For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second.

The first covenant had indeed its regulations for worship, and a material sanctuary.

But when Christ arrived as the high priest of the bliss that was to be, he passed through the greater and more perfect tent which no hands had made (no part, that is to say, of the present order),

for after Moses had announced every command in the Law to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, together with water, scarlet wool and hyssop, sprinkling the book and all the people,

Now, while the copies of the heavenly things had to be cleansed with sacrifices like these, the heavenly things themselves required nobler sacrifices.

Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, like the high priest entering the holy place every year with blood that was not his own: ??26 for in that case he would have had to suffer repeatedly, ever since the world was founded. Nay, once for all, at the end of the world, he has appeared with his self-sacrifice to abolish sin.

for you did sympathize with the prisoners, and you took the confiscation of your own belongings cheerfully, conscious that elsewhere you had higher, you had lasting, possessions.

It was by faith that Enoch was taken to heaven, so that he never died (he was not overtaken by death, for God had taken him away). For before he was taken to heaven, his record was that he had satisfied God;

Thus a single man, though he was physically impotent, had issue in number like the stars in heaven, countless as the sand on the seashore.

It was by faith, when Abraham was put to the test, that he sacrificed Isaac, he was ready to sacrifice his only son, although he had received the promises

and had been told that it is through Isaac that your offspring shall be reckoned ??19 for he considered that God was able even to raise men from the dead. Hence he did get him back, by what was a parable of the resurrection.

It was by faith that, when Jacob was dying, he blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bending in prayer over the head of his staff.

It was by faith that Moses was hidden for three months after birth by his parents, because they saw the child was beautiful, and had no fear of the royal decree.

It was by faith that Moses refused, when he had grown up, to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;

considering obloquy with the messiah to be richer wealth than all Egypt's treasures ??for he had an eye to the Reward.

It was by faith that Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, as she had welcomed the scouts peaceably.

others, again, had to experience scoffs and scourging, aye chains and imprisonment ??37 they were stoned, sawn in two, and cut to pieces; they had to roam about in sheepskins and goatskins, forlorn, oppressed, ill-treated

God had something better in store for us; he would not have them perfected apart from us.

You have not had to shed blood yet in the struggle against sin.

Why, we had fathers of our flesh to discipline us, and we yielded to them! Shall we not far more submit to the Father of our spirits, and so live?

Never let yourselves be carried away with a variety of novel doctrines; for the right thing is to have one's heart strengthened by grace, not by the eating of food ??that has never been any use to those who have had recourse to it.

You have had a taste of the kindness of the Lord:

who had disobeyed at the time when God's patience held out during the construction of the ark in the days of Noah ??the ark by which only a few souls, eight in all, were brought safely through the water.)

who is at God's right hand ??for he went to heaven after angels, authorities, and powers celestial had been made subject to him.)

For if God did not spare angels who had sinned, but committing them to pits of the nether gloom in Tartarus, reserved them under punishment for doom:

Better had they never known the Way of righteousness, than to know it and then turn back from the holy command which was committed to them.

Beloved, I am not writing you any new command, but an old command which you have had from the very beginning: the old command is the word you have heard.

They withdrew from us, but they did not belong to us; had they belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but they withdrew to make it plain that they are none of us.

Beloved, if God had such love for us, we ought to love one another.

And now I entreat you, Lady ??not as though I were writing you any new command, it is the command which we have had from the very beginning ??let us love one another.

I had a great deal to write to you, but I do not want to write to you with ink and pen;

his head and hair were white as wool, white as snow; his eyes flashed like fire,

Now, remember the height from which you have fallen; repent and act as you did at first. If not, I will come to you [very soon] and remove your lamp stand, unless you repent.

Still, you have this in your favour: you hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, and I hate them too.

But I have one or two things against you: you have some adherents there of the tenets of Balaam, who taught Balak how to set a pitfall before the sons of Israel by making them eat food which had been sacrificed to idols and give way to sexual vice.

I know your doings, you are neither cold nor hot ??would you were either cold or hot!

So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit you out of my mouth.

After this I looked, and there was a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice I had heard talking with me like a trumpet said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must come to pass after this."

So I began to weep bitterly because no one had been found fit to open the scroll or look into it;

Then I noticed a Lamb standing in the midst of the throne and the four living Creatures and the Presbyters; it seemed to have been slain, but it had seven horns and seven eyes (they are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth),

And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain for adhering to God's word and to the testimony which they bore;

Then the kings of the earth, the magnates, the generals, the rich, the strong, slaves and freemen everyone of them, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains,

calling to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall upon us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the anger of the Lamb;

Never again will they hunger, never again will they thirst, never shall the sun strike them, nor any scorching heat;"

(the name of the star is Wormwood); a third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died of the waters, because they had turned bitter.

The fifth angel blew, and I saw a Star which had dropped from heaven to earth; he was given the key of the pit of the abyss,

but they were told not to harm the grass on earth nor any green thing nor any tree, only such human beings as had not the seal of God upon their foreheads;

they had scales like iron coats of mail; the whirring of their wings was like the noise of many chariots rushing to battle;

they had a king over them, the angel of the abyss ??his Hebrew name is Abaddon, but in Greek he is called Apollyon.

So the four angels were unloosed, who had been kept ready for that hour and day and month and year, to kill the third of men.

Then I saw another strong angel descend from heaven; he was clad in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, his face like the sun, his feet like columns of fire,

After the seven thunders had spoken, I was going to write it down; but I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Seal up what the seven thunders have said, do not write it."

Then the voice I had heard from heaven again talked to me, saying, "Go and take the small scroll which lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and the earth."

Then I took the small scroll from the hand of the angel and swallowed it; it did taste sweet, like honey, but when I had eaten it, it was bitter to digest.

And a great portent was seen in heaven, a woman clad in the sun ??with the moon under her feet, and a tiara of twelve stars on her head;

But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they had to die for it, but they did not cling to life.

And when the dragon found himself thrown down to earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child;

but the earth came to the rescue of the woman, the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river that the dragon had poured out of his mouth.

One of his heads looked as if it had been slain and killed, but the deadly wound was healed, and the whole earth went after him in wonder,

Then I saw another Beast rising from the land; he had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon.

they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living Creatures and the Presbyters, and no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been ransomed from earth.

Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud One resembling a human being, a golden crown upon his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.

and another angel came from the altar ??he who has power over fire ??and called loudly to the one who had the sharp sickle, "Thrust your sharp sickle in, cull the clusters from the Vine of earth, for its grapes are fully ripe."

And I saw what was like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and, standing beside the sea of glass, those who came off conquerors from the Beast and his statue and the cipher of his name; they had harps of God

till men, scorched by the fierce heat, blasphemed the name of the God who had control of these plagues; yet they would not repent and give him glory.

So he bore me away rapt in the Spirit to the desert, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet Beast covered with blasphemous titles; it had seven heads and ten horns.

As for the Beast which was and is not, he is an eighth head: he belongs to the seven, and to perdition he shall go.

As for the ten horns you have seen, they and the Beast will hate the harlot, lay her waste, and strip her naked; they will devour her flesh and burn her with fire,

His eyes are a flame of fire, on his head are many diadems, he bears a written name which none knows but himself.

But the Beast was seized, together with the false Prophet who had performed in his presence the miracles by means of which he seduced those who received the mark of the Beast and worshipped his statue; both of them were flung alive into the lake of fire that blazes with brimstone,

And I saw thrones with people sitting on them, who were allowed to judge ??saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and God's word, those who would not worship the Beast or his statue, and who would not receive his mark on their forehead or hand; they came to life and reigned along with the Christ for a thousand years.

And I saw the dead, high and low, standing before the throne, and books were opened ??also another book, the book of Life, was opened ??and the dead were judged by what was written in these books, by what they had done.

The sea gave up its corpses, Death and Hades gave up their dead, and all were judged by what each had done.

Then I saw the new heaven and the new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away; and the sea is no more.

Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues; and he spoke to me thus, "Come, and I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb."

He who talked to me had a golden wand by way of a measuring-rod, to measure the City and its gates and wall;

the City lies foursquare, the length the same as the breadth, and he measured fifteen hundred miles with his rod for the City, for its breadth and length and height alike;

I John saw and heard all this; and when I heard and saw it, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who had shown me it all.