having become so much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they have.

For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

“You have loved righteousness [integrity, virtue, uprightness in purpose] and have hated lawlessness [injustice, sin].
Therefore God, Your God, Has anointed You
With the oil of gladness above Your companions.”

And, you, Lord, in the beginning have laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of your hands:

They will be rolled up like a cloth, even like a robe, and they will be changed: but you are the same and your years will have no end.

Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.

how shall we escape if we have been negligent of so great salvation, which, having had its commencement in being spoken of by the Lord, has been confirmed to us by those who have heard;

“You have made him for a little while lower [in status] than the angels;
You have crowned him with glory and honor,
And set him over the works of Your hands;

You have put all things in subjection under his feet [confirming his supremacy].”

Now in putting all things in subjection to man, He left nothing outside his control. But at present we do not yet see all things subjected to him.

For it was fitting for God [that is, an act worthy of His divine nature] that He, for whose sake are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the author and founder of their salvation perfect through suffering [bringing to maturity the human experience necessary for Him to be perfectly equipped for His office as High Priest].

Both Jesus who sanctifies and those who are sanctified [that is, spiritually transformed, made holy, and set apart for God’s purpose] are all from one Father; for this reason He is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters,

Seeing, then, the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself also in like manner did take part of the same, that through death he might destroy him having the power of death -- that is, the devil --

For this reason, holy brothers, marked out to have a part in heaven, give thought to Jesus the representative and high priest of our faith;

And it was right for this man to have more honour than Moses, even as the builder of a house has more honour than the house.

do not have a stubborn heart like you did when you provoked [God] during the time you tested [His patience] in the desert,

Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.

but encourage one another every day, as long as we can still speak of Today, so that no one of you may have his heart hardened by the pleasantness of sin.

for partakers we have become of the Christ, if the beginning of the confidence unto the end we may hold fast,

As it has been said [Psa. 95:7], "Today, if you hear His [i.e., God's] voice, do not have a stubborn heart like you did when you provoked [God]."

Let us fear therefore, lest haply, a promise being left of entering into his rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it.

For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they: but the word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with them that 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.

So that as it is clear that some have to go in, and that the first hearers of the good news were not able to go in because they went against God's orders,

God again identified a certain day, [calling it] "Today," in David's [writings], a long time later (just as it was referred to above) [Psa. 95:7-8], "Today, if you hear His [i.e., God's] voice, do not have a stubborn heart."

For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.

which shows that the people of God have a sabbath still to come.

Because of this, let us have a strong desire to come into that rest, and let no one go after the example of those who went against God's orders.

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Every high priest who is taken from among men is given his position to take care of the interests of men in those things which have to do with God, so that he may make offerings for sins.

Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.

So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee.

Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

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.

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

and have fallen away, crucifying for themselves as they do the Son of God, and making a show of him.

But we, even while we speak in this tone, have a happier conviction concerning you, my dearly-loved friends--a conviction of things which point towards salvation.

For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

But we desire every one of you to show the same diligence, in order to have your hope fully assured to the end:

that ye be not sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience have been inheritors of the promises.

For men make oath by something greater than themselves, and they accept an oath as settling finally any disagreement they may have.

So that when it was God's desire to make it specially clear to those who by his word were to have the heritage, that his purpose was fixed, he made it more certain with an oath;

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:

Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;

without father, without mother, without genealogy; his days have no beginning, and his life no end; but like the son of God, he was a perpetual priest.

Now think how great this priest-king must have been to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth part of the best of the spoil.

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

Now if there was perfection through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people have received the law), what further need was there for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be called after the order of Aaron?

On the one hand we have here the abrogation of an earlier code because it was weak and ineffective--

for the Law brought no perfect blessing--but on the other hand we have the bringing in of a new and better hope by means of 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 they indeed have been made priests without an oath; but he with an oath by him that saith of him, The Lord sware and will not repent himself, Thou art a priest for ever);

By so much is it a better agreement which we have through Jesus.

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

It was right for us to have such a high priest, one who is holy and without evil, doing no wrong, having no part with sinners, and made higher than the heavens:

one who has no need to offer sacrifices daily as those High Priests have, first for their own sins, and then for those of the People. For this he did once and for all, when he offered himself as the sacrifice.

For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.

Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;

For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.

If he had been on earth he would not have been a priest at all, because there are other priests who make the offerings ordered by the law;

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.

not according to the alliance that I made with their fathers, when I took them by the hand, to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they have not kept my alliance, wherefore I have rejected them, saith the Lord.

'For this is the agreement that I will make with the house of Israel, In those later days,' says the Lord; 'I will put my laws into their minds, And write them on their hearts, And they will have me for their God, And I will have them for my people.

“And it will not be [necessary] for each one to teach his fellow citizen,
Or each one his brother, saying, ‘Know [by experience, have knowledge of] the Lord,’
For all will know [Me by experience and have knowledge of] Me,
From the least to the greatest of them.

And I will have mercy on their evil-doing, and I will not keep their sins in mind.

Even the first, indeed, therefore, used to have righteous appointments of divine service, even the holy ritual well arranged.

Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship,

but into the second [inner tabernacle, the Holy of Holies], only the high priest enters [and then only] once a year, and never without [bringing a sacrifice of] blood, which he offers [as a substitutionary atonement] for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance.

which is a figure for the present time, in accordance with which are offered both gifts and sacrifices, which have no power as to the conscience to perfect the worshipper,

Because they are only rules of the flesh, of meats and drinks and washings, which have their place till the time comes when things will be put right.

But when Christ appeared as a High Priest of the good things to come [that is, true spiritual worship], He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not a part of this [material] creation.

For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling them that have been defiled, sanctify unto the cleanness of the flesh:

And for this cause he is the mediator of a new covenant, that a death having taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they that have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

For Christ has not entered a holy place which human hands have made (a mere type of the reality!); he has entered heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

And he did not have to make an offering of himself again and again, as the high priest goes into the holy place every year with blood which is not his;

For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

So Christ, once offered to have borne the sins of many, of the second time, without sin, shall be seen to them expecting him for salvation.

For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.

They really only serve to remind the people annually of the sins they have committed,

Therefore, when Christ enters into the world, He says,

“Sacrifice and offering You have not desired,
But [instead] You have prepared a body for Me [to offer];

In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no delight.

Then I said, 'Behold, I have come-- in the roll of the book it is written about me-- to do your will, O God.'

After saying [in the citation] above, “You have neither desired, nor have You taken delight in sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin” (which are offered according to the Law)

then he has said, "Behold, I have come to do your will." He takes away the first in order to establish the second,

By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

We have also the testimony of the Holy Spirit. For, after saying--

then we have-- 'And their sins and their iniquities I will no longer remember.'

But where these have been forgiven no further offering for sin is required.

Therefore, believers, since we have confidence and full freedom to enter the Holy Place [the place where God dwells] by [means of] the blood of Jesus,

and since we have a great and wonderful Priest [Who rules] over the house of God,

let us continue to come near with sincere hearts in the full assurance that faith provides, because our hearts have been sprinkled clean from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

Let us stedfastly maintain the hope which we have avow'd, since he is faithful that has promised:

and let us not forsake the fellowship that we have among ourselves, as the manner of some is: but let us exhort one another, and that so much the more, because ye see that the day draweth nigh.

For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,

How much greater punishment do you think he will deserve who has rejected and trampled under foot the Son of God, and has considered unclean and common the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and has insulted the Spirit of grace [who imparts the unmerited favor and blessing of God]?