and again, "As for Me, I will be one whose trust reposes in God;" and again, "Here am I, and here are the children God has given Me."

For we have not here an abiding city, but we seek after the city which is to come.

And here indeed, men who die receive tithes, but there, he who is testified about that he lives.

These people all died victoriously as a result of their faith, although they did not receive the blessings promised; that is, because they really saw them in the far-off future and welcomed them, and so professed to be only foreigners and strangers here on earth.

Now were he on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there are here those who present the gifts according to the Law??5 those priests who serve a mere outline and shadow of the heavenly reality, just as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to build the Tabernacle. "See", he says, "that you make everything on the pattern showed you on the mountain."

They were stoned to death, they were tortured to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. With nothing on their bodies but skins of sheep or goats they wandered here and there, destitute, oppressed, mistreated --

See to it that you do not refuse to listen to Him who is speaking to you. For if they did not escape, because they refused to listen to him who warned them here on earth, how much less can we, if we reject Him who is from heaven?

Our brother Timothy has been let out of prison; and if he comes here in a short time, he and I will come to you together.

For, yet a little while, how short! how short! The Coming One will be here, and will not tarry;

It was fitting for us to have such a High Priest [perfectly adapted to our needs], holy, blameless, unstained [by sin], separated from sinners and exalted higher than the heavens;

“Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come
To do Your will, O God—
[To fulfill] what is written of Me in the scroll of the book.’”

then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” [And so] He does away with the first [covenant as a means of atoning for sin based on animal sacrifices] so that He may inaugurate and establish the second [covenant by means of obedience].