It was little by little and in different ways that God spoke in old times to our forefathers through the prophets,

He is the reflection of God's glory, and the representation of his being, and bears up the universe by his mighty word. He has effected man's purification from sin, and has taken his seat on high at the right hand of God's Majesty,

For to what angel did God ever say, "You are my Son! I have today become your Father"? Or again, "I will become his Father, and he shall become my Son"?

But of the time when he is to bring his firstborn Son back to the world he says, "And let all God's angels bow before him."

But of the Son he says, "God is your throne forever and ever! And a righteous scepter is the scepter of his kingdom!

You have loved right and hated wrong! That is why God, your God, has anointed you with exhilarating oil beyond all your comrades."

They will perish, but you continue! And they will all wear out like a coat,

And you will fold them up like a mantle, And change them as one changes his coat. But you are always the same, and your years will have no end!"

Are not the angels all spirits in service, whom he sends on his errands for the good of those who are destined to possess salvation?

while God himself corroborated their testimony with signs, portents, and various wonders, and by impartations of the holy Spirit when he saw fit.

You have put everything under his feet!" In thus making everything subject to man, God left nothing that was not subjected to him. But we do not as yet see everything made subject to him,

but we do see Jesus, who was "made for a little while inferior to angels, crowned with glory and honor" because he suffered death, so that by the favor of God he might taste the bitterness of death on behalf of every human being.

and again "I will put my trust in God"; and again, "Here I am with the children that God has given me."

And so he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might prove a compassionate high priest as well as one faithful in his service to God, in order to forgive the people's sins.

has been to the God who appointed him, just as Moses was, in all the house of God.

For every house has a builder, and the builder of the universe is God.

Now the faithfulness of Moses in all the house of God was that of a servant, in faithfully repeating what he was told to say;

but Christ's faithfulness was that of a son set over the house of God. And we are that house, if we keep up our courage and our triumphant hope to the very end.

See to it, my brothers, that no one of you has a wicked, unbelieving heart, that turns away from the ever-living God,

And who was it with whom God was angry forty whole years? Was it not with those who had sinned, who dropped dead in the desert?

And who was it to whom God made oath that they should not be admitted to his Rest, if it was not to those who had disobeyed him?

For we have had good news preached to us, just as they did, but the message they heard did them no good because they did not agree through faith with what they heard.

For we who have believed are admitted to that Rest, of which he said, "As I made oath in my anger, They shall never be admitted to my Rest!" And yet God's work was finished at the creation of the world,

for he says somewhere of the seventh day, "On the seventh day God rested after all his work,"

For if Joshua had really brought them rest God would not afterward have spoken of another day.

So there must still be a promised Sabbath of Rest for God's people.

For all who are admitted to God's Rest rest after their work, just as God did after his.

For the message of God is a living and active force, sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing through soul and spirit, and joints and marrow, and keen in judging the thoughts and purposes of the mind.

No being created can escape God's sight, but everything is bare and helpless before the eyes of him with whom we have to reckon.

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.

So let us come with courage to God's throne of grace to receive his forgiveness and find him responsive when we need his help.

For every high priest who is chosen from among men is appointed to represent his fellow-men in their relations with God, and to offer gifts and sin-offerings.

And no one takes the office upon himself, but men assume it only when called to it by God, as Aaron was.

since God pronounced him a high priest of the priesthood of Melchizedek.

Let us therefore leave elementary Christian teaching alone and advance toward maturity. We must not be always relaying foundations, of repentance for wrong-doing, and of faith in God,

And we will advance if God permits it.

and felt the goodness of the word of God and the strong influences of the coming age,

and yet have fallen back, for they crucify the Son of God on their own account, and hold him up to contempt.

Ground that drinks in frequent showers and produces vegetation that is of use to those for whom it is cultivated receives God's blessing.

For God is not so unjust as to forget the work you have done and the love you have showed for his cause, in giving help to your fellow-Christians as you still do.

so that you may never grow careless, but may learn to follow the example of those who through their faith and endurance are the possessors of God's promises.

For when God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to make oath by, he did so by himself,

And so after waiting patiently, he received what God had promised him.

Therefore, God in his desire to make it perfectly clear to those to whom he made his promise, that his purpose was unalterable, bound himself with an oath,

so that by these two unalterable things, which make it impossible for God to break his promise, we who have taken refuge with him may be greatly encouraged to seize upon the hope that is offered to us.

For this man Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was on his way back from defeating the kings, and gave him his blessing,

to whom Abraham apportioned one tenth of all the spoil, who is first, as his name shows, king of righteousness and then king of Salem, which means king of peace??3 with no father or mother or ancestry, and with no beginning to his days nor end to his life, but like no one but the Son of God, continues as priest forever.

But this man, whose ancestry is not connected with theirs, collected tithes from Abraham himself, and gave his blessing to the man who had received the promises from God.

(for there was nothing final about the Law), and a better hope begins to dawn, through which we may approach God.

And in proportion as Jesus was not appointed priest without God's making oath to it,

for God took no oath in appointing the old priests, but he made oath to his appointment, when he said to him, "The Lord has sworn it and he will not change; You are a priest forever!"

Therefore, he is able to save forever all who come to God through him, because he lives and intercedes for them forever.

Now the main point in what I am saying is this: We have such a high priest as this, and he has taken his seat in heaven at the right hand of God's Majesty,

'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 all this looked toward the present time and was symbolic of the fact that the mere offering of material gifts and sacrifices cannot inwardly qualify the worshiper to approach God,

how much more surely will the blood of the Christ, who with the eternal Spirit made himself an unblemished offering to God, purify our consciences from the old wrongdoing for the worship of the everliving God?

saying, "This blood ratifies the agreement which God has commanded me to make with you."

For it was not a sanctuary made by human hands and only copied after the true one that Christ entered, but he went into heaven itself, in order to appear now on our behalf in the very presence of God.

So I said, 'See, I have come! as the Book of the Law says of me, O God, to do your will!' "

And it is through his doing of God's will that we have been once for all purified from sin through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ in sacrifice.

But Christ has offered for all time one sacrifice for sin, and has taken his seat at God's right hand,

For by that one sacrifice he has forever qualified those who are purified from sin to approach God.

and since in him we have a great priest set over the house of God,

let us draw near to God in sincerity of heart and with perfect faith, with our hearts cleansed from the sense of sin, and our bodies washed with clean water.

By observing one another, let us arouse ourselves to rival one another's love and good deeds.

but only the dreadful prospect of judgment and that blazing indignation which is to devour God's enemies.

How much worse a punishment do you think will anyone deserve who tramples the Son of God underfoot, and treats as worthless the blood of the agreement by which he has been purified, and outrages God's spirit of mercy?

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!

but you will need endurance if you are to carry out God's will and receive the blessing he has promised.

For it was by it that the men of old gained God's approval.

It is faith that enables us to see that the universe was created at the command of God, so that the world we see did not simply arise out of matter.

Faith made Abel's sacrifice greater in the sight of God than Cain's; through faith he gained God's approval as an upright man, for God himself approved his offering, and through faith even when he was dead he still spoke.

Faith caused Enoch to be taken up from the earth without experiencing death; he could not be found, because God had taken him up. For before he was taken up there is evidence that he pleased God,

but without faith it is impossible to please him; for whoever would approach God must have faith in his existence and in his willingness to reward those who try to find him.

Faith led Noah, when he was warned by God of things no one then saw, in obedience to the warning to build an ark in which to save his family, and by such faith he condemned the world, and came to possess that uprightness which faith produces.

Faith enabled Abraham to obey when God summoned him to leave his home for a region which he was to have for his own, and to leave home without knowing where he was going.

For he was looking forward to that city with the sure foundations, designed and built by God.

And so from one man, for any prospect of descendants as good as dead, there sprang a people in number like the stars in the heavens or the countless sands on the seashore.

But, as it is, their aspirations are for a better, a heavenly country! That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city to receive them.

Faith enabled Abraham, when he was put to the test, to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had accepted God's promises was ready to sacrifice his only son,

For he believed that God was able to raise men even from the dead, and from the dead he did indeed, to speak figuratively, receive him back.

for he preferred sharing the hardships of God's people to a short-lived enjoyment of sin,

Faith saved Rahab the prostitute from being destroyed with those who disobeyed God, because she had given a friendly welcome to the scouts.

Yet though they all gained God's approval by their faith, they none of them received what he had promised,

for God had resolved upon something still better for us, that they might not reach the fulfilment of their hopes except with us.

fixing our eyes upon Jesus, our leader and example in faith, who in place of the happiness that belonged to him, submitted to a cross, caring nothing for its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

and you have forgotten the challenge addressed to you as God's sons, "My son, do not think lightly of the Lord's discipline, Or give up when he corrects you.

You must submit to it as discipline. God is dealing with you as his sons. For where is there a son whom his father does not discipline?

For they disciplined us for a short time and as they thought proper, but he does it for our good, to make us share his holiness.

Be careful that no one fails to gain God's favor, or some poisonous root may come up to trouble and contaminate you all??16 some immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his very birthright for one single meal.

But you have come up to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to countless angels,

to the solemn gathering of all God's elder sons, enrolled as citizens in heaven, to a judge who is the God of all, to the spirits of upright men now at last enjoying the fulfilment of their hopes,

Let us, therefore, be thankful that the kingdom given to us cannot be shaken, and so please God by worshiping him with reverence and awe;

for our God is a consuming fire.

Marriage should be respected by everyone, and the marriage relation kept sacred, for vicious and immoral people God will punish.

You must not be avaricious; you must be content with what you have, for God himself has said, "I will never let go of you or desert you!"

Do not forget your former leaders, the men who brought you God's message. Remember how they ended their lives and imitate their faith.

You must not be carried away with strange varieties of teaching. The true way to steadfastness of heart is through God's mercy, not through scruples about food, which have never done their adherents any good.

And so Jesus too, in order to purify the people by his blood, suffered death outside the city gate.

In his name let us continually offer praise as our sacrifice to God??he utterance of lips that glorify God's name.