with its golden incense-altar and the chest for the covenant, completely covered with gold, and in it a golden jar which held the manna, Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets on which the covenant was written;

And this is why He is the Mediator of a new covenant, in order that, after He had suffered death for securing redemption from the offenses committed under the first covenant, those who had been invited to share it might obtain the eternal inheritance promised them.

Not according tot he covenant which I made with their forefathers, On the day when I took them by the hand to lead them forth out of the land of Egypt; For they did not continue in my covenant, And therefore I disregarded them," says the Lord.

"For this is the covenant which I will covenant with the house of Israel, After these days," says the Lord; "I will put my laws into their minds, And upon their hearts will I write them; And I will be their God, And they shall be my people;

Whereas God does find fault with the people of that covenant, when he says: The day is coming, saith the Lord, when I will conclude a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be on the lines of the covenant I made with their fathers,

For where there is a covenant, there must follow the death of the covenant-maker.

For a covenant is strong for the dead, since it is never strong [unalterable] when the covenant-maker lives;

This is the covenant which I will covenant unto them after these days, saith the Lord, - Giving my laws upon their hearts, upon their understandings also, will I inscribe them,

so much the more also is the Covenant of which Jesus has become the guarantor, a better covenant.

But Jesus, as we see, has obtained a ministry as far excelling theirs, as the Covenant of which he is the intermediary, based, as it is, on better promises, excels the former Covenant.

By speaking of a 'new' Covenant, God at once renders the former Covenant obsolete; and whatever becomes obsolete and loses its force is virtually annulled.

For if the first covenant had been faultless, there could have been no room for a second one.

So indeed the first covenant had its regulations for worship and its earthly sanctuary.

So not even the first covenant was ratified without the use of blood.

saying, "This is the blood that ratifies the covenant which God commanded me to make with you."

How much severer punishment do you suppose that one deserves who tramples the Son of God underfoot, and counts as a common thing the blood of the covenant by which he was consecrated, and has insulted the Spirit that grants God's unmerited favor?

to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks a better message than even Abel's did.

May God, who gives us peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, who through the blood by which He ratified the everlasting covenant, is now the Great Shepherd of the sheep,

And as he was not [constituted] without swearing,??21 for they were made priests without swearing, but he with swearing by him who says to him, The Lord swore, and he will not change, You are a priest forever;??22 by so much is Jesus the pledge of a better covenant.