 1 Truly+ then, the first covenant also had ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. 2 In the first tabernacle, there was a table prepared with a candlestick and showbread~ in an area called the sanctuary. 3 Then, after the second veil, was the tabernacle called the Holiest of all. 4 It had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant~ overlaid all around+ with gold. In it was the golden pot that had manna and Aaron's rod that budded and the tables of the covenant~. 5 Over it were the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat. About this, we cannot now speak in detail+. 6 Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests always went into the first tabernacle to accomplish the service of God. 7 But into the second, the high priest went alone once every year, and not without blood that he offered for himself and for the errors of the people. 8 This signified, by the Holy Spirit, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet revealed+ while the first tabernacle was yet standing. 9 This was symbolic+ for the time then present in which both gifts and sacrifices were offered that could not make those who did the service perfect~, as pertaining to the conscience. 10 For it concerned only food+ and drink and many different+ washings and worldly+ ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation. 11 But Christ came as a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect~ tabernacle not made with hands. That is to say, not of this building~. 12 It is not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood that He entered once for all into the holy place, thereby obtaining eternal redemption for us. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 For this reason+, Christ is the mediator of the new covenant+ so that, by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant+, those who are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. 16 For where a testament~ is, there must, of necessity, also be the death of the testator. 17 For a testament~ is of force after one+ is dead. Otherwise, it is of no strength at all while the testator lives. 18 Therefore, the first covenant was not dedicated without blood. 19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and a hyssop branch and sprinkled both the book and all the people, 20 saying: This is the blood of the covenant+ that God commanded+ to you. Exodus 24:7,8 Matthew 26:28 21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. 22 Almost all things are, by the law, purged~ with blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. 23 Therefore it was necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, that are symbolic+ of the true. But into heaven itself He now appears in the presence of God for us. 25 Nor was it that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place every year with blood of others. 26 For then He must often have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now once in the end of the world He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 As it is appointed to all humans+ once to die and after that judgment, 28 so also Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many, and to appear second, without bearing sins, to those who wait for Him for salvation.
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