1MY main point is: this is the kind of high priest we have, and he has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of Majesty in heaven,
2a minister in the real sanctuary, the tent set up by the Lord, not by man.
3Every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence, of necessity, this one too had something to offer.
4If he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are already priests to offer the gifts prescribed by the law,
5although the sanctuary in which they minister is only a shadowy symbol of the heavenly one. This is why Moses, when he was about to put up the tent, was instructed by God: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”
6But in fact the ministry which Jesus has been given is superior to theirs, for he is the mediator of a better covenant, established on better promises.
7Had that first covenant been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second to replace it.
8But God finds fault with his people when he says, “The time is coming, says the Lord, when I shall conclude a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
9It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt; because they did not abide by the terms of that covenant, and so I abandoned them, says the Lord.
10For this is the covenant I shall make with Israel after those days, says the Lord: I shall set my laws in their understanding and write them on their hearts; I shall be their God, and they will be my people.
11They will not teach one another, each saying to his fellow-citizen and his brother, ‘Know the Lord!’ For all of them will know me, high and low alike;
12I shall pardon their wicked deeds, and their sins I shall remember no more.”
13By speaking of a new covenant, he has pronounced the first one obsolete; and anything that is becoming obsolete and growing old will shortly disappear.