You have been a lover of righteousness and a hater of evil; and so God, your God, has put the oil of joy on your head more than on the heads of those who are with you.

Are not all these ministering spirits, having been sent forth unto ministration for the sake of those who are about to inherit salvation?

For this cause, it behoveth us, with unwonted firmness, to be holding fast unto the things that have been heard, lest, at any time, we drift away.

For if the word having been spoken by angels was stedfast, and every disobedience and transgression received a just recompense of reward;

how shall we escape if we have been negligent of so great salvation, which, having had its commencement in being spoken of by the Lord, has been confirmed to us by those who have heard;

But one has [solemnly] testified somewhere [in Scripture], saying,

“What is man, that You are mindful of him,
Or the son of man, that You graciously care for him?

You placed everything under his feet [Note: This is true of both mankind (Gen. 1:26-28) and of Jesus (Eph. 1:22-23)]. For in subjecting everything to him, God did not leave anything that is not subject to him. But at the present time we do not see what all has been subjected to him.

But we see Jesus who has been made a little something less than the heavenly agents, who, because of the suffering of death, has been crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God he would taste of death for every man.

and set at liberty those who all their lifetime had been subject to slavery because of their dread of death.

For in that he himself has suffered, having been tempted, he is able to help those being tempted.

Therefore, holy brothers [and sisters], who have been called [by God] to share in heaven, think about Jesus, the Apostle and Head Priest, whom we have confessed [as Savior].

has been to the God who appointed him, just as Moses was, in all the house of God.

Jesus has been counted worthy of greater glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who has built a house has higher honor than the house itself.

For we have been partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our foundation firm to the end;

As it has been said [Psa. 95:7], "Today, if you hear His [i.e., God's] voice, do not have a stubborn heart like you did when you provoked [God]."

And to whom sware he that they could not come into his rest, if not to them having been disobedient?

Then let us fear, lest at some time, the promise to enter into his rest having been left, some of you may appear to have come short.

For we also are having good-news preached, just as also those men, but the word of hearing did not benefit those men, not having been mixed together with faith in those who heard.

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.

even though his actions had been finished since the creation of the world. Somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day as follows: "On the seventh day God rested from all his actions,"

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.

For He who has been admitted to His rest, has rested from His works as God did from His.

And no creature is hidden in his presence: but all things are naked and have been laid open to the eyes of him to whom the word is unto us.

For we have not a high priest who is not able to be touched by the feelings of our feeble flesh; but we have one who has been tested in all points as we ourselves are tested, but without sin.

Nor does any one take that high office upon himself, till he has been called to do so by God, as Aaron was.

Who, in the days of his flesh, having offered up, both supplications and entreaties unto him that was able to save him out of death, with mighty outcries and tears, and been hearkened to by reason of his devoutness,

And having been fully perfected, he became the source of eternal salvation to all those who obey him,

having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Of whom great is the word to us, and difficult of interpretation to speak, since ye have been sluggish in the hearing.

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.

such solid nourishment is only fit for such as are arriv'd at their full growth and strength, whose senses have been exercis'd in distinguishing what is good, and what is prejudicial.

of teaching about washings (ritual purifications), the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. [These are all important matters in which you should have been proficient long ago.]

For it is impossible for those who have once for all been enlightened and have experienced the gift from heaven, who have been made sharers of the Holy Spirit

And producing thorns and briers is rejected, after having been tried, and near cursing; whose end for destruction.

And we have been persuaded of you, dearly beloved, of better things, and connected with salvation, if we also thus speak.

that ye be not sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience have been inheritors of the promises.

And so, when he had been waiting calmly for a long time, God's word to him was put into effect.

So that we, who have gone in flight from danger to the hope which has been put before us, may have a strong comfort in two unchanging things, in which it is not possible for God to be false;

where Jesus is gone to usher us in, having been made an high priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec.

without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but having been made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.

Now see how great this man must have been that even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of his spoils.

and, so to speak, through Abraham, Levi also, who received tithes, has been made to pay tithes.

for when Melchizedek met him, he was still in Abraham's body [i.e., Levi had not yet been born as a descendant of Abraham].

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?

For he, of whom these things are said, belongs to a different tribe, of which no one has ever been attached to the service of the altar.

who has become a priest, not on the basis of a physical and legal requirement in the Law [concerning his ancestry as a descendant of Levi], but on the basis of the power of an indestructible and endless life.

For it has been witnessed of him, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.

Indeed, because it was weak and ineffective, the former commandment has been annulled,

For, they, indeed, apart from oath-taking, have been made priests, but, he, with an oath-taking, through him that was saying unto him - The Lord sware, and will not regret, - Thou, art a priest, age-abidingly

insomuch that Jesus has also been made the mediator of a better covenant.

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

For such a high priest was indeed appropriate unto us, holy, free from sin, undefiled, having been separated from the sinners, and being higher than the heavens;

For the law appoints men high priests who have weakness, but the word of the oath after the law, a Son who has been fully perfected into the age.

The pith of all that we have been saying is this; we do have such a High Priest; and he has taken his seat on the right hand of the throne of Majesty in the heavens,

If he had been on earth he would not have been a priest at all, because there are other priests who make the offerings ordered by the law;

Who, indeed, are rendering divine service, with a glimpse and shadow, of the heavenly things; even as Moses hath received intimation, when about to complete the tent, - For see! saith he - Thou shalt make all things according to the model which hath been pointed out to thee in the mount.

But now hath he obtained a ministry the more excellent, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then would no place have been sought for a second.

Now these things having been thus prepared, the priests go in continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services;

the Holy Spirit this signifying, that the way into the holy place hath not yet been made manifest, while the first tabernacle is yet standing;

But Christ appeared as a High Priest of the blessings that are soon to come by means of the greater and more perfect Tent of worship, a tent which has not been built with hands--that is to say does not belong to this material creation--

For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling them that have been defiled, sanctify unto the cleanness of the flesh:

And for this cause he is the mediator of a new covenant, that a death having taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they that have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

For a testament is of force where there hath been death: for it doth never avail while he that made it liveth.

Wherefore even the first covenant hath not been dedicated without blood.

For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses unto all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,

For Christ did not go into a holy place which had been made by men's hands as the copy of the true one; but he went into heaven itself, and now takes his place before the face of God for us.

else must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once at the end of the ages hath he been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation.

Else would they not have ceased to be offered? because the worshippers, having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins.

then I said, Lo, I come, (in a volume of the book it hath been written concerning me,) to do, O God, Thy will;'

By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And has been waiting there from that time, till all who are against him are made a foot-rest for his feet.

But when these have been remitted, there is no more any offering for sin.

Let us approach with a genuine heart, in full assurance of faith, having been sprinkled, as to our hearts, from an evil conscience, and bathed, as to our bodies, with pure water;

But will not the man by whom the Son of God has been crushed under foot, and the blood of the agreement with which he was washed clean has been taken as an unholy thing, and who has had no respect for the Spirit of grace, be judged bad enough for a very much worse punishment?

But ever call to mind the former days, in which, after having been enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings;

This, truly, being exposed to public view both by reproaches and pressures; and this, having been partakers of those thus overturned.

For ye have been fellow-sufferers with my bonds, and received with joy the plundering of your properties, knowing in yourselves that you have in the heavens a better substance, and permanent.

Steady patience is what you need, so that after doing the will of God you may get what you have been promised.

By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which appear.

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God translated him: for he hath had witness borne to him that before his translation he had been well-pleasing unto God:

By faith Noah, having been divinely warned concerning the things not yet seen, having feared, did prepare an ark to the salvation of his house, through which he did condemn the world, and of the righteousness according to faith he became heir.

By [having] faith, he became an alien in the foreign country that had been promised to him. He lived in tents, along with Isaac [his son] and Jacob [his grandson], who [also] were to receive the same inheritance he had been promised.

Wherefore also there have been born of one, and that of one become dead, even as the stars of heaven in multitude, and as the countless sand which is by the sea shore.

In faith died all these, not having received the promises, but from afar having seen them, and having been persuaded, and having saluted them, and having confessed that strangers and sojourners they are upon the earth,

And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.

By faith Abraham made an offering of Isaac, when he was tested: and he with whom the agreement had been made gave up as an offering the only son of his body,

of whom it had been said, "Through Isaac your offspring must be traced."

concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the grave; from whence, in a figurative sense, be may be said to have been recover'd.

By faith Moses, having been born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw the child comely, and were not afraid of the decree of the king;

by faith he left Egypt behind, not having been afraid of the wrath of the king, for, as seeing the Invisible One -- he endured;

By faith they went through the Red Sea as if it had been dry land, though the Egyptians were overcome by the water when they made an attempt to do the same.

By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been compassed about for seven days.

Put out the power of fire, got safely away from the edge of the sword, were made strong when they had been feeble, became full of power in war, and put to flight the armies of the nations.

And all these, having been well reported through faith, did not receive the promise,

Therefore, [since] we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, putting aside every weight and {the sin that so easily ensnares us}, let us run with patient endurance the race that has been set before us,

But if ye are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness.