God, having spoken to the fathers long ago in [the voices and writings of] the prophets in many separate revelations [each of which set forth a portion of the truth], and in many ways,

At these last days spake to us in the Son, whom he set heir of all things, by whom also he made the times;

Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

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?

And again, when God sent the Firstborn One [i.e., Jesus. See Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:15, 18; Rev. 1:5] into the world, He said [Deut. 32:43 LXX], "And all of God's angels should worship Him."

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 of the Son he says, Your seat of power, O God, is for ever and ever; and the rod of your kingdom is a rod of righteousness.

And you will fold them up like a robe, and they will be changed like an article of clothing. But you will stay the same and your years will never end."

But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?

This is why we must pay much closer attention to the message once heard, to keep from drifting to one side.

But one has [solemnly] testified somewhere [in Scripture], saying,

“What is man, that You are mindful of him,
Or the son of man, that You graciously care for him?

Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands:

Then since the children have inherited blood and flesh, he likewise also received the same, in order that through death he might set at nought him who has the power of death, that is, the devil;

and might set free all those who through fear of death through the whole of their life were subject to bondage.

For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, [thoughtfully and attentively] consider the Apostle and High Priest whom we confessed [as ours when we accepted Him as Savior], namely, Jesus;

Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s household, as a testimony to what would be said in the future.

the faithfulness of Christ was that of a Son set over the House of God. And we are his House--if only we retain, unshaken to the end, the courage and confidence inspired by our hope.

So, even as the Holy Spirit said [Psa. 95:7-11], "Today, if you hear His [i.e., God's] voice,

Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.

for we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold fast our first confidence firm unto the end; inasmuch as it is said,

While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.

For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

For he hath said somewhere of the seventh day on this wise, And God rested on the seventh day from all his works;

and again in this, “They shall not enter My rest.”

Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have said anything about another day.

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Then let us come near to the seat of grace without fear, so that mercy may be given to us, and we may get grace for our help in time of need.

For every chief priest -- out of men taken -- in behalf of men is set in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins,

So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee.

also said in another passage, You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

And have tasted God's utterance to be, sweet, mighty works also of a coming age,

He said, "I will certainly bless you and give you many descendants."

That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

And it could be said that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid a tithe through Abraham.

Thus if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood, for on the basis of it the people received the law, what further need [is there] for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek and not said to be according to the order of Aaron?

For he of whom these things are said belongeth to another tribe, from which no man hath given attendance at the altar.

For [it is] evident that our Lord is a descendant of Judah, a tribe [with reference] to which Moses said nothing concerning priests.

for it is said, "thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec."

For on the one hand a preceding commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness

(For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:)

For, such a high-priest as this, for us, was evensuited: Loving, noble, undefiled, set apart from sinners, and become, higher than the heavens;

Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;

of the holy places a servant, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord did set up, and not man,

These serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was warned when he was about to complete the tabernacle. For God said, Be careful that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.

For finding fault with them, he said, "Behold, the days come," says the Lord, "that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;

This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel when that day comes, saith the Lord; I will set my laws within their mind, inscribing them upon their hearts; I will be a God to them, and they shall be a People to me;

When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

For a tabernacle was set up; the first, in which were both the candlestick and the table and the exposition of the loaves, which is called Holy;

Having a golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant covered around on every side with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, and the rod of Aaron that sprouted, and the tables of the covenant;

and above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat; of which things we cannot now speak severally.

With these things set up this way, the priests enter the first room repeatedly, performing their ministry.

since they deal only with food, drink, and various washings, which are required for the body until the time when things would be set right.

And so he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the eternal inheritance he has promised, since he died to set them free from the violations committed under the first covenant.

and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded you to keep."

For Christ is not entered into the holy places, that are made with hands, which are but similitudes of true things: but is entered into very heaven, for to appear now in the sight of God for us.

Therefore, when Christ enters into the world, He says,

“Sacrifice and offering You have not desired,
But [instead] You have prepared a body for Me [to offer];

Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.

Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;

Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.

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.

Every priest stands [at his altar of service] ministering daily, offering the same sacrifices over and over, which are never able to strip away sins [that envelop and cover us];

But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;

waiting from henceforth until his enemies be set for the footstool of his feet.

For by one offering [i.e., the sacrifice of Himself], Christ has made perfect forever those people who are being set apart for God.

Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,

“This is the covenant that I will make with them
After those days, says the Lord:
I will imprint My laws upon their heart,
And on their mind I will inscribe them [producing an inward change],”

He then says,

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

A man that hath set at nought Moses law dieth without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses:

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 him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.

sometimes being publicly exposed to insult and persecution; and at other times standing side by side with those who were so treated.

By faith we understand that the worlds were set in order at God's command, so that the visible has its origin in the invisible.

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.

By faith Enoch was translated without seeing death, and was not found because God translated him. For before the translation he was said to have pleased God;

By faith Abraham did as God said when he was ordered to go out into a place which was to be given to him as a heritage, and went out without knowledge of where he was going.

Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

All these died sustained by faith. They did not obtain the promised blessings, but they saw them from a distance and welcomed the sight, and they acknowledged themselves to be only aliens and strangers on the earth.

Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called:

concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the grave; from whence, in a figurative sense, be may be said to have been recover'd.

By faith Joseph, when his end was near, said that the children of Israel would go out of Egypt; and gave orders about his bones.

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Yes, to keep from growing weary and fainthearted, just think of the examples set by Him who has endured so great opposition aimed at Him by sinful men!

Wherefore, the hanging-down hands and the loosened knees set ye up;

For you know that later on, when he wanted [to regain title to] his inheritance of the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no opportunity for repentance [there was no way to repair what he had done, no chance to recall the choice he had made], even though he sought for it with [bitter] tears.

and to the blast of a trumpet and a sound of words [such that] those who heard it begged that nothing more be said to them.

For the order which said, If the mountain is touched even by a beast, the beast is to be stoned, seemed hard to them;

And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)

But ye are come unto the mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the celestial Jerusalem: and to an innumerable sight of angels,

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

Therefore Jesus also suffered and died outside the [city] gate so that He might sanctify and set apart for God as holy the people [who believe] through [the shedding of] His own blood.

Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

But, brothers, take kindly the words which I have said for your profit; for I have not sent you a long letter.

Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty; with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you.