After God spoke long ago in various portions and in various ways to our ancestors through the prophets,

For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my son! Today I have fathered you"? And in another place he says, "I will be his father and he will be my son."

But when he again brings his firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all the angels of God worship him!"

but of the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and a righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. So God, your God, has anointed you over your companions with the oil of rejoicing."

while God confirmed their witness with signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

but we see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by God's grace he would experience death on behalf of everyone.

Again he says, "I will be confident in him," and again, "Here I am, with the children God has given me."

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.

who is faithful to the one who appointed him, as Moses was also in God's house.

For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.

Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken.

But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. We are of his house, if in fact we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope we take pride in.

See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has an evil, unbelieving heart that forsakes the living God.

And against whom was God provoked for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness?

For we had good news proclaimed to us just as they did. But the message they heard did them no good, since they did not join in with those who heard it in faith.

For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, "As I swore in my anger, 'They will never enter my rest!'" And yet God's works were accomplished from the foundation of the world.

For he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all his works,"

So God again ordains a certain day, "Today," speaking through David after so long a time, as in the words quoted before, "O, that today you would listen as he speaks! Do not harden your hearts."

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken afterward about another day.

Consequently a Sabbath rest remains for the people of God.

For the one who enters God's rest has also rested from his works, just as God did from his own works.

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart.

And no creature is hidden from God, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account.

Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.

For every high priest is taken from among the people and appointed to represent them before God, to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

And no one assumes this honor on his own initiative, but only when called to it by God, as in fact Aaron was.

So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming high priest, but the one who glorified him was God, who said to him, "You are my Son! Today I have fathered you,"

as also in another place God says, "You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek."

and he was designated by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

For though you should in fact be teachers by this time, you need someone to teach you the beginning elements of God's utterances. You have gone back to needing milk, not solid food.

But solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil.

Therefore we must progress beyond the elementary instructions about Christ and move on to maturity, not laying this foundation again: repentance from dead works and faith in God,

And this is what we intend to do, if God permits.

tasted the good word of God and the miracles of the coming age,

and then have committed apostasy, to renew them again to repentance, since they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves all over again and holding him up to contempt.

For the ground that has soaked up the rain that frequently falls on it and yields useful vegetation for those who tend it receives a blessing from God.

For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love you have demonstrated for his name, in having served and continuing to serve the saints.

Now when God made his promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself,

In the same way God wanted to demonstrate more clearly to the heirs of the promise that his purpose was unchangeable, and so he intervened with an oath,

so that we who have found refuge in him may find strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us through two unchangeable things, since it is impossible for God to lie.

Now this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, met Abraham as he was returning from defeating the kings and blessed him.

Without father, without mother, without genealogy, he has neither beginning of days nor end of life but is like the son of God, and he remains a priest for all time.

for the law made nothing perfect. On the other hand a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

So he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

The place where they serve is a sketch and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary, just as Moses was warned by God as he was about to complete the tabernacle. For he says, "See that you make everything according to the design shown to you on the mountain."

But showing its fault, God says to them, "Look, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

"For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and I will inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God and they will be my people.

But now Christ has come as the high priest of the good things to come. He passed through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation,

how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.

and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded you to keep."

For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands -- the representation of the true sanctuary -- but into heaven itself, and he appears now in God's presence for us.

For the law possesses a shadow of the good things to come but not the reality itself, and is therefore completely unable, by the same sacrifices offered continually, year after year, to perfect those who come to worship.

"Then I said, 'Here I am: I have come -- it is written of me in the scroll of the book -- to do your will, O God.'"

But when this priest had offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, he sat down at the right hand of God,

and since we have a great priest over the house of God,

And let us take thought of how to spur one another on to love and good works,

but only a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume God's enemies.

How much greater punishment do you think that person deserves who has contempt for the Son of God, and profanes the blood of the covenant that made him holy, and insults the Spirit of grace?

It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

For you need endurance in order to do God's will and so receive what is promised.

For by it the people of old received God's commendation.

By faith we understand that the worlds were set in order at God's command, so that the visible has its origin in the invisible.

By faith Abel offered God a greater sacrifice than Cain, and through his faith he was commended as righteous, because God commended him for his offerings. And through his faith he still speaks, though he is dead.

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he did not see death, and he was not to be found because God took him up. For before his removal he had been commended as having pleased God.

Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

For he was looking forward to the city with firm foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

So in fact children were fathered by one man -- and this one as good as dead -- like the number of stars in the sky and like the innumerable grains of sand on the seashore.

But as it is, they aspire to a better land, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

God had told him, "Through Isaac descendants will carry on your name,"

and he reasoned that God could even raise him from the dead, and in a sense he received him back from there.

choosing rather to be ill-treated with the people of God than to enjoy sin's fleeting pleasure.

For God had provided something better for us, so that they would be made perfect together with us.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us,

keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

Endure your suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline?

For they disciplined us for a little while as seemed good to them, but he does so for our benefit, that we may share his holiness.

See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no one be like a bitter root springing up and causing trouble, and through him many become defiled.

But you have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the assembly

and congregation of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous, who have been made perfect,

So since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us give thanks, and through this let us offer worship pleasing to God in devotion and awe.

For our God is indeed a devouring fire.

Marriage must be honored among all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge sexually immoral people and adulterers.

Remember your leaders, who spoke God's message to you; reflect on the outcome of their lives and imitate their faith.

Do not be carried away by all sorts of strange teachings. For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not ritual meals, which have never benefited those who participated in them.

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, acknowledging his name.

And do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for God is pleased with such sacrifices.

Now may the God of peace who by the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus Christ,

equip you with every good thing to do his will, working in us what is pleasing before him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever. Amen.