who is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, sustaining all [things] by the word of power. [When he] had made purification for sins through him, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

For to which of the angels did he ever say, "You are my son, today I have begotten you," and again, "I will be {his father}, and he will be {my son}"?

And concerning the angels he says, "The one who makes his angels winds, and his servants a flame of fire,"

But to which of the angels has he ever said, "Sit down at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."

Are they not all spirits engaged in special service, sent on assignment for the sake of those who are going to inherit salvation?

For if the word spoken through angels was binding and every transgression and act of disobedience received a just penalty,

For he did not subject to angels the world to come, about which we are speaking.

But someone testified somewhere, saying, "What is man, that you remember him, or the son of man, that you care for him?

You made him for a short [time] lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor;

you subjected all [things] under his feet. For in subjecting all [things], he left nothing [that was] not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all [things] subjected to him,

but we see Jesus, for a short [time] made lower than the angels, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that apart from God he might taste death on behalf of everyone.

For it was fitting for him for whom [are] all [things] and through whom [are] all [things] in bringing many sons to glory to perfect the originator of their salvation through sufferings.

For both the one who sanctifies and the ones who are sanctified [are] all from one, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brothers,

and could set free these who through fear of death were subject to slavery throughout all their lives.

For surely he is not concerned with angels, but he is concerned with the descendants of Abraham.

Therefore he was obligated to be made like his brothers in all [respects], in order that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in the things relating to God, in order to make atonement for the sins of the people.

For in that which he himself suffered [when he] was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.

For this one is considered worthy of greater glory than Moses, inasmuch as the one who builds it has greater honor than the house.

For every house is built by someone, but the one who built all [things] [is] God.

And Moses [was] faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony to the things that would be spoken,

[for] forty years. Therefore I was angry with this generation, and I said, 'They always go astray in their heart, and they do not know my ways.'

For we have become partners of Christ, if indeed we hold fast the beginning of [our] commitment steadfast until the end,

For who, [when they] heard [it], were disobedient? Surely [it was] not all who went out from Egypt through Moses?

And with whom was he angry [for] forty years? [Was it] not with those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness?

Therefore let us fear, [while there] remains a promise of entering into his rest, that none of you appear to fall short of [it].

{For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us}, just as those also [did], but the message {they heard} did not benefit them, [because they] were not united with those who heard [it] in faith.

For we who have believed enter into rest, just as he has said, "As I swore in my anger, '{They will never enter} into my rest.'" And yet these works have been 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,"

Since therefore it remains [for] some to enter into it, and the ones to whom the good news was proclaimed previously did not enter because of disobedience,

For if Joshua had caused them to rest, he would not have spoken about another day after these [things].

Consequently a sabbath rest remains for the people of God.

For the one who has entered into his rest has also himself 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, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, both joints and marrow, and able to judge the reflections and thoughts of the heart.

For we do not have a high priest who is not able to sympathize with our weaknesses, but who has been tempted in all [things] in the same way, without sin.

For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of people in the things relating to God, in order that he can offer both gifts and sacrifices on behalf of sins,

and because of it he is obligated to offer [sacrifices] for sins {for himself also, as well as for the people}.

And someone does not take for himself the honor, but is called by God, just as Aaron also [was].

For indeed, [although you] ought to be teachers {by this time}, you have need of someone to teach you again the beginning elements of the oracles of God, and {you have need of} milk, not solid food.

For everyone who partakes of milk [is] unacquainted with the message of righteousness, because he is an infant.

But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have trained their faculties for the distinguishing of both good and evil.

For [it is] impossible [concerning] those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and become sharers of the Holy Spirit,

and having fallen away, to renew [them] again to repentance, [because they] have crucified again for themselves the Son of God and held him up to contempt.

For ground that drinks the rain that comes often upon it, and brings forth vegetation usable to those [people] {for whose sake} [it is] also cultivated, shares a blessing from God.

But [if it] produces thorns and thistles, [it is] worthless and near to a curse, whose end [is] for burning.

For God [is] not unjust, [so as] to forget your work and the love which you demonstrated for his name [by] having served the saints, and continuing to serve [them].

And we desire each one of you to demonstrate the same diligence for the full assurance of [your] hope until the end,

For [when] God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater to swear by, he swore by himself,

For people swear by what is greater [than themselves], and the oath for confirmation [is the] end of all dispute for them.

in order that through two unchangeable things, in which [it is] impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge may have powerful encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before [us],

where Jesus, the forerunner for us, entered, [because he] became a high priest {forever} according to the order of Melchizedek.

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham [as he] was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,

without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God--he remains a priest for all time.

For he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.

Thus if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood, for on the basis of it the people received the law, what further need [is there] for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek and not said to be according to the order of Aaron?

For [when] the priesthood changes, of necessity there is a change of the law also.

For the one about whom these [things] are spoken belongs to another tribe from which no one has officiated at the altar.

For [it is] evident that our Lord is a descendant of Judah, a tribe [with reference] to which Moses said nothing concerning priests.

For it is testified, "You [are] a priest {forever} according to the order of Melchizedek."

For on the one hand a preceding commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness

(for the law [made] nothing perfect), but on the other hand [there is] the introduction of a better hope through which we draw near to God.

And by as much as [this was] not without an oath (for these on the one hand {have become priests} without an oath,

For a high priest such as this indeed is fitting for us, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and having become exalted [above] the heavens,

who does not {need every day} like the former high priests to offer up sacrifices for his own sins [and] then for the [sins] of the people, because he did this once for all [when he] offered up himself.

For the law appoints men [as] high priests who have weakness, but the statement of the oath, after the law, [appoints] a Son, who is made perfect {forever}.

For every high priest is appointed in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices; therefore [it was] necessary [for] this one also to have something that he offers.

who serve a sketch and shadow of the heavenly [things], just as Moses was warned [when he] was about to complete the tabernacle, for he says, "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern which was shown to you on the mountain."

For if that first [covenant] had been faultless, occasion would not have been sought for a second.

For in finding fault with them he says, "Behold, 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 decree with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I am putting my laws in their minds and I will write them on their hearts, and I will be {their} God and they will be {my} people.

For I will be merciful toward their wrongdoings, and I will not remember their sins [any] longer."

Now the first [covenant] had regulations for worship and the earthly sanctuary.

For a tent was prepared, the first [one], in which [were] the lampstand and the table and the presentation of the loaves, which is called the holy place.

which [was] a symbol for the present time, in which both the gifts and sacrifices which were offered were not able to perfect the worshiper with respect to the conscience,

and not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered once for all into the [most] holy place, obtaining eternal redemption.

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow sprinkled on those who are defiled sanctify [them] for the ritual purity of the flesh,

And because of this, he is the mediator of a new covenant, in order that, [because] a death has taken place for the redemption of transgressions [committed] during the first covenant, those who are the called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

For where [there is] a will, [it is] a necessity [for] the death of the one who made the will to be established.

For a will [is] in force concerning those who are dead, since [it is] never in force when the one who made the will is alive.

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

saying, "This [is] the blood of the covenant that God has commanded for you."

Therefore [it was] necessary [for] the sketches of the [things] in heaven to be purified with these [sacrifices], but the heavenly [things] themselves [to be purified] with better sacrifices than these.

For Christ did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands, a [mere] copy of the true [one], but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf,

since it would have been necessary for him to suffer many times from the foundation of the world, but now he has appeared once at the end of the ages for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself.

And {just as} it is destined for people to die once, and after this, judgment,

thus also Christ, having been offered once in order to bear the sins of many, will appear for the second time without reference to sin to those who eagerly await him for salvation.

For the law, possessing a shadow of the good [things] that are about to come, not the form of things itself, [is] never able {year by year} by means of the same sacrifices which they offer without interruption to make perfect those who draw near.

For otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the ones who worship, having been purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?

For [it is] impossible [for] the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

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

you did not delight in whole burnt offerings and [offerings] for sins.

[When he] says above, "Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and [offerings] for sin you did not want, nor did you delight in," which are offered according to the law,

by which will we are made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

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

from now on waiting until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet.

For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are made holy.

And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying,

"This [is] the covenant that I will decree for them after those days, says the Lord: I am putting my laws on their hearts, and I will write them on their minds."

Now where [there is] forgiveness of these, [there is] no longer an offering for sin.

Therefore, brothers, [since we] have confidence for the entrance into the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus,

[by the] new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the curtain, that is, his flesh,