Which having begun to be spoken by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him;

What we do see is Jesus, who was made for a time a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor, because of the suffering of death, in order that through God's grace he might taste death for every man.

And so it was necessary that he should in all points be made like his brothers, so that he might become a compassionate and faithful high priest, in all that relates to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

How faithful he was to the God who appointed him! For while Moses also was faithful in all God's house,

And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, bearing testimony to a witness about to be spoken;

For this reason I was sore displeased with that generation, And said, "They are always wandering in their hearts; They have never learned my ways";

For who were they that heard and yet provoked him? Was it not all who came out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses?

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

So you see that it was through unbelief that they were not able to enter in.

For the Good News is come to us just as it did to them. But the message they heard was of no benefit to them, because they did not share the faith of those who gave heed to it.

Again no one takes this honorable office for himself, but he is called by God, just as Aaron was.

So even the Christ was not raised to the high glory of the priesthood by himself, but on the contrary by Him who said to him. Thou art my Son; this day have I become thy Father;

In the days of his flesh, with better cries and weeping Jesus offered up prayers and supplications to Him who was able to save him out of death; and he was heard because of his devout submission.

Though he was a son, yet learned he obedience through the things which he suffered;

For land that has drunk the showers that now and again fall upon it, and produced vegetation useful for those for whom it was tilled, receives a blessing from God;

It was this Melchizedek, King of Salem and Priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him;

and it was to him that Abraham apportioned a tithe of all the spoil. He was first, as his name signifies, King of righteousness, and then King of Salem, that is, King of Peace;

But observe how great this man was, to whom even Abraham, the Patriarch, gave a tenth part of the spoils.

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

Now if there were perfection through the Levitical priesthood, (and it was under it that the people received the Law) why was it still necessary for another kind of priest to arise, after the order of Melchizedek, instead of being reckoned according to the order of Aaron?

For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe of which Moses said nothing concerning the priesthood.

mightier because it was not promised apart from an oath.

one who has no need, like the high priests, to offer up daily sacrifices, first for his own sins, then for those of the people. For his sacrifice was made once for all, when he offered up himself.

For the Law appoints human beings to be high priests, men with all their weakness; but the word of the oath, which was later than the Law, appoints a Son, perfected forevermore.

Now were he on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there are here those who present the gifts according to the Law??5 those priests who serve a mere outline and shadow of the heavenly reality, just as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to build the Tabernacle. "See", he says, "that you make everything on the pattern showed you on the mountain."

For a tent was built, the outer one called the Holy Place, in which were the lamp and the table and the loaves of the Presence;

and behind the second veil was the tent called the Holy of Holies.

In it was the golden altar of incense, and also the Ark of the Covenant covered all over with gold, in which was a golden pot holding the manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant;

Accordingly we find that not without blood was the first testament enacted.

While, then, it was necessary that the copies of the heavenly things should be cleansed by such sacrifices, the heavenly things themselves required nobler sacrifices than these.

For it was not into a Sanctuary made by hands, a mere type of the reality, that Christ entered, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the very presence of God on our behalf.

Nor did he enter to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest entered into the sanctuary, year after year, with blood that was not his own;

Any one who set at naught the law of Moses was put to death without pity, on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

How much surer, think you, will be the punishment of one who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has profaned that covenant blood with which he was sanctified, and has done despite to the spirit of grace?

By faith we understand that the world was fashioned by the Word of God, so that what we see was not made out of what is visible.

By faith Abel offered to God a sacrifice more acceptable than that of Cain, through which he had witness borne to him that he was righteous, God giving the testimony by accepting his gifts; and through it he, although he is dead, still speaks.

By faith Enoch was translated so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had translated him. Before his translation he had witness borne to him that he pleased God.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

It was by faith that he sojourned in the promised land as an alien, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, his fellow heirs of the same promise.

By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive seed, although she was past the age for child-bearing, because she counted Him faithful who had promised;

By faith Abraham, when he was put to the test, was on the point of offering up Isaac; yes, he who had received the promise was about to offer up his only son,

By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.

By faith Joseph, when his end was nigh, made mention of the exodus of the children of Israel, and gave instructions in regard to his bones.

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king's decree.

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,

They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, persecuted, tormented??38 of whom the world was not worthy??andering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.

since it was for us that God had in store some better thing, so that apart from us they should not be perfected.

looking unto Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured a cross, despising shame, and has now taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

For you know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; he found no room for repentance, though he sought it earnestly, with tears.

For they could not endure that which was enjoined, Even if a wild beast touches the mountain it shall be stoned to death;

and so terrible was the scene that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and tremble.