For of course it was not angels but the descendants of Abraham that he came to help.

For when God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to make oath by, he did so by himself,

For this man Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was on his way back from defeating the kings, and gave him his blessing,

to whom Abraham apportioned one tenth of all the spoil, who is first, as his name shows, king of righteousness and then king of Salem, which means king of peace??3 with no father or mother or ancestry, and with no beginning to his days nor end to his life, but like no one but the Son of God, continues as priest forever.

Now see how great this man must have been to have the patriarch Abraham give him a tenth of the spoil.

Those of the descendants of Levi who are appointed to the priesthood are directed by the Law to collect tithes from the people, that is, from their own brothers, although they are descended from Abraham like themselves.

But this man, whose ancestry is not connected with theirs, collected tithes from Abraham himself, and gave his blessing to the man who had received the promises from God.

In one way of putting it, Levi himself, the collector of the tithes, through Abraham paid him tithes,

for none of Abraham's posterity was yet begotten at the time of his meeting with Melchizedek.

Faith enabled Abraham to obey when God summoned him to leave his home for a region which he was to have for his own, and to leave home without knowing where he was going.

Faith enabled Abraham, when he was put to the test, to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had accepted God's promises was ready to sacrifice his only son,