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

For both he who purifies them and they who are purified spring from one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,

Where your forefathers put my doings to the proof for forty years, Though they saw them all the time.

That was why I was angry with that generation, And I said, 'Their minds are always wandering, And they have never found my paths.'

But as I made oath in my anger, They shall never be admitted to my Rest!"

So while we can still speak of Today, if you hear him speak, do not harden your hearts, as they provoked him by doing.

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,

while here he says again, "They shall never be admitted to my Rest!"

For it is impossible to arouse people to a fresh repentance when they have once for all come into the light and had a taste of the gift from heaven, and shared in the holy Spirit

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

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

Those of the descendants of Levi who are appointed to the priesthood are directed by the Law to collect tithes from the people, that is, from their own brothers, although they are descended from Abraham like themselves.

Further, if he were still on earth, he would not be a priest at all, for there are priests enough provided to offer the gifts the Law prescribes??5 though the service they engage in is only a shadow and imitation of that in heaven. For when Moses was going to make the tent of worship he was warned, "Be sure to make it all just like the pattern you were shown on the mountain."

Not like the one that I made with their forefathers, On the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out from the land of Egypt, For they would not abide by their agreement with me, So I paid no attention to them,' says 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 they will not have to teach their townsmen and their brothers to know the Lord, For they will all know me, From the lowest to the highest.

since they have to do only with food and drink and various washings??aterial regulations in force only until the time for the new order.

And this is why he is the negotiator of a new agreement, in order that as someone has died to deliver them from the offenses committed under the old agreement, those who have been offered it may receive the unending inheritance they have been promised.

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to offer these sacrifices, because those who offered them, having once been purified, would have had no further consciousness of sin?

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

Every other priest stands officiating day after day, offering over and over again the same sacrifices, though they were powerless ever to remove people's sins.

All these people lived all their lives in faith, and died without receiving what had been promised; they only saw it far ahead and welcomed the sight of it, recognizing that they themselves were only foreigners and strangers here on earth.

For men who recognize that show that they are in search of a country of their own.

And if it had been the country from which they had come to which their thoughts turned back, they would have found an opportunity to return to it.

Faith led Moses' parents to hide him for three months after his birth, because they saw that he was a beautiful child and they would not respect the edict of the king.

Faith enabled them to cross the Red Sea as though it were dry land, although the Egyptians when they tried to follow them across it were drowned.

Faith made the walls of Jericho fall, after they had marched around them each day for seven days.

Women had their dead restored to them by resurrection. Others endured torture, and refused to accept release, that they might rise again to the better life.

They were stoned to death, they were tortured to death, they were sawed in two, they were killed with the sword. Clothed in the skins of sheep or goats, they were driven from place to place, destitute, persecuted, misused??38 men of whom the world was not worthy wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and holes in the ground.

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.

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.

for they could not bear the order, "Even a wild animal, if it touches the mountain, must be stoned to death,"

Take care not to refuse to listen to him who is speaking. For if they could not escape because they would not listen to him who warned them here on earth, how much less can we, who reject him who is from heaven!

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

Obey your leaders and give way to them, for they are keeping watch in defense of your souls, as men accountable for the trust. Make their work a joy and not a grief, for that would be the worse for you.