Chapter 7 – Chapter 9

Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

1 For this Melchisedec, the king of Salem, was a priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him,

2 To whom also Abraham divided the tenth of all; who is first indeed, by interpretation, called the King of righteousness, and then also the King of Salem, that is, the King of peace;

3 Without father, without mother, without kindred, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but being made like to the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually.

4 Now consider how great is he, to whom the patriarch Abraham gave even the tenth of the spoils.

5 And they indeed who receive the priesthood, even those who are of the sons of Levi, have a command to take the tenth, according to the law from the people, that is, from their brethren, though they have come forth from the loins of Abraham:

6 But he whose kindred is not counted from them, took the tenth from Abraham, and blessed him who had the promises:

7 And without all controversy, the less is blessed by the greater.

8 And here indeed men who die receive the tenth; but there he, of whom it is testified that he liveth;

9 And as I may so say, Levi who is wont to receive the tenth, paid the tenth in Abraham;

10 For he was as yet in the loins of his father when Melchisedec met him.

11 If then there was perfection by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what need there was still, that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and should not be called after the order of Aaron?

12 For when the priesthood is changed, there is also necessarily a change of the law.

13 Doubtless he of whom these things are said, was from another tribe, from which no one attended at the altar:

14 For it is clear that our Lord descended from the tribe of Judah, of which tribe Moses has said nothing as to the priesthood;

15 And it is still more clear, since another priest was to rise according to the order of Melchisedec;

16 Who was not made according to the law of a carnal command, but according to the power of a permanent life;

17 For he thus testifies, “Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec.”

18 For there is an abrogation of the former command, on account of its weakness and uselessness;

19 For the law perfected nothing, but was an introduction to a better hope, by which we draw nigh to God;

20 And this is better, because it was not done without an oath:

21 For they indeed are made priests without an oath; but he with an oath by him who said to him, “Thou art a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchisedec.”

22 Of so much a better covenant is Jesus made the surety.

23 And they indeed being many were made priests, for they were not suffered by death to continue:

24 But he, as he remains perpetually, has an unchangeable priesthood.

25 Hence he is able also to save for ever those who through him come to God, always living, that he may intercede for them.

26 For such a high priest became us, being holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and higher than the heavens;

27 Who has no need, as the priests, daily to offer sacrifices, first for their own sins, and then for the sins of the people; for this he did once when he offered up himself.

28 The law indeed makes men priests who have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was after the Law, the Son, made perfect for ever.

Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

1 Now of the things which have been said the sum is, — Such an high priest have we, that hath sat down on the right hand of the throne of majesty in the heavens,

2 A minister of the sanctuary, even of the true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched and not man.

3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices: it is hence necessary that he also should have that which he might offer.

4 If indeed he were on earth, he could not be a priest, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law;

5 Who minister in [that which is] the exemplar and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was warned by the oracle, when he was about to make the tabernacle, “See,” he says, “that thou make all things according to the pattern which was shewn to thee in the mount.”

6 But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as he is the Mediator of a better covenant, which has been established on better promises.

7 For if the first had been faultless, there would have been no place sought for the second.

8 For finding fault with them, he says, “Behold, the days are coming, saith the Lord, when I shall make with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant;

9 Not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day when I laid hold on their hand to lead them up from the land of Egypt; because they have not continued in my covenant and I disregarded them, saith the Lord:

10 For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws in their mind, and in their hearts will I write them; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people;

11 And they shall not teach every one his neighbor, and every one his brother, saying, Know thou the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least among them to the greatest;

12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will I no more remember.” By calling it new, he hath made old the first; and that which is old and aged is on the eve of vanishing.

Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

1 The first then had indeed ordinances of worship and a worldly sanctuary:

2 For there was made the first tabernacle in which were the candlestick, and the table, and the shew­bread, which is called the sanctuary;

3 And after the second vail, the tabernacle which is called the Holy of holies, which has the golden censer, and the ark

4 Of the covenant covered around with gold, in which is the golden pot which has manna, and Aaron’s rod which had budded, and the tables of the covenant;

5 And over it the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy­seat: of which it is not for us now to speak particularly.

6 Now these things being thus set in order, into the first tabernacle the priests always enter who perform the service;

7 But into the second, the high priest alone once a year, not without blood, which he offers for the ignorances of himself and of the people;

8 The Holy Spirit intimating this, — That the way to the holiest was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was yet standing;

9 Which was a likeness for the time present, in which gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot as to conscience sanctify the worshipper,

10 Being imposed only with meats and drinks, and divers washings and sanctifications of the flesh, until the time of emendation.

11 But Christ, having afterwards come a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation,

12 Nor by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.

13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkled on the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh;

14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who by the eternal Spirit offered himself, being faultless, to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

15 And for this reason he is the Mediator of a new testament, that by means of death for the redemption of transgressions under the first testament, they who were called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance

16 For where a testament is, there must necessarily be the death of the testator:

17 For a testament is of force as to the dead, for it is never valid as long as the testator is living.

18 Hence the first was not dedicated without blood:

19 For when every command according to the law had been spoken by Moses to the whole people, taking the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, he sprinkled the book and all the people,

20 Saying, “This is the blood of the testament which God hath commanded you.”

21 And he sprinkled also in a like manner with blood the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry;

22 And nearly all things are cleansed by blood according to the law: and without shedding of blood there is no remission.

23 It is then necessary that the exemplars of those things which are in heaven should be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

24 For Christ has not entered into holy places made with hands, the exemplars of the true, but into heaven itself, that he may now appear before God for us;

25 Not indeed that he may often offer himself, as the high priest who enters into the holiest every year with another’s blood,

26 (for then he must have often suffered since the creation of the world;) but now at the end of the ages hath he once appeared for the destruction of sin by the sacrifice of himself.

27 And as it is appointed to men once to die, and after this the judgment;

28 So Christ, having been once offered, that he might take away the sins of many, will appear the second time without sin unto salvation, to those who wait for him.