[but] during these final days He has spoken to us through His Son [Note: This period refers to the Christian age (See Acts 2:14-36)], whom He appointed to be heir of all things [and] through whom He created the universe. [See John 1:3; Col. 1:16].

This Son expresses the radiance of God's splendor and represents His very Being, and He sustains everything by His powerful word. After He had provided cleansing for [man's] sins, He sat down at the right side of the Majesty [i.e., God] on high [i.e., in heaven].

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?

But God said [this] about the angels [Psa. 104:4 LXX], "He [i.e., God] makes His angels to be [like] winds and His servants [like] flames of fire." [Note: The idea is probably that angels obediently serve God's purpose similar to the way wind and lightening do].

But God says [this] about the Son [Psa. 97:7], "Your throne [i.e. kingdom], O God [Note: This term here is applied to Jesus], will last forever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter [i.e., the standard for ruling] of your kingdom.

thou didst love righteousness, and didst hate lawlessness; because of this did He anoint thee -- God, thy God -- with oil of gladness above thy partners;'

But which one of the angels did God ever say [this] about [Psa. 110:1], "You should sit at my right side until I put your enemies [in full subjection] beneath your feet"?

FOR this reason we ought to attend more diligently to the things which have been heard, lest by any means we let them flow by us.

For if the message spoken through angels proved to be binding [Note: This is a reference to the law of Moses. See Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19], and every violation [of it] and disobedience [to it] received a just penalty,

how can we escape if we pay no attention to such a salvation as this? It was first proclaimed by the Lord himself, and it was guaranteed to us by those who heard him,

[and besides this evidence] God also testifying with them [confirming the message of salvation], both by signs and wonders and by various miracles [carried out by Jesus and the apostles] and by [granting to believers the] gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.

and this is attested by a certain writer, who says, "what is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him?

Thou hast put all things under his feet. For this putting all things under man means leaving nothing not subject to him. But we do not yet see all things subject to him.

For he who makes holy and those who are made holy are all of one family; and for this reason it is no shame for him to give them the name of brothers,

Because of this it was necessary for him to be made like his brothers in every way, so that he might be a high priest full of mercy and keeping faith in everything to do with God, making offerings for the sins of the people.

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;

For this personage hath been counted worthy of higher glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who built it, hath greater honour than the house.

Besides, while Moses was faithful in every department of God's house as an attendant ??by way of witness to the coming revelation ??6 Christ is faithful as a Son over God's house. Now we are this house of God, if we will only keep confident and proud of our hope.

but Christ is faithful as a Son over His [Father’s] house. And we are His house if we hold fast our confidence and sense of triumph in our hope [in Christ].

Therefore as the Holy Spirit says, This day if you hear his voice,

Therefore I was displeased with this generation, and said, 'They always err in their heart, but they did not know my ways;'

Rather admonish one another daily, so long as this word To-day is uttered, that none of you may be deceived by sin and hardened.

this word ever sounding in our ears, To-day, when you hear his voice, harden not your hearts as at the Provocation.

So, as long as God's promise of entering into a state of rest with Him [still] remains, we should fear that someone among you will appear [in the end] to have fallen short of [attaining] it. [Note: In this section "entering into rest" refers to Israel entering Canaan (verses 6, 8) and to Christians entering heaven (verses 3, 9). The "Sabbath day rest" is represented as a type of both].

For we who believe [that is, we who personally trust and confidently rely on God] enter that rest [so we have His inner peace now because we are confident in our salvation, and assured of His power], just as He has said,

“As I swore [an oath] in My wrath,
They shall not enter My rest,”

[this He said] although His works were completed from the foundation of the world [waiting for all who would believe].

For he has said this somewhere about the seventh day, "God rested on the seventh day from all his works;"

and in this place again, "They will not enter into my rest."

Since, then, there is still a promise that some shall enter upon this Rest, and since those who were first told the Good News did not enter upon it, because of their disbelief,

Again he appointeth in David a certain present day after so long a time, saying as it is rehearsed, "This day if ye hear his voice, be not hard hearted."

[This mention of a rest was not a reference to their entering into Canaan.] For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak about another day [of opportunity] after that.

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.

For God's word is alive and active and sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates [deep enough] even to divide [a person's] soul [from his] spirit, and his joints [from his] bone marrow [Note: This is figurative language describing the penetrating effect of God's word into a person's spiritual, inner being] and is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of a person's heart.

Because of this, he must offer sacrifices for sins for the people, as well as for himself.

Nobody takes this honor on himself, but he is called by God, just like Aaron was.

So Christ also did not himself assume the glory to become high-priest, but he [gave it] who spake to him, "Thou art my Son; I have this day begotten thee."

And He says in another place [Psa. 110:4], "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." [Note: This is the first mention of this mysterious Old Testament priest who, throughout this book, is represented as a type of Christ].

this was Jesus, who while he was in a mortal body, having offered up prayers and supplications, with strong cries, and with tears, to him that was able to save him from that death, was heard so as to be delivered from his fear;

And by being perfected in this way, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,

I have much to say to you about this, but it is difficult to make it clear to you, because you have become so slow of apprehension.

And though by this time it would be right for you to be teachers, you still have need of someone to give you teaching about the first simple rules of God's revelation; you have become like babies who have need of milk, and not of solid food.

For this reason let us go on from the first things about Christ to full growth; not building again that on which it is based, that is, the turning of the heart from dead works, and faith in God,

and of faith in God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and laying on of hands, and of the resurrection from the dead, and of eternal judgement: (tho' we will do this also, if God permit:)

And this we will do if God permits.

But, beloved, we are persuaded of better things for you, and things that accompany salvation, even though we speak like this.

But we want each of you to exhibit this same earnestness to the very end with regard to your confidence in your hope,

And this way, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

In this way God, being determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath;

so that by two unchangeable things [His promise and His oath] in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled [to Him] for refuge would have strong encouragement and indwelling strength to hold tightly to the hope set before us.

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil;

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,

There is no record of his father, or mother, or lineage, nor again of any beginning of his days, or end of his life. In this he resembles the Son of God, and stands before us as a priest whose priesthood is continuous.

Now consider how great this man was, to whom even Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth out of the best spoils.

But this man who had no Levitical genealogy actually took tithes of Abraham, and blessed him to whom the promises belong.

And in this case mortal men receive tithes, but in that case it is testified that he lives.

Now if perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood for on this basis the people received the Law what further need would there be to speak of appointing another kind of priest according to the order of Melchizedek, not one according to the order of Aaron?

For he of whom all this was said was related to a tribe no member of which ever officiated at the altar.

This is yet more abundantly evident, if after the likeness of Melchizedek there arises another priest,

for the law made no man perfect, but this was effected by introducing a better hope, which brings us nearer to the divine presence.

And as this is not without the taking of an oath

(For those were made priests without an oath, but this one was made a priest with an oath by him who says of him, The Lord gave his oath, which he will not take back, that you are a priest for ever);

In this way, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant.

but this person, because he abideth for ever, hath a priesthood that passeth not over to another.

For a high priest such as this indeed is fitting for us, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and having become exalted [above] the heavens,

who does not need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself.

For the Law appoints to the high priesthood men full of imperfection; but this utterance about the making of the oath, which came long after the Law, appoints a son, fully qualified to be high priest forever.

Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this. We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

He is a minister in the sanctuary, [serving about holy things] in the true tabernacle, which was set up by the Lord and not by man [Note: This sanctuary/tabernacle represents either heaven or the church].

For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer.

They serve in a sanctuary that is a copy, a shadow of the heavenly one. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tent: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain."

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days," says the Lord; "I will put my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

And there will be no need for every man to be teaching his brother, or his neighbour, saying, This is the knowledge of the Lord: for they will all have knowledge of me, great and small.

Now even a first covenant had ordinances of divine service, and its sanctuary, a sanctuary of this world.

For the first Tent was made ready, having in it the vessels for the lights and the table and the ordering of the bread; and this is named the holy place.

It contained the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered entirely with gold. In this ark were the golden urn containing the manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.

above this were the cherubims of the Glory, overshadowing the mercy seat ??matters which it is impossible for me to discuss at present in detail.

With these arrangements completed in this way, the priests in conducting their official services regularly go into the outer part of the tent of worship;

The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the Holy Place was not yet revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing;

This is a parable, for the present time, according to which gifts and sacrifices are offered that are not able, as far as conscience is concerned, to perfect the worshiper;

But Christ having come as a high priest of the good things that have come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation,

not made with hands, that is, not of this building, And not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

For this reason he is the mediator of a New Covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood.

saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you."

For this cause it was necessary to make the copies of the things in heaven clean with these offerings; but the things themselves are made clean with better offerings than these.

He did not do this to offer Himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another.

Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment,

For if this had been possible, would there not have been an end of those offerings, because the worshippers would have been made completely clean and would have been no longer conscious of sins?

It is for this reason that the Christ, on coming into the world, declared. Sacrifice and offerings thou dost not desire, But a body didst thou prepare for me;

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

In this passage he says, "You never wanted or took delight in sacrifices, offerings, burnt offerings, and sin offerings," which are offered according to the Law.

And it is by this will that we have been sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

but this one, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God;

Now the Holy Ghost also beareth this testimony to us: for after declaring before,

"This is the covenant that I will make with them: 'After those days,' says the Lord, 'I will put my laws on their heart, I will also write them on their mind;'" then he says,

by this new and living way which He initiated and opened for us through the veil [as in the Holy of Holies], that is, through His flesh,

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, according to the custom of some, but exhorting, and by so much the more as this, by as much as ye behold, the day, drawing near.

partly while publicly exposed to revilings and tribulations, partly as being in communion with those who were treated in this manner.

For by this, the elders obtained testimony.

By faith Abel offered unto God a sacrifice of more excellence than Cain, by which he received a testimony that he was a righteous man, God bearing witness upon his gifts: and by this, though dead, he still speaketh.

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.