And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.

For if the message spoken by angels was valid, and every transgression and disobedience received a just punishment,

how can we escape, if we pay no attention at all to a salvation that is so great? This is so because it was first proclaimed by the Lord Himself, and then it was proved to us to be valid by the very men who heard Him themselves,

For inasmuch as He has Himself felt the pain of temptation and trial, He is also able instantly to help those who are tempted and tried.

where your fathers put me to the proof, and for forty years felt what I could do.

Therefore, as long as the promise of entering his rest remains valid, let us be afraid! Otherwise, some of you will fail to reach it,

and have tasted and consciously experienced the good word of God and the powers of the age (world) to come,

That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

For if that first covenant had been without fault, then no place would have been sought for the second.

For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

how much more shall the blood of Christ, who with an eternal spirit offered himself without fault to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

for a will and testament takes effect [only] at death, since it is never in force as long as the one who made it is alive.

saying, as he did so-- "This is the blood that renders valid the Covenant which God has commanded to be made with you."

for then must he have often suffered since the world began: But now in the end of the world, hath he appeared once, to put sin to flight, by the offering up of himself.

How much worse then, think you, will be the punishment deserved by those who have trampled underfoot the Son of God, who have treated the blood that rendered the Covenant valid--the very blood by which they were purified--as of no account, and who have outraged the Spirit of Love?

By [having] faith, when Noah was warned [by God] about conditions that had not yet been seen [i.e., regarding events of the coming Flood], he acted out of reverent concern [for God] by constructing a ship to save [i.e., rescue] his household [from the Flood waters]. By this [i.e., his faith which led to action], Noah condemned the world and inherited righteousness because of his faith.

Again, it was faith that enabled Sarah to conceive (though she was past the age for child-bearing), because she felt sure that he who had given her the promise would not fail her.

Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

For ye have not come to a mountain being felt, and which burned with fire, and to darkness, and gloom, and a tempest,

Remember those in prison as though you were in prison with them, and those ill-treated as though you too felt their torment.

May God, the source of all peace, who brought back from the dead him who, 'by virtue of the blood that rendered valid the unchangeable Covenant, is the Great Shepherd of God's Sheep,' Jesus, our Lord--