And indeed those of the sons of Levi who receive the priesthood have a commandment to collect a tenth from the people according to the law, that is, from their brothers, although {they are descended from Abraham}.

And by as much as [this was] not without an oath (for these on the one hand {have become priests} without an oath,

And indeed many {have become} priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing [in office],

For the law appoints men [as] high priests who have weakness, but the statement of the oath, after the law, [appoints] a Son, who is made perfect {forever}.

Now [this is] the main point in what has been said: we have a high priest such as this, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,

For every high priest is appointed in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices; therefore [it was] necessary [for] this one also to have something that he offers.

For if that first [covenant] had been faultless, occasion would not have been sought for a second.

since it would have been necessary for him to suffer many times from the foundation of the world, but now he has appeared once at the end of the ages for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself.

For otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the ones who worship, having been purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?

Then I said, 'Behold, I have come-- in the roll of the book it is written about me-- to do your will, O God.'

then he has said, "Behold, I have come to do your will." He takes away the first in order to establish the second,

Therefore, brothers, [since we] have confidence for the entrance into the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus,

and [since we have] a great priest over the house of God,

For you have need of endurance, in order that [after you] have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

But we are not among those who shrink back to destruction, but among those who have faith to the preservation of [our] souls.

And if they remember that [land] from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.

Therefore, [since] we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, putting aside every weight and {the sin that so easily ensnares us}, let us run with patient endurance the race that has been set before us,

You have not yet resisted to the point of [shedding your] blood [as you] struggle against sin.

And have you completely forgotten the exhortation which instructs you as sons? "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, or give up [when you] are corrected by him.

But if you are without discipline, in which all [legitimate sons] have become participants, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

Furthermore, we have had {our earthly fathers} who disciplined [us], and we respected [them]. Will we not much rather subject ourselves to the Father of spirits and live?

For they disciplined [us] for a few days according to what seemed [appropriate] to them, but he [does so] for our benefit, in order that [we] can have a share in his holiness.

For you have not come to something that can be touched, and to a burning fire, and to darkness, and to gloom, and to a whirlwind,

But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to tens of thousands of angels, to the festal gathering

Now the [phrase] "yet once [more]" indicates the removal of what is shaken, namely, things that have been created, in order that the things that are not shaken may remain.

Do not neglect hospitality, because through this some have received angels as guests without knowing [it].

Your lifestyle [must be] free from the love of money, being content with what you have. For he himself has said, "I will never desert you, and I will never abandon you."

Do not be carried away by various and strange teachings, for [it is] good [for] the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods by which those who participate have not benefited.

We have an altar from which those who serve in the tabernacle do not have the right to eat.

For here we do not have a permanent city, but we seek the [city] that is to come.

Pray for us, for we are convinced that we have a good conscience, [and] want to conduct ourselves commendably in every [way].

Now I urge you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for indeed I have written to you {briefly}.

And let endurance have [its] perfect effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

But you have dishonored the poor! Are not the rich exploiting you and they themselves dragging you into the courts?

For the one who said "Do not commit adultery" also said "Do not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

What [is] the benefit, my brothers, if someone says [that he] has faith but does not have works? That faith [is] not able to save him, [is it]?

Thus also faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.

But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and tell lies against the truth.

You desire and do not have; you murder and are filled with envy, and are not able to obtain; you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

Your gold and silver have become corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you, and it will consume your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days.

Behold, the wages that were held back by you from the workers who reap your fields cry out, and the cries of the reapers have come to the ears of the Lord of hosts.

You have lived self-indulgently on the earth and have lived luxuriously. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter.

You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous [person]; he does not resist you.

Behold, we consider blessed those who have endured. You have heard about the patient endurance of Job, and you saw the outcome from the Lord, that the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

whom, [although you] have not seen, you love; in whom now you believe, [although you] do not see [him], and you rejoice greatly with joy inexpressible and full of glory,

to whom it was revealed that they were serving not themselves but you with reference to the same [things] which now have been announced to you through those who proclaimed the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, {things into which} angels desire to look.

Therefore, {when you have prepared your minds for action} [by] being self-controlled, put your hope completely in the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

[because you] have been born again, not from perishable seed but imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

if you have tasted that the Lord [is] kind,

For you were going astray like sheep, but you have turned back now to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

like Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose children you have become [when you] do good and are not frightened with respect to any terror.

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, [after you] have suffered for a short time, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, [and] establish [you].

Through Silvanus, the faithful brother (as I consider [him]), I have written to you {briefly} to encourage [you] and to attest that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.

Simeon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith equal in value to ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Therefore I intend to remind you continually concerning these [things], although [you] know [them] and are established in the truth that you have.

[By] leaving the straight path, they have gone astray, [because they] followed the way of Balaam the [son of] Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness,

For if, [after they] have escaped from the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled in these [things] [and] succumb to [them], the last [state] has become worse for them than the first.

For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known [it], to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them.

and saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? For {ever since} the fathers fell asleep, all [things] have continued just as they have been from the beginning of creation."

Therefore, dear friends, [because you] know [this] beforehand, guard yourselves so that you do not lose your own safe position [because you] have been led away by the error of lawless persons.

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and our hands have touched, concerning the word of life--

and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and announce to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was revealed to us--

what we have seen and heard, we announce to you also, in order that you also may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship [is] with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

And this is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light and there [is] no darkness in him at all.

If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

If we say that we do not have sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

My little children, I am writing these [things] to you in order that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous [one],

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.

The one who says "I have come to know him," and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in this person.

Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the message which you have heard.

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you on account of his name.

I am writing to you, fathers, because you have known the [One who is] from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have conquered the evil one.

I have written to you, children, because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known the [One who is] from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God resides in you, and you have conquered the evil one.

Children, it is the last hour, and just as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen, by which we know that it is the last hour.

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But [they went out], in order that it might be shown that all of them are not of us.

And you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.

I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because every lie is not of the truth.

Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father [either]; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.

[As for] you, what you have heard from the beginning must remain in you. If what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.

These [things] I have written to you concerning the ones who are trying to deceive you.

And [as for] you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you do not have need that anyone teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all [things], and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you reside in him.

And now, little children, remain in him, so that whenever he is revealed we may have confidence and not be put to shame before him at his coming.

For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning: that we should love one another,

We know that we have passed over from death to life because we love the brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that every murderer does not have eternal life residing in him.

We have come to know love by this: that {he} laid down his life on behalf of us, and we ought to lay down our lives on behalf of the brothers.

Dear friends, if our heart does not condemn [us], we have confidence before God,

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits [to determine] if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, and this is the [spirit] of the antichrist, [of] which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

You are from God, little children, and have conquered them, because the one [who is] in you is greater than the one [who is] in the world.

In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son [to be the] propitiation for our sins.

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son [to be the] Savior of the world.

And we have come to know and have believed the love that God has in us. God is love, and the one who resides in love resides in God, and God resides in him.

By this love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because just as that one is, [so] also are we in this world.

And this [is] the commandment we have from him: that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

The one who has the Son has the life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.