God, having spoken in former times in fragmentary and varied fashion to our forefathers by the prophets,

He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact likeness of his being, and he holds everything together by his powerful word. After he had provided a cleansing from sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Highest Majesty

For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son. Today I have become your Father"? Or again, "I will be his Father, and he will be my Son"?

And again, when he brings his firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all God's angels worship him."

But about the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the scepter of your kingdom is a righteous scepter.

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. That is why God, your God, anointed you rather than your companions with the oil of gladness."

while God added his testimony through signs, wonders, various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Now when God put everything under him, he left nothing outside his control. However, at the present time we do not yet see everything put under him. But we do see someone who was made a little lower than the angels. He is Jesus, who is crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might experience death for everyone.

It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering as part of his plan to glorify many children,

And again, "I will trust him." And again, "I am here with the children God has given me."

thereby becoming like his brothers in every way, so that he could be a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God and could atone for the people's sins.

He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was in all God's household,

After all, every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.

Moses was faithful in all God's household as a servant who was to testify to what would be said later,

but the Messiah was faithful as the Son in charge of God's household, and we are his household if we hold on to our courage and the hope in which we rejoice.

See to it, my brothers, that no evil, unbelieving heart is found in any of you, as shown by your turning away from the living God.

because we have had the good news told to us as well as to them. But the message they heard did not help them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened to it.

even though his actions had been finished since the creation of the world. Somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day as follows: "On the seventh day God rested from all his actions,"

Therefore, since it is still true that some will enter it, and since those who once heard the good news failed to enter it because of their disobedience,

There remains, therefore, a Sabbath rest for the people of God to keep,

because the one who enters God's rest has himself rested from his own actions, just as God did from his.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow, as it judges the thoughts and purposes of the heart.

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us live our lives consistent with our confession of faith.

For every high priest selected from among men is appointed to officiate on their behalf in matters relating to God, that is, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.

No one takes this honor upon himself but he is called to it by God, just as Aaron was.

In the same way, the Messiah did not take upon himself the glory of being a high priest. No, it was God who said to him, "You are my Son. Today I have become your Father."

As a mortal man, he offered up prayers and appeals with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his devotion to God.

having been designated by God to be a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

In fact, though by now you should be teachers, you still need someone to teach you the basic truths of God's word. You have become people who need milk instead of solid food.

But solid food is for mature people, whose minds are trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.

Therefore, leaving behind the elementary teachings about the Messiah, let us continue to be carried along to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead actions, faith toward God,

And this we will do, if God permits.

who have tasted the goodness of God's word and the powers of the coming age,

and who have fallen away, as long as they continue to crucify the Son of God to their own detriment by exposing him to public ridicule.

For when the ground soaks up rain that often falls on it and continues producing vegetation useful to those for whom it is cultivated, it receives a blessing from God.

For God is not so unjust as to forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have ministered to the saints and continue to minister to them.

For when God made his promise to Abraham, he swore an oath by himself, since he had no one greater to swear by.

In the same way, when God wanted to make the unchangeable character of his purpose perfectly clear to the heirs of his promise, he guaranteed it with an oath,

so that by these two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to prove false, we who have taken refuge in him might be encouraged to seize the hope set before us.

Now this man Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, met Abraham and blessed him when he was returning from defeating the kings.

He has no father, mother, or genealogy, no birth date recorded for him, nor a date of death. Like the Son of God, he continues to be a priest forever.

since the Law made nothing perfect, and a better hope is presented, by which we approach God.

but Jesus became a priest with an oath when God told him, "The Lord has taken an oath and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever."

Therefore, because he always lives to intercede for them, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him.

but God found something wrong with his people when he said, "Look! The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

But when the Messiah came as a high priest of the good things that have come, he went through the greater and more perfect tent that was not made by human hands and that is not a part of this creation.

how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead actions so that we may serve the living God!

saying, "This is the blood of the covenant that God ordained for you."

For the Messiah did not go into a sanctuary made by human hands that is merely a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, to appear now in God's presence on our behalf.

Then I said, "See, I have come to do your will, O God' In the volume of the scroll this is written about me."

By God's will we have been sanctified once and for all through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus, the Messiah.

But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, "he sat down at the right hand of God."

and since we have a great high priest over the household of God,

And let us continue to consider how to motivate one another to love and good deeds,

but only a terrifying prospect of judgment and a raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.

How much more severe a punishment do you think that person deserves who tramples on God's Son, treats as common the blood of the covenant by which it was sanctified, and insults the Spirit of grace?

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

For you need endurance, so that after you have done God's will you can receive what he has promised.

By faith we understand that time was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are invisible.

By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did, and by faith he was declared to be righteous, since God himself accepted his offerings. And by faith he continues to speak, even though he is dead.

By faith Enoch was taken away without experiencing death. He could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he won approval as one who pleased God.

Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who diligently search for him.

because he was waiting for the city with permanent foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Abraham was as good as dead, yet from this one man came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

Instead, they were longing for a better country, that is, a heavenly one. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he has prepared a city for them.

Abraham was certain that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did get Isaac back in this way.

because he preferred being mistreated with God's people to enjoying the pleasures of sin for a short time.

since God had planned something better for us, so that they would not be perfected without us.

fixing our attention on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of the faith, who, in view of the joy set before him, endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

What you endure disciplines you: God is treating you as sons. Is there a son whom his father does not discipline?

Now if you are without any discipline, in which all sons share, then you are illegitimate and not God's sons.

For a short time they disciplined us as they thought best, but God does it for our good, so that we may share in his holiness.

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up and causes you trouble, or many of you will become defiled.

Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to tens of thousands of angels joyfully gathered together,

to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to a judge who is the God of all, to the spirits of righteous people who have been made perfect,

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and worship God in reverence and fear in a way that pleases him.

For "our God is an all-consuming fire."

Let marriage be kept honorable in every way, and the marriage bed undefiled. For God will judge those who commit sexual sins, especially those who commit adultery.

Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for God has said, "I will never leave you or abandon you."

Remember your leaders, those who have spoken God's word to you. Think about the impact of their lives, and imitate their faith.

Stop being carried away by all kinds of unusual teachings, for it is good that the heart be strengthened by grace, not by food laws that have never helped those who follow them.

That is why Jesus, in order to sanctify the people by his own blood, also suffered outside the city gate.

Therefore, through him let us always bring God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips that confess his name.

Do not neglect to do good and to be generous, for God is pleased with such sacrifices.

Now may the God of peace, who by the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the sheep,

equip you with everything good to do his will, accomplishing in us what pleases him through Jesus, the Messiah. To him be glory forever and ever! Amen.