He brightly reflects God's glory and is the exact representation of His being, and upholds the universe by His all-powerful word. After securing man's purification from sin He took His seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

having become as much superior to angels, since He has inherited a more excellent and glorious name than they [that is, Son—the name above all names].

But to the Son: Thy throne, God, is from age to age: a scepter of rectitude is the scepter of thy kingdom.

And thou, Lord, in the beginning didst build from its foundations the earth, and the heavens are works of thy hands;

Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest haply we drift away from them .

For if the word which was spoken by angels was firm, and every transgression and disobedience received just retribution,

How shall we escape, having neglected such great salvation; which at the beginning taken to be spoken by the Lord, by them having heard was made firm to us;

At the same time, God also testified by signs and wonders, various miracles, and distributions of gifts from the Holy Spirit according to His will.

For God did not place the coming inhabited world [Note: "The coming inhabited world" here probably refers to the present Christian age. It was viewed as "coming" from the perspective of Old Testament times], under the control of angels [and] that is the world we are talking about.

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 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 so might deliver all those who, from fear of death, had all their lives been living in slavery.

Therefore, Christian Brothers, you who, all alike, have received the Call from Heaven, fix your attention on Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our Religion.

But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

But be exhorting one another, on each successive day, - while the To-day is being named! lest any from among you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

for we are become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end:

we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm to the end) While it is said; To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.

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

So we see that it was their unbelief that kept them from being admitted to it.

Let us therefore fear, lest at any time, although there is left behind a promise of entering into his rest, - any one from amongst you should be deemed, to have come short;

For indeed we have had the good news [of salvation] preached to us, just as the Israelites also [when the good news of the promised land came to them]; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not united with faith [in God] by those who heard.

For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.

Therefore, since the promise remains for some to enter His rest, and those who formerly had the good news preached to them failed to [grasp it and did not] enter because of [their unbelief evidenced by] disobedience,

For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

For God's Message is full of life and power, and is keener than the sharpest two-edged sword. It pierces even to the severance of soul from spirit, and penetrates between the joints and the marrow, and it can discern the secret thoughts and purposes of the heart.

And not a creature exists that is concealed from His sight, but all things are open and exposed, and revealed to the eyes of Him with whom we have to give account.

Since then we have in Jesus, the Son of God, a great high priest who has gone up into heaven, let us keep firm hold of our religion.

for we have not a chief priest unable to sympathise with our infirmities, but one tempted in all things in like manner -- apart from sin;

For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins:

He is able to have feeling for those who have no knowledge and for those who are wandering from the true way, because he himself is feeble;

Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

though he were Son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered;

since He had received from God the title of a High Priest with the rank of Melchizedek.

About whom, much subject matter from us is also difficult to explain, since ye have become sluggish in hearing.

For although from the length of your Christian experience you ought to be teaching others, you actually need someone to teach you over again the very elements of Christian truth, and you have come to need milk instead of solid food.

Such persons are mere babes. But solid food is for adults--that is, for those who through constant practice have their spiritual faculties carefully trained to distinguish good from evil.

Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

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.]

And we will do so [i.e., go on to more advanced teaching] if God allows us to. For it is impossible to get people who have [completely] fallen away [from God] to repent again, because they [continue to] crucify for themselves God's Son all over again, and hold Him up to contempt.

As for those who at one time saw the light, tasting the good things from heaven, and having their part in the Holy Spirit,

and then have fallen away—it is impossible to bring them back again to repentance, since they again nail the Son of God on the cross [for as far as they are concerned, they are treating the death of Christ as if they were not saved by it], and are holding Him up again to public disgrace.

For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:

But, my dearly loved ones, even though we talk this way, we are persuaded that you will do better than that [i.e., you will not fall away from God], and will end up being saved.

For God is true, and will not put away from him the memory of your work and of your love for his name, in the help which you gave and still give to the saints.

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;

which we have as anchor of the soul, both secure and firm, and entering into that within the veil,

For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;

to whom Abraham divided the tenth from all first, being interpreted, King of righteousness, and then King of Salem, which is, King of peace;

But see how great this man [was], to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth from the spoils!

And they indeed from among the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have commandment to take tithes from the people according to the law, that is from their brethren, though these are come out of the loins of Abraham:

But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises.

and apart from all controversy, the less by the better is blessed --

And in the one case, men here [on earth, that is, the Levites] who die, collect a tenth [from the rest of the Israelites], but there [i.e., in the case of Melchizedek] it is collected by someone about whom it is declared [by Scripture] that he continues to live.

And, so to speak, Levi, who collected a tenth [from the Israelites], paid a tenth through Abraham,

For he of whom these things are said belongeth to another tribe, from which no man hath given attendance at the altar.

For it is evident that our Lord descended from [the tribe of] Judah, and Moses mentioned nothing about priests in connection with that tribe.

This appears still more clear from another priest's arising like Melchisedec,

who is appointed not on the basis of a physical qualification but on the basis of a power flowing from a life that cannot end.

And inasmuch as it is not apart from oath, (for those indeed apart from oath are become priests,

for these men hold office without any oath having been taken, but He holds it attested by an oath from Him who said to Him, "The Lord has sworn and will not recall His words, Thou art a Priest for ever" --

And they indeed have been made priests many in number, because that by death they are hindered from continuing:

For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;

For the law of Moses appoints [morally] weak men to be head priests, but the message of [God's] oath, which came after that law [Note: The quotation from Psa. 110:4 (See verse 21) was written after the law of Moses was given] appointed the Son, who was made perfect [in every way] forever.

Being servants of that which is a copy and an image of the things in heaven, as Moses, when he was about to make the Tent, had special orders from God: for, See, he said, that you make everything like the design which you saw in the mountain.

For if that first Covenant had been free from imperfection, there would have been no attempt to introduce another.

Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
On the day when I took them by the hand
To lead them out of the land of Egypt;
For they did not abide in My covenant,
And so I withdrew My favor and disregarded them, says the Lord.

And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

By using the words, "a new Covenant," He has made the first one obsolete; but whatever is decaying and showing signs of old age is not far from disappearing altogether.

and into the second, once in the year, only the chief priest, not apart from blood, which he doth offer for himself and the errors of the people,

this signifying from the Holy Spirit, the way into the holy things is not yet to be made known while the first tabernacle still remains.

And this is a figure--for the time now present--answering to which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, unable though they are to give complete freedom from sin to him who ministers.

For if the blood of goats and oxen, and the dust from the burning of a young cow, being put on the unclean, make the flesh clean:

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

For this reason He is the Mediator and Negotiator of a new covenant [that is, an entirely new agreement uniting God and man], so that those who have been called [by God] may receive [the fulfillment of] the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has taken place [as the payment] which redeems them from the sins committed under the obsolete first covenant.

For, a covenant over dead persons, is firm, - since it is not then of force when he is living that hath covenanted.

whence not even the first apart from blood hath been initiated,

And according to the law, I may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission.

By such means, therefore, these things that were only copied from the originals in heaven had to be purified, but the heavenly originals themselves required far better sacrifices than these.

for Christ is not entred into a sanctuary made by human art, such as is only representative of the true one, but into heaven itself, to appear from henceforth in the presence of God on our behalf:

since he had then been obliged often to suffer from the foundation of the world. But now once in the consummation of the ages he has been manifested for the putting away of sin by his sacrifice.

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.

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.

Otherwise, would not the offering of these sacrifices have been abandoned, as the worshipers, having been once purified, would have had their consciences clear from sins?

It is through that divine will that we have been set free from sin, through the offering of Jesus Christ as our sacrifice once for all.

Every priest stands [at his altar of service] ministering daily, offering the same sacrifices over and over, which are never able to strip away sins [that envelop and cover us];

From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

For by a single offering He has for ever completed the blessing for those whom He is setting free from sin.

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

[So], we should hold on firmly to the profession of our hope [in God], without wavering from it, for God is faithful to His promises.

not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

any one who did set at nought a law of Moses, apart from mercies, by two or three witnesses, doth die,

How much severer punishment, think you, will he be held to deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, has not regarded as holy that Covenant-blood with which he was set free from sin, and has insulted the Spirit from whom comes grace?

For you not only showed sympathy with those who were imprisoned, but you even submitted with joy when your property was taken from you, being well aware that you have in your own selves a more valuable possession and one which will remain.

Therefore do not cast from you your confident hope, for it will receive a vast reward.

And my [i.e., God's] righteous person will [obtain] life by [his] faith [in God]. But if he turns back [from me], my soul is not pleased with him."

Now, faith is a sure confidence with respect to things hoped for, a firm persuasion with respect to things not seen:

By faith we apprehend that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that that which is seen should not take its origin from things which appear.

It was by faith that Abel offered God a richer sacrifice than Cain did, and thus won from God the record of being 'just,' on the score of what he gave; he died, but by his faith he is speaking to us still.