Hebrews 8
1 Now of all the things which we have spoken (to
you) this is the principal thing: We now have a high priest such as
this, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the
heavens (a man in glorified flesh and bone that cannot ever die
again);
2 A minister (who serves continually) in the
holy of holies (having already entered into the place set apart and
prepared for you), and from the true tabernacle (of God) which
the Lord has built and fastened together, and not man’s hands.
3 Because every high priest is appointed so that
they can offer gifts and sacrifices (for the people): for which
reason it is necessary that this man also would have something to offer (which
was His own blood).
4 Because if He were on the earth, He would not be a
priest (of the heavenly), seeing as the (earthly) priests that
offer gifts (and sacrifices by the sprinkling the blood of bulls and
goats to the purification of the flesh do so only as an example)
according to (the pattern given in) the law:
5 Which serve (only) as the example and
shadow of heavenly things (and not the very substance), as Moses was
admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, He
said, that you make all things according to the pattern which I showed to
you on the mountain.
6 But now has He (as our high priest)
obtained a more excellent ministry (who after being sanctified from death
once and for all time, appeared in the heavenly tabernacle in immortal flesh
and bone with His own blood), by how much greater (of a ministry)
is He now also the arbitrator of a better testament, which was established
upon better promises (of the same life and immortality in our flesh).
7 For if that first (priesthood of the old)
covenant (along with its sacrifices in the earthly tabernacle
made after the pattern given in the law) had been free from fault (able
to bring perfection, purging a man’s conscience from death where they rested
in the work that God has done to perfect them once and for all time unto
immortality in their flesh) there would have been no desire for the
second.
8 Therefore finding fault with them (and those
things which
were only ever meant to serve as a shadow pointing to the very substance),
He said, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
9 Not according to the covenant (that only testified of the promise good
things to come but was not the substance) that I made with their fathers
in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out (of the bondage)
of the land of Egypt; because (in that covenant) they (did not
rest in the works of My hand but) continued (to trust in the works of
their own hands and) not in My covenant (although I was a husband to
them), and I disregarded their works (which only served them with the
fruit of death and could never allow them to rest in Me to care for them and
serve them with My life and immortality), saith the Lord.
10 But this is the covenant that I will make with
the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put My (Spirit
into them and My) teaching and instruction into their minds and write it
on their hearts (the work which I have done to provide Myself the lamb to
remove their death once and for all time): (so that) I will be to
them a God, and they will be to Me a people (where they reap all the
fruit of My life where they have not sown):
11 And they will not need to teach every man his
neighbor, and every man teach his brother, saying, know the Lord: because (I
will place My Spirit within them) all will know Me (intimately as
Father), from the least to the greatest.
12 Because I will be merciful to (remove from
them) the injustice death has brought them and their death and (the
sting of) iniquity, (along with all the fruit of death that it served
them) will I remember no more.
