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.

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.

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

And so, as the result of patient waiting, our forefather obtained what God had promised.

In the same way, since it was God's desire to display more convincingly to the heirs of the promise how unchangeable His purpose was,

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.

On the one hand we have here the abrogation of an earlier code because it was weak and ineffective--

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.

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.

Now in connexion with what we have been saying the chief point is that we have a High Priest who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of God's Majesty in the heavens,

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, 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--

But this is the Covenant that I will covenant with the house of Israel after those days,' says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds and will write them upon their hearts. And I will indeed be their God and they shall be My People.

And above the ark were the Cherubim denoting God's glorious presence and overshadowing the Mercy-seat. But I cannot now speak about all these in detail.

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?

saying, "This is the blood which confirms the Covenant that God has made binding upon you."

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.

Then I said, 'I have come--in the roll of the book it is written concerning Me--to do Thy will, O God.'"

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

and since we have a great Priest who has authority over the house of God,

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?

It is an awful thing to fall into the hands of the ever-living God.

For you stand in need of patient endurance, so that, as the result of having done the will of God, you may receive the promised blessing.

For by it the saints of old won God's approval.

Through faith we understand that the worlds came into being, and still exist, at the command of God, so that what is seen does not owe its existence to that which is visible.

Through faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain did, and through this faith he obtained testimony that he was righteous, God giving the testimony by accepting his gifts; and through it, though he is dead, he still speaks.

Through faith Enoch was taken from the earth so that he did not see death, and he could not be found, because God had taken him; for before he was taken we have evidence that he truly pleased God.

But where there is no faith it is impossible truly to please Him; for the man who draws near to God must believe that there is a God and that He proves Himself a rewarder of those who earnestly try to find Him.

for he continually looked forward to the city which has the foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

but, as it is, we see them eager for a better land, that is to say, a heavenly one. For this reason God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has now prepared a city for them.

Through faith Abraham, as soon as God put him to the test, offered up Isaac. Yes, he who had joyfully welcomed the promises was on the point of sacrificing his only son

For he reckoned that God is even able to raise a man up from among the dead, and, figuratively speaking, it was from among the dead that he received Isaac again.

Through faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and, leaning on the top of his staff, worshipped God.

having determined to endure ill-treatment along with the people of God rather than enjoy the short-lived pleasures of sin;

men who, as the result of faith, conquered whole kingdoms, brought about true justice, obtained promises from God, stopped lions' mouths,

And although by their faith all these people won God's approval, none of them received the fulfilment of His great promise;

for God had provided for them and us something better, so that apart from us they were not to attain to full blessedness.

simply fixing our gaze upon Jesus, our Prince Leader in the faith, who will also award us the prize. He, for the sake of the joy which lay before Him, patiently endured the cross, looking with contempt upon its shame, and afterwards seated Himself-- where He still sits--at the right hand of the throne of God.

The sufferings that you are enduring are for your discipline. God is dealing with you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

It is true that they disciplined us for a few years according as they thought fit; but He does it for our certain good, in order that we may become sharers in His own holy character.

Be carefully on your guard lest there be any one who falls back from the grace of God; lest any root bearing bitter fruit spring up and cause trouble among you, and through it the whole brotherhood be defiled;

On the contrary you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the ever-living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to countless hosts of angels,

to the great festal gathering and Church of the first-born, whose names are recorded in Heaven, and to a Judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect,

Therefore, receiving, as we now do, a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us cherish thankfulness so that we may ever offer to God an acceptable service, with godly reverence and awe.

For our God is also a consuming fire.

Let marriage be held in honour among all, and let the marriage bed be unpolluted; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

Your lives should be untainted by love for money. Be content with what you have; for God Himself has said, "I will never, never let go your hand: I will never never forsake you."

Remember your former leaders--it was they who brought you God's Message. Bear in mind how they ended their lives, and imitate their faith.

Do not be drawn aside by all sorts of strange teaching; for it is well to have the heart made stedfast through God's grace, and not by special kinds of food, from which those who scrupulously attend to them have derived no benefit.

And for this reason Jesus also, in order, by His own blood, to set the people free from sin, suffered outside the gate.

Through Him, then, let us continually lay on the altar a sacrifice of praise to God, namely, the utterance of lips that give thanks to His Name.

And do not forget to be kind and liberal; for with sacrifices of that sort God is greatly pleased.

Now may God who gives peace, and brought Jesus, our Lord, up again from among the dead--even Him who, by virtue of the blood of the eternal Covenant, is the great Shepherd of the sheep--

Greet all your leaders and all God's people. The brethren from Italy send you greetings.

James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: to the twelve tribes who are scattered over the world. All good wishes.

And if any one of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask God for it, who gives with open hand to all men, and without upbraiding; and it will be given him.

Let no one say when passing through trial, "My temptation is from God;" for God is incapable of being tempted to do evil, and He Himself tempts no one.

Every gift which is good, and every perfect boon, is from above, and comes down from the Father, who is the source of all Light. In Him there is no variation nor the slightest suggestion of change.

For a man's anger does not lead to action which God regards as righteous.

The religious service which is pure and stainless in the sight of our God and Father is to visit fatherless children and widowed women in their time of trouble, and to keep one's own self unspotted from the world.

and you pay court to the one who wears the fine clothes, and say, "Sit here; this is a good place;" while to the poor man you say, "Stand there, or sit on the floor at my feet;"

Listen, my dearly-loved brethren. Has not God chosen those whom the world regards as poor to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which He has promised to those that love Him?

What good is it, my brethren, if a man professes to have faith, and yet his actions do not correspond? Can such faith save him?

You believe that God is one, and you are quite right: evil spirits also believe this, and shudder."

and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And Abraham believed God, and his faith was placed to his credit as righteousness," and he received the name of 'God's friend.'

With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in God's likeness.

You covet things and yet cannot get them; you commit murder; you have passionate desires and yet cannot gain your end; you begin to fight and make war. You have not, because you do not pray;

or you pray and yet do not receive, because you pray wrongly, your object being to waste what you get on some pleasure or another.

You unfaithful women, do you not know that friendship with the world means enmity to God? Therefore whoever is bent on being friendly with the world makes himself an enemy to God.

But He gives more abundant grace, as is implied in His saying, "God sets Himself against the haughty, but to the lowly He gives grace."

Submit therefore to God: resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.

Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you who are half-hearted towards God.

Is one of you suffering? Let him pray. Is any one in good spirits? Let him sing a psalm.

Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ: To God's own people scattered over the earth, who are living as foreigners in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Roman Asia, and Bithynia,

chosen in accordance with the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, with a view to their obedience and to their being sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. May more and more grace and peace be granted to you.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in His great mercy has begotten us anew to an ever-living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

whom God in His power is guarding through faith for a salvation that even now stands ready for unveiling at the End of the Age.

To them it was revealed that they were serving not themselves but you, when they foretold the very things which have now been openly declared to you by those who, having been taught by the Holy Spirit which had been sent from Heaven, brought you the Good News. Angels long to stoop and look into these things.

are faithful to God, who raised Him from among the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are resting upon God.

For you have been begotten again by God's ever-living and enduring word from a germ not of perishable, but of imperishable life.

But the word of the Lord remains for ever." And that means the Message which has been proclaimed among you in the Good News.

Come to Him, the ever-living Stone, rejected indeed by men as worthless, but in God's esteem chosen and held in honour.

And be yourselves also like living stones that are being built up into a spiritual house, to become a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

and "a Stone for the foot to strike against, and a Rock to stumble over." Their foot strikes against it because they are disobedient to God's Message, and to this they were appointed.

But you are a chosen race, a priesthood of kingly lineage, a holy nation, a people belonging specially to God, that you may make known the perfections of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.

Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not found mercy, but now you have.

Live honourable lives among the Gentiles, in order that, although they now speak against you as evil-doers, they may yet witness your good conduct, and may glorify God on the day of reward and retribution.

For it is God's will that by doing what is right you should thus silence the ignorant talk of foolish persons.

Be free men, and yet do not make your freedom an excuse for base conduct, but be God's bondservants.

Honour every one. Love the brotherhood, fear God, honour the Emperor.

For it is an acceptable thing with God, if, from a sense of duty to Him, a man patiently submits to wrong, when treated unjustly.

If you do wrong and receive a blow for it, what credit is there in your bearing it patiently? But if when you do right and suffer for it you bear it patiently, this is an acceptable thing with God.

Instead of that, it should be a new nature within--the imperishable ornament of a gentle and peaceful spirit, which is indeed precious in the sight of God.

For in ancient times also this was the way the holy women who set their hopes upon God used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their husbands.

Married men, in the same way, live with your wives with a clear recognition of the fact that they are weaker than you. Yet, since you are heirs with them of God's free gift of Life, treat them with honour; so that your prayers may not be hindered.

not requiting evil with evil nor abuse with abuse, but, on the contrary, giving a blessing in return, because a blessing is what you have been called by God to inherit.

Let him turn from evil, and do good; Let him inquire for peace and go in pursuit of it.

And who will be able to harm you, if you show yourselves zealous for that which is good?

Yet argue modestly and cautiously, keeping your consciences free from guilt, so that, when you are spoken against, those who slander your good Christian lives may be put to shame.