Are not the angels all attending spirits sent forth to serve for the sake of those who are going to be unceasing possessors of salvation?

For it was not to angels that He gave authority over that world to be, of which we are speaking.

You have put all things under His feet!" Now when He gave Him authority over everything, He did not leave a single thing that was not put under His authority. But as yet we do not see everything actually under His authority,

For both He who is purifying them and those who are being purified all spring from one Father; so He is not ashamed to call them brothers,

For of course it is not angels but descendants of Abraham that He is to help.

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

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

but day by day, as long as "Today" shall last, continue to encourage one another, so that not one of you may be hardened by sin's deceiving ways,

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."

For who was it that heard and yet provoked Him? Was it not all who came out of Egypt led by Moses?

With whom was He disgusted forty years? Was it not with those who had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the desert?

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."

Since then it still remains that some are being admitted to it and that those who first had the good news told to them were not admitted because of disobedience,

He again fixes a definite day, saying long afterward through David, as has been quoted: "If you but hear His voice, you must not harden your hearts."

For if Joshua had really given them rest, He would not afterward have been speaking of another day.

So let us do our best to be admitted to that rest, so that not one of us may fail through the same sort of disobedience.

For we do not have a High Priest who is incapable of sympathizing with us in our weaknesses, but we have One who was tempted in every respect as we are, and yet without committing any sin.

So let us continue coming with courage to the throne of God's unmerited favor to obtain His mercy and to find His spiritual strength to help us when we need it.

and so is obliged to offer sin-offerings, not only for the people but for himself as well.

So Christ too did not take upon Himself the glory of being appointed High Priest, but it was God who said: "You are my Son; I have today become your Father,"

For although you ought to be teachers of others because you have been Christians so long, you actually need someone to teach you over and over again the very elements of the truths that God has given us, and you have gotten into such a state that you are in constant need of milk instead of solid food.

For God is not so unjust as to forget the work you have done and the love you have shown His name in the service you have rendered for your fellow-Christians, and still are doing.

so that you may not grow careless, but may follow the example of those who through their faith and patient endurance are now possessors of the blessings promised.

But in this case, the man whose ancestry is not traced from them collected a tenth from Abraham, and put his blessing on the man who had the promises from God.

Now if perfection had been reached through the Levitical priesthood -- for on it as a basis even the law was enacted for the people-- what further need would there have been of appointing a different priest, with the rank of Melchizedek, instead of designating one with the rank of Aaron?

who is appointed not on the basis of a physical qualification but on the basis of a power flowing from a life that cannot end.

And by so much as He was not appointed without God's taking an oath --

for the Levitical priests were appointed without His taking an oath, but He with His oath, when He said to Him: "The Lord took oath and will not change, You are a priest forever" --

who does not need, as did the Levitical priests, to offer sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; this latter is just what He did once for all when He offered up Himself.

as officiating Priest in that sanctuary, which is also the true tent of worship, which the Lord and not man set up.

However, if He were still on earth, He would not be a priest at all, because there are those who officiate in accordance with the law in offering the gifts;

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,

But when Christ came as the High Priest of good things that have already taken place, He went by way of that greater and more perfect tent of worship, not made by human hands, that is, not belonging to this material creation,

and not with blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He once for all went into the real sanctuary and secured our eternal redemption.

So not even the first covenant was ratified without the use of blood.

For it was not a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, that Christ entered, but it was into heaven itself that He went, in order now to appear for us in the very presence of God.

And He does not enter to offer Himself over and over again, as the high priest enters the sanctuary year after year with blood that is not his own;

For since the law cast only a shadow of the blessings to come and did not possess the reality itself of those blessings, the priests with the same sacrifices that are perpetually offered year after year cannot make perfect those who come to worship.

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?

"Sacrifice and offering you did not wish, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt-offerings and sin-offerings you never took delight.

For when these are forgiven, there is no more need of an offering for sin.

Indeed, to carry out the will of God and to receive the blessing He has promised, you need endurance, for:

"In just a very little while, the Coming One will come and not delay;

But we are not of a disposition to draw back so as to perish, but we have faith that leads to the saving of the soul.

By faith we understand that the worlds were created, beautifully coordinated, and now exist, at God's command; so the things that we see did not develop out of mere matter.

By faith Enoch was transplanted from earth, so that he did not experience dying; and he could not be found, because God had transplanted him from earth. For before he was transplanted from earth evidence was given him that he pleased God;

By faith Noah, on being divinely warned about things not seen as yet, in reverence prepared an ark for saving his family, and by his faith condemned the world and became possessor of the uprightness that results from faith.

By faith Abraham, on being called, obeyed in starting off for a country which he was to receive as his own, and he did it in spite of the fact that he did not know where he was going.

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.

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 he left Egypt, because he was not afraid of the king's anger, for he persevered as though he were actually seeing Him who is unseen.

By faith he instituted the Passover and the pouring of blood upon the doorposts, so that the destroyer of the first-born might not touch them.

By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who disobeyed God, because she had welcomed the scouts as friends.

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.

men of whom the world was not worthy, though wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and holes in the ground.

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

You have not yet, as you have struggled on against sin, resisted to the point of pouring out your blood,

Now if you are without any discipline, in which all true sons share, you are only illegitimate children and not true sons.

and keep your feet in straight paths, so that limbs may not be dislocated, but instead be cured.

For you have not come to a blazing fire that can be touched, to gloom and darkness, storm

and trumpet-blast, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not a word more should be added;

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?

but now His promise is, "Once more I will make not only the earth but heaven itself tremble." Now that expression, "Once more," signifies the final removal of the things that can be shaken, to let remain the things that cannot be shaken.

Do not remain neglectful of hospitality to strangers, for by it some have entertained angels without knowing it.

So we can confidently say: "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can men do to me?"

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.

You must stop being carried away with varied and strange teachings. For it is a good thing for the heart to be strengthened by God's spiritual strength, not by special kinds of food, from which those adhering to them have gotten no good.

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.