Now if perfection [a perfect fellowship between God and the worshiper] had been attained through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people were given the Law) what further need was there for another and different kind of priest to arise, one in the manner of Melchizedek, rather than one appointed to the order of Aaron?

and let us animate one another to the mutual returns of love, and kind offices: not abandoning our assemblies,

Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for ourselves], so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience [as those who died in the wilderness].

they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they experienced the severest trials, they were slain by the edge of the sword: they went about wrapped in skins of sheep and goats, destitute of all things, pressed down with afflictions, suffering all kind of misery;

But do not forget to be helpful and generous, for that is the kind of sacrifice that pleases God.

wherefore it did behove him in all things to be made like to the brethren, that he might become a kind and stedfast chief-priest in the things with God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people,

For such a chief priest did become us -- kind, harmless, undefiled, separate from the sinners, and become higher than the heavens,

Now the main point in what we are saying is this: we do have this kind of high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven

but a kind of awful and terrifying expectation of [divine] judgment and the fury of a fire and burning wrath which will consume the adversaries [those who put themselves in opposition to God].

And this is still more abundantly clear when we read that it is as belonging to the order of Melchizedek that a priest of a different kind is to arise,

a sound of such a kind that those who heard it entreated that no more should be added.

Remember [to pray for and help] those who are in prison, as though you [yourselves] were in prison with them. [Remember] those who are being mistreated, realizing that you [yourselves] also share [with them] a physical body [i.e., you are subject to the same kind of trials].

and they shall in no wise teach each one his fellow-citizen, and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord'; because all shall know Me, from a small one to a great one of them;