having become as far superior to the angels as the Name He possesses by inheritance is more excellent than theirs.

For to which of the angels did God ever say, "My Son art Thou: I have this day become Thy Father;" and again, "I will be a Father to Him, and He shall be My Son"?

Moreover of the angels He says, "He changes His angels into winds, and His ministering servants into a flame of fire."

But of His Son, He says, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and for ever, and the sceptre of Thy Kingdom is a sceptre of absolute justice.

To which of the angels has He ever said, "Sit at My right hand till I make Thy foes a footstool for Thy feet"?

Are not all angels spirits that serve Him--whom He sends out to render service for the benefit of those who, before long, will inherit salvation?

For this reason we ought to pay the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, for fear we should drift away from them.

For if the message delivered through angels proved to be true, and every transgression and act of disobedience met with just retribution,

Thou hast put everything in subjection under his feet." For this subjecting of the universe to man implies the leaving nothing not subject to him. But we do not as yet see the universe subject to him.

But Jesus--who was made a little inferior to the angels in order that through God's grace He might taste death for every human being--we already see wearing a crown of glory and honour because of His having suffered death.

For it was fitting that He for whom, and through whom, all things exist, after He had brought many sons to glory, should perfect by suffering the Prince Leader who had saved them.

For both He who sanctifies and those whom He is sanctifying have all one Father; and for this reason He is not ashamed to speak of them as His brothers;

and again, "As for Me, I will be one whose trust reposes in God;" and again, "Here am I, and here are the children God has given Me."

and might set at liberty all those who through fear of death had been subject to lifelong slavery.

For assuredly it is not to angels that He is continually reaching a helping hand, but it is to the descendants of Abraham.

And for this purpose it was necessary that in all respects He should be made to resemble His brothers, so that He might become a compassionate and faithful High Priest in things relating to God, in order to atone for the sins of the people.

For inasmuch as He has Himself felt the pain of temptation and trial, He is also able instantly to help those who are tempted and tried.

For Jesus has been counted worthy of greater glory than Moses, in so far as he who has built a house has higher honour than the house itself.

For every house has had a builder, and the builder of all things is God.

For this reason--as the Holy Spirit warns us, "To-day, if you hear His voice,

For we have, all alike, become sharers with Christ, if we really hold our first confidence firm to the End;

For who were they that heard, and yet provoked God? Was it not the whole of the people who had come out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses?

And with whom was God so greatly grieved for forty years? Was it not with those who had sinned, and whose dead bodies fell in the Desert?

For Good News has been brought to us as truly as to them; but the message they heard failed to benefit them, because they were not one in faith with those who gave heed to it.

For, as we know, when speaking of the seventh day He has used the words, "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works;"

For if Joshua had given them the true rest, we should not afterwards hear God speaking of another still future day.

It follows that there still remains a sabbath rest for the people of God.

For He who has been admitted to His rest, has rested from His works as God did from His.

For God's Message is full of life and power, and is keener than the sharpest two-edged sword. It pierces even to the severance of soul from spirit, and penetrates between the joints and the marrow, and it can discern the secret thoughts and purposes of the heart.

For we have not a High Priest who is unable to feel for us in our weaknesses, but one who was tempted in every respect just as we are tempted, and yet did not sin.

For every High Priest is chosen from among men, and is appointed to act on behalf of men in matters relating to God, in order to offer both gifts and sin-offerings,

And for this reason he is required to offer sin-offerings not only for the people but also for himself.

So Christ also did not claim for Himself the honour of being made High Priest, but was appointed to it by Him who said to Him, "My Son art Thou: I have to-day become Thy Father;"

as also in another passage He says, "Thou art a priest for ever, belonging to the order of Melchizedek."

For Jesus during his earthly life offered up prayers and entreaties, crying aloud and weeping as He pleaded with Him who was able to bring Him in safety out of death, and He was delivered from the terror from which He shrank.

For God Himself addresses Him as a High Priest for ever, belonging to the order of Melchizedek.

For although, considering the long time you have been believers, you ought now to be teachers of others, you really need some one to teach you over again the very rudiments of the truths of God, and you have come to require milk instead of solid food.

Such persons are mere babes. But solid food is for adults--that is, for those who through constant practice have their spiritual faculties carefully trained to distinguish good from evil.

For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once for all been enlightened, and have tasted the sweetness of the heavenly gift, and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,

it is impossible, I say, to keep bringing them back to a new repentance, for, to their own undoing, they are repeatedly crucifying the Son of God afresh and exposing Him to open shame.

For land which has drunk in the rain that often falls upon it, and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sakes, indeed, it is tilled, has a share in God's blessing.

But if it only yields a mass of thorns and briers, it is considered worthless, and is in danger of being cursed, and in the end will be destroyed by fire.

For God is not unjust so that He is unmindful of your labour and of the love which you have manifested towards Himself in having rendered services to His people and in still rendering them.

But we long for each of you to continue to manifest the same earnestness, with a view to your enjoying fulness of hope to the very End;

For when God gave the promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater to swear by, He swore by Himself,

For men swear by what is greater than themselves; and with them an oath in confirmation of a statement always puts an end to a dispute.

He added an oath, in order that, through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for Him to prove false, we may possess mighty encouragement--we who, for safety, have hastened to lay hold of the hope set before us.

where Jesus has entered as a forerunner on our behalf, having become, like Melchizedek, a High Priest for ever.

For this man, Melchizedek, King of Salem and priest of the Most High God--he who when Abraham was returning after defeating the kings met him and pronounced a blessing on him--

with no father or mother, and no record of ancestry: having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made a type of the Son of God--this man Melchizedek remains a priest for ever.

for Levi was yet in the loins of his forefather when Melchizedek met Abraham.

Now if the crowning blessing was attainable by means of the Levitical priesthood--for as resting on this foundation the people received the Law, to which they are still subject-- what further need was there for a Priest of a different kind to be raised up belonging to the order of Melchizedek instead of being said to belong to the order of Aaron?

For when the priesthood changes, a change of Law also of necessity takes place.

For it is undeniable that our Lord sprang from Judah, a tribe of which Moses said nothing in connection with priests.

For the words are in evidence, "Thou art a priest for ever, belonging to the order of Melchizedek."

for the Law brought no perfect blessing--but on the other hand we have the bringing in of a new and better hope by means of which we draw near to God.

for these men hold office without any oath having been taken, but He holds it attested by an oath from Him who said to Him, "The Lord has sworn and will not recall His words, Thou art a Priest for ever" --

but He, because He continues for ever, has a priesthood which does not pass to any successor.

Hence too He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, seeing that He ever lives to plead for them.

Moreover we needed just such a High Priest as this--holy, guileless, undefiled, far removed from sinful men and exalted above the heavens;

who, unlike other High Priests, is not under the necessity of offering up sacrifices day after day, first for His own sins, and afterwards for those of the people; for this latter thing He did once for all when He offered up Himself.

For the Law constitutes men High Priests--men with all their infirmity--but the utterance of the oath, which came later than the Law, constitutes High Priest a Son who has been made for ever perfect.

and serve a copy and type of the heavenly things, just as Moses was divinely instructed when about to build the tabernacle. For God said, "See that you make everything in imitation of the pattern shown you on the mountain."

For if that first Covenant had been free from imperfection, there would have been no attempt to introduce another.

For, being dissatisfied with His people, God says, "'There are days coming,' says the Lord, 'When I will establish with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new Covenant--

a Covenant unlike the one which 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 remain faithful to that.' 'So I turned from them,' says the Lord.

And there shall be no need for them to teach each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord. For all will know Me from the least of them to the greatest;

By using the words, "a new Covenant," He has made the first one obsolete; but whatever is decaying and showing signs of old age is not far from disappearing altogether.

Now even the first Covenant had regulations for divine worship, and had also its sanctuary--a sanctuary belonging to this world.

For a sacred tent was constructed--the outer one, in which were the lamp and the table and the presented loaves; and this is called the Holy place.

And this is a figure--for the time now present--answering to which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, unable though they are to give complete freedom from sin to him who ministers.

For their efficacy depends only on meats and drinks and various washings, ceremonies pertaining to the body and imposed until a time of reformation.

and once for all entered the Holy place, taking with Him not the blood of goats and calves, but His own blood, and thus procuring eternal redemption for us.

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have contracted defilement make them holy so as to bring about ceremonial purity,

how much more certainly shall the blood of Christ, who strengthened by the eternal Spirit offered Himself to God, free from blemish, purify your consciences from lifeless works for you to serve the ever-living God?

And because of this He is the negotiator of a new Covenant, in order that, since a life has been given in atonement for the offences committed under the first Covenant, those who have been called may receive the eternal inheritance which has been promised to them.

For where there is a legal 'will,' there must also be a death brought forward in evidence--the death of him who made it.

For when Moses had proclaimed to all the people every commandment contained in the Law, he took the blood of the calves and of the goats and with them water, scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,

For not into a Holy place built by men's hands--a mere copy of the reality--did Christ enter, but He entered Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

Nor did He enter for the purpose of many times offering Himself in sacrifice, just as the High Priest enters the Holy place, year after year, taking with him blood not his own.

In that case Christ would have needed to suffer many times, from the creation of the world onwards; but as a matter of fact He has appeared once for all, at the Close of the Ages, in order to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

And since it is reserved for all mankind once to die, and afterwards to be judged;

For, since the Law exhibits only an outline of the blessings to come and not a perfect representation of the things themselves, the priests can never, by repeating the same sacrifices which they continually offer year after year, give complete freedom from sin to those who draw near.

For then would not the sacrifices have ceased to be offered, because the consciences of the worshippers--who in that case would now have been cleansed once for all--would no longer be burdened with sins?

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

That is why, when He comes into the world, He says, "Sacrifice and offering Thou has not desired, but a body Thou hast prepared for Me.

It is through that divine will that we have been set free from sin, through the offering of Jesus Christ as our sacrifice once for all.

this Priest, on the contrary, after offering for sins a single sacrifice of perpetual efficacy, took His seat at God's right hand,

For by a single offering He has for ever completed the blessing for those whom He is setting free from sin.

And the Holy Spirit also gives us His testimony; for when He had said,

But where these have been forgiven no further offering for sin is required.

Since then, brethren, we have free access to the Holy place through the blood of Jesus,

by the new and ever-living way which He opened up for us through the rending of the veil--that is to say, of His earthly nature--

let us draw near with sincerity and unfaltering faith, having had our hearts sprinkled, once for all, from consciences oppressed with sin, and our bodies bathed in pure water.

Let us hold firmly to an unflinching avowal of our hope, for He is faithful who gave us the promises.

For if we wilfully persist in sin after having received the full knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains in reserve any other sacrifice for sins.

There remains nothing but a certain awful expectation of judgement, and the fury of a fire which before long will devour the enemies of the truth.

How much severer punishment, think you, will he be held to deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, has not regarded as holy that Covenant-blood with which he was set free from sin, and has insulted the Spirit from whom comes grace?

For we know who it is that has said, "Vengeance belongs to Me: I will pay back;" and again, "The Lord will be His people's judge."

For you not only showed sympathy with those who were imprisoned, but you even submitted with joy when your property was taken from you, being well aware that you have in your own selves a more valuable possession and one which will remain.