Hebrews

God, having spoken long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,

in these last days spoke to us in [His] Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the ages,

who, being the radiance of [His] glory and the exact imprint of His substance and bearing all things by the word of power—through His having made purification of sins—sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

For to which of the angels did He ever say: “You are My Son; today I have begotten You”? And again: “I will be to Him for a Father, and He will be to Me for a Son”?

And again, when He brings the firstborn into the world, He says: “And let all angels of God worship Him.”

And indeed to the angels He says: “The One making His angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire.”

But to the Son: “Your throne, O God, [is] to the age of the age, and the scepter of uprightness [is] the scepter of Your kingdom.

You loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; because of this, God, Your God, anointed You with the oil of exultation beyond Your companions.”

and like a robe You will roll them up, and like a garment they will be changed; but You are the same, and Your years will not come to an end.”

Are they not all ministering spirits being sent forth for service for the sake of those being about to inherit salvation?

Because of this, it is necessary for us to give heed more abundantly to the things having been heard, lest ever we should drift away.

For if the word having been spoken by angels was firm, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense,

how will we escape, having neglected such a great salvation, which, having received a beginning to be spoken by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those having heard,

God testifying with [them] both by signs and wonders, and by various miracles, and distributions of the Holy Spirit according to His will.

But we see Jesus, the One having been made a little less than the angels, because of the suffering of death, having been crowned with glory and with honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.

Therefore, since the children have shared in blood and flesh, He also likewise partook of the same things, so that through death He might render powerless the one having the power of death, that is, the devil,

and might set free those who all [their time] to live were subject to slavery through the fear of death.

For surely [it is] not the angels He lays hold of, but He lays hold of the seed of Abraham.

Hence it was necessary to be made like the brothers in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest [in] the things relating to God, in order to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

For in that He Himself has suffered, having been tempted, He is able to help those being tempted.

See to it, brothers, lest ever there will be in any of you⁺ an evil heart of unbelief in the falling away from the living God.

But encourage one another each day, as long as it is called today, so that not any of you⁺ may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Therefore we should fear, lest ever, the promise to enter into His rest left remaining, any of you⁺ should seem to have fallen short.

For also we are [those] having had the gospel proclaimed, even as also those; but the word of [their] hearing did not profit those not having been united with the faith of those having heard.

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

For the one having entered into His rest, he also rested from his works, just as God [did] from His own.

Therefore we should be diligent to enter into that rest, so that no one should fall in the same exhibit of disobedience.

For the word of God [is] living and effective, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing through and as far as the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrows, and able to judge the reflections and intentions of the heart.

And there is no created thing hidden before Him, but all things [are] bare and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom [is] our account.

Therefore, having a great high priest having passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to [our] confession.

For we do not have a high priest not being able to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one having been tempted in all things by the same way, without sin.

Therefore let us come with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and may find grace for help in time of need.

And no one takes upon himself the honor, but is being called by God, just as Aaron also.

So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become a high priest, but the One having said to Him: “You are My Son, today I have begotten You.”

Just as that, He also says in another [place]: “You [are] a priest to the age, according to the order of Melchizedek.”

[He] in the days of His flesh having offered both supplications and entreaties with strong crying and tears to the One being able to save Him from death, and having been heard from reverence,

although being a Son, He learned obedience from the things He suffered,

and having been perfected, He became the source of eternal salvation to all those obeying Him,

having been designated by God [as] high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

For even by the time you ought to be teachers, you⁺ have need of one to teach you⁺ again what [is] the beginning of the elements of the oracles of God; and you⁺ have become [those] having need of milk, and not of solid food.

For everyone partaking of milk [is] inexperienced in the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.

But solid food is for the mature, the ones by constant use having trained the senses for distinguishing both good and evil.

For [it is] impossible for those once having been enlightened, and having tasted of the heavenly gift, and having become partakers of the Holy Spirit,

and having tasted the goodness of God’s word and the power [of] the coming age—

and then having fallen away—to restore [them] again to repentance, crucifying in themselves the Son of God and subjecting [Him] to open shame.

But even if we speak thus. beloved, we are persuaded of better [things] concerning you⁺, and [things] belonging to salvation.

For God [is] not unjust to forget your⁺ work and the love that you⁺ showed for His name, having ministered to the saints, and [still] ministering.

And we desire each of you⁺ to show the same diligence toward the full assurance of the hope until the end,

so that you⁺ may not be sluggish, but imitators of those through faith and patience inheriting the promises.

For men swear by the greater, and of all their disputes, an end for confirmation [is] the oath,

in which God, willing to show more abundantly the unchangeableness of His purpose to the heirs of the promise, guaranteed [it] by an oath,

so that by two unchangeable things, in which [it is] impossible [for] God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, having fled for refuge to take hold of the hope being set before [us],

which we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and firm and entering into that within the veil,

where Jesus, the forerunner for us, entered according to the order of Melchizedek, having become a high priest to the age.

without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but having been made like the Son of God, remains a priest in perpetuity.

And apart from all dispute, the lesser is blessed by the greater.

For [it is] evident that our Lord has sprung out of Judah, a tribe in regard to which Moses spoke nothing about priests.

For it is testified: “You [are] a priest to the age, according to the order of Melchizedek.”

By so much also, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.

And indeed those having become priests are many, because of by death being prevented from continuing.

But because of His remaining to the age, He has the permanent priesthood,

wherefore also He is able to save to the uttermost those drawing near to God through Him, always living to intercede for them.

For such for us indeed was fitting—a high priest holy, innocent, undefiled, having been separated from sinners, and having become higher than the heavens,

who has no need every day, as the first high priests, to offer up sacrifices for [his] own sins, then for those of the people; for He did this once for all, having offered up Himself.

For the law appoints as high priests men having weakness; but the word of the oath, which [is] after the law, [appoints] a Son having been perfected to the age.

Now the main point of the things being said: We have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

a minister in the holy places and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.

But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted upon better promises.

For if that first had been faultless, no place would have been sought for a second.

For finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will complete with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant,

not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day of My having taken hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord.

For this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, giving My laws into their mind, and I will inscribe them upon their hearts; and I will be unto them God, and they will be unto Me for a people.

And they shall not teach, each his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because all will know Me, from the small to the great of them,

because I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I shall remember their sins no more.

In saying, “new,” He has made old the first; and that which is growing old and aging [is] near to vanishing.

Therefore also indeed, the first had ordinances of sacred service and a worldly sanctuary.

For a tabernacle was prepared, the first [room] in which [were] both the lampstand and the table, and the loaves of the presentation, which is called “Holy.”

Now behind the second veil [was] a tabernacle, being called “Holy of Holies,”

having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant having been covered around in every part with gold, in which [was] the golden jar having the manna, and the staff of Aaron having budded, and the tablets of the covenant.

And far above it [were] the cherubim of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat—concerning which it is not now [time] to speak particularly.

Now these things having been prepared thus, indeed the priests enter into the first tabernacle at all [times], accomplishing the sacred services,

but only the high priest into the second, once in the year, not without blood, which he offers for himself and [for] the sins of ignorance of the people.

By this the Holy Spirit [was] making clear [that] the way into the holy [places] had not yet been made manifest, the first tabernacle still having a standing,

which [is] a parable for the present time, in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, not being able to make perfect in regard to conscience the one doing sacred service,

[consisting] only in foods and drinks and various washings—ordinances of the flesh being imposed until the time of reformation.

But Christ, having come [as] high priest of the good things coming, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hands, that is, not of this creation,

nor by blood of goats and calves, but through [His] own blood, He entered once for all into the holy [places], having obtained eternal redemption.

For if the blood of goats and of bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the ones having been defiled sanctify [them] for the purification of the flesh,

how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, purify our conscience from dead works, in order to serve the living God!

And because of this, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, death having taken place for redemption of the transgressions upon the first covenant, those having been called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

For where [there is] a covenant, [there is] a necessity to bring forth the death of the one having made [it].

For a covenant [is] firm upon death, since it is not in force at the time when the one having made [it] is living,

wherefore neither has the first been inaugurated without blood.

For [on] every commandment having been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, having taken the blood of calves and of goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, he sprinkled both the scroll itself and all the people,

saying, “This [is] the blood of the covenant, which God commanded to you⁺.”

And likewise he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the sacred service with blood.

And almost all things are purified with blood according to the law, and without blood-shedding there is no forgiveness.

Therefore [there was] a necessity indeed [for] the representations of the things in the heavens to be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

For Christ entered not into holy [places] made by hands, copies of the true ones, but into heaven itself, now to appear for us in the presence of God,

nor that He should offer Himself many times, just as the high priest enters into the holy [places] every year with the blood of another.

Otherwise it was necessary for Him to have suffered many times from the foundation of the world. But now He has been revealed once in the consummation of the ages for the putting away of sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

And inasmuch as it is apportioned to men to die once, and after this, judgment,

so also Christ, having been offered once in order to bear the sins of many, will appear for a second time, apart from sin, to those eagerly awaiting Him for salvation.

For the law, having a shadow of the good things about to be, not the image of the things themselves, every year with the same sacrifices that they offer unto perpetuity, never is able to perfect those coming near.

Otherwise, would they not have ceased being offered, because of no more having conscience of sins, those serving having been cleansed once?

But in these [is] a reminder of sins every year.

For [it is] impossible [for] the blood of bulls and of goats to take away sins.

Therefore, coming into the world, He says: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me.

In burnt offerings and concerning sin [offerings] You were not well pleased.

Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—in the scroll of the book it has been written about Me—to do Your will, O God.’”

Saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and [those] for sin You did not desire, nor were You well pleased” (which are offered according to the law),

then He has said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first so that He might establish the second,

in which act of will, we are having been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And indeed every priest has stood every day, serving and offering the same sacrifices many times, which never are able to take away sins.

But this One, having offered one sacrifice for sins unto perpetuity, sat down at the right hand of God,

[as to] the rest awaiting until His enemies should be placed [as] a footstool for His feet.

For by one offering, He has perfected unto perpetuity those being sanctified.

And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us. For after having said:

“This [is] the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, giving My laws on their hearts, and I will inscribe them on their mind,”

then [He says]: “Their sins and their lawless acts, I will remember no more.”

Now where [there is] forgiveness of these, no longer [is there] an offering concerning sin.

Therefore, brothers, having confidence for entrance to the holy places in the blood of Jesus,

by a new and living way, which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,

and [having] a great priest over the house of God,

we should come near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, the hearts having been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and the body having been washed with pure water.

We should hold fast to the confession of [our] hope, unwavering; for the One having promised [is] faithful.

And we should carefully consider toward stirring up one another to love and to good works,

not forsaking the assembling together of ourselves, as [is] the custom with some, but exhorting, and so much more as you⁺ see the Day drawing near.

but only a fearful expectation of judgment and zeal of fire being about to devour the adversaries.

Anyone having set aside the law of Moses dies without mercies on the basis of two or three witnesses.

How much worse punishment do you⁺ think he will be worthy of, the one having trampled upon the Son of God, and having deemed common the blood of the covenant in which he was sanctified, and having insulted the Spirit of grace?

For we know the One having said, “Vengeance [is] Mine; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge His people.”

[It is] a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

For you⁺ have need of perseverance, so that, having done the will of God, you⁺ may receive the promise.

But we are not of [those] shrinking back to destruction, but of faith to the preserving [of] the soul.

Now faith is the assurance of [things] hoped for, the conviction of things not being seen.

For in this the ancients were well-attested.

By faith we understand the ages to have been completed thoroughly by the word of God, in order for that being seen not to have come into being out of the things being visible.

By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he was testified to be righteous, God testifying about his gifts; and through it, having died, he still speaks.

By faith Enoch was translated not to see death, “and he was not found, because God translated him.” For before the translation, he had been testified to have pleased God.

And without faith [it is] impossible to please [Him], for it is necessary for the one coming to God to believe that He is and [that] He becomes a rewarder to those seeking Him out.

By faith Noah, having been divinely warned concerning the things not yet being seen, having been moved with fear, prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, through which he condemned the world and became heir of the righeousness according to faith.

By faith Abraham, being called to go out into a place that he was about to receive for an inheritance, obeyed and went out, not knowing where he is going.

By faith he sojourned in the land of the promise as [in] a foreign [country], having dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the co-heirs of the same promise.

For he was awaiting the city having foundations, of which the architect and builder [is] God.

By faith also Sarah, herself barren, received power for the conception of seed even beyond the opportune age, since she esteemed faithful the One having promised.

Therefore also were born from one [man], and these of one having become as dead, as the stars of heaven in multitude, and as the sand by the shore of the sea, countless.

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them from afar, and having welcomed [them], and having confessed that they are strangers and sojourners on the earth.

For those saying such things make manifest that they are seeking out a homeland.

And indeed if they had been remembering that from which they came out, they would have had opportunity to return.

But now they stretch forward to a better one, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for He prepared a city for them.

By faith Abraham, being tested. has offered up Isaac. Even the one having received the promises was offering up [his] only begotten,

as to whom it was said, “In Isaac a seed will be called to you,”

having reasoned that God [was] able even to raise [him] out from the dead, from where he received him back also in a simile.

By faith also Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning the [things] about to be.

By faith Jacob, dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped on the top of his staff.

By faith Joseph, finishing [life], made mention concerning the exodus of the sons of Israel and gave commands concerning his bones.

By faith Moses, having been born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw the child [was] beautiful, and they did not fear the edict of the king.

By faith Moses, having become grown, refused to be called the son of the daughter of Pharaoh,

having chosen to suffer mistreatment with the people of God rather than to have the temporary enjoyment of sin,

having esteemed the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.

By faith he left Egypt, not having feared the anger of the king; for as seeing the Invisible One, he persevered.

By faith he has kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that the one destroying the firstborn should not touch them.

By faith they passed through the Red Sea as through dry land, which the Egyptians, having made an attempt, were swallowed up.

By faith the walls of Jericho fell, having been encircled for seven days.

By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those having disobeyed, having welcomed the spies with peace.

And what more shall I say? For the time will fail me recounting fully about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, also David and Samuel and the prophets,

who by faith conquered kingdoms, worked justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,

quenched the power of fire, escaped the mouths of the sword, were made powerful out of weakness, became strong in war, [and] put to flight foreign armies.

Women received their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not having accepted release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection.

And others received the trial of mockings and of scourgings, and even of chains and of imprisonment.

They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they died by slaughter of the sword; they wandered in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, being oppressed, being mistreated—

of whom the world was not worthy—wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes of the earth.

And these all, having been testified to through faith, did not receive the promise,

God having planned something better for us, so that not apart from us, they should be perfected.

Therefore we also, having such a great cloud of witnesses encompassing us, having put off every weight and the sin easily entangling, should run through perseverance the race lying before us,

looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of [our] faith, who in view of the joy lying before Him endured the cross, having despised [its] shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider fully the One having endured such great contradiction by sinners against Himself, so that you⁺ might not grow weary, fainting in your⁺ souls.

and you⁺ have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you⁺ as to sons: “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint being reproved by Him.

For the Lord disciplines whom He loves, and He scourges every son whom He receives.”

[It is] for discipline [that] you⁺ endure; God is treating you⁺ as sons; for what son [is there] whom [his] father does not discipline?

Furthermore indeed, we have had fathers of our flesh, discipliners, and we respected [them]; and will we not much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits and will live?

And all discipline indeed for the present does not seem to be of joy, but of grief; but afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those having been trained by it.

Pursue peace with all, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord,

lest [there be] any sexually immoral person or profane person, as Esau, who for one meal sold his birthright.

But you⁺ have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels,

and [to] the assembly, to the church of the firstborn having been enrolled in the heavens, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous having been perfected,

and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, speaking a better thing than that of Abel.

Watch out, lest you⁺ refuse the One speaking. For if they did not escape, having refused the One divinely warning [them] on earth, much less we, turning away from the One from the heavens,

Therefore, receiving an unshakable kingdom, we may have grace, by which we may serve God well pleasingly, with reverence and awe.

“For also, our God [is] a consuming fire.”

[Let] marriage [be] honored in all, and the marriage bed undefiled; for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

[your] manner of life [let be] without love of money, being satisfied with the present; for He Himself has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”

So we are confident to say: “The Lord [is] to me a helper, and I will not be afraid; what will man do to me?”

Remember those leading you⁺ who spoke the word of God to you⁺, of whom, considering the outcome of [their] conduct, imitate the faith.

Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday and today and to the ages.

Through Him, then, we should offer up a sacrifice of praise through all [time] to God, that is, the fruit of lips confessing His name.

Obey you⁺ those leading and be subject, for they watch over your⁺ souls as [those who] will give an account, so that they may do this with joy and not groaning, for this [is] unprofitable for you⁺.

Now [may] the God of peace, the One having brought up out from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus, by the blood of the eternal covenant,

equip you⁺ in everything good in order to do His will, doing in us that which [is] well pleasing before Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom [be] the glory to the ages of the ages. Amen.

Greet all those leading you⁺ and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you⁺.