blood of goats and bullocks, but through his own blood, came once into the holies, having found eternal redemption.

For Christ came not into the holy places made with hands, the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to be shown clearly to the face of God for us:

Therefore, [when he] came into the world, he said, "Sacrifice and offering you did not want, but a body you prepared for me;

At times you were publicly exposed to abuse and afflictions, and at other times you came to share with others who were treated in that way.

Through faith we understand that the worlds came into being, and still exist, at the command of God, so that what is seen does not owe its existence to that which is visible.

Faith led Noah, when he was warned by God of things no one then saw, in obedience to the warning to build an ark in which to save his family, and by such faith he condemned the world, and came to possess that uprightness which faith produces.

By faith, being called, Abraham obeyed - to come forth into a place he was destined to receive for an inheritance; and he came forth, not well knowing whither he was coming.

Through faith he came and made his home for a time in a land which had been promised to him, as if in a foreign country, living in tents together with Isaac and Jacob, sharers with him in the same promise;

Therefore from one man—in fact, from one as good as dead—came offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as innumerable as the grains of sand by the seashore.

All these came to their end in faith, not having had the heritage; but having seen it with delight far away, they gave witness that they were wanderers and not of the earth.

And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.

By faith the walls of Jericho came down, after they had been circled for seven days.

because God had planned to give us something better [than they got], so that they would not be complete without us. [Note: The idea here is that these faithful people of Old Testament times did not receive the fullest of blessings until Christ came to make them available to both them and us together].

For ye came not near to the mount touched and scorched with fire, and to blackness, and darkness, and tempest,

But, ye came to Mount Zion, and to a city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of messengers,

See that you give ear to his voice which comes to you. For if those whose ears were shut to the voice which came to them on earth did not go free from punishment, what chance have we of going free if we give no attention to him whose voice comes from heaven?