A Better Promise
8 The main point of what we are saying is this: We have the kind of high priest who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven. 2 He is the minister in the Holy Place, which is the true sanctuary, which the Lord set up, not man. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, and for that reason this priest also needed to have something that he offered.
4 If this priest were on earth, he would not even be a priest, because there are priests[a] who are designated by the law to offer gifts. 5 They serve at a place that is a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary, a place exactly like that about which Moses was told when he was about to complete the tent.[b] For God said, “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain.”[c]
6 But now, Jesus has obtained a ministry that is as much superior as the covenant that he mediates is better, because it has been established on the basis of better promises. 7 Indeed, if that first covenant were without fault, there would have been no reason to look for a second. 8 But because God found fault with the people, he said:[d]
Look, 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 It will not be like the covenant
that I made with their forefathers
at the time when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt.
Because they did not remember my covenant,
I ignored them, says the Lord.
10 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord.
I will put my laws into their mind,
and I will write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
11 Never again will a man teach his fellow citizen[e]
or his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,”
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful in regard to their unrighteousness,
and I will not remember their sins any longer.[f]
13 When God said “new,” he made the first covenant obsolete, and something that is obsolete and growing old is going to disappear.
Footnotes
- Hebrews 8:4 Some witnesses to the text read those.
- Hebrews 8:5 Traditionally tabernacle
- Hebrews 8:5 Exodus 25:40
- Hebrews 8:8 Some witnesses to the text read Since he found fault, he said to them.
- Hebrews 8:11 Some witnesses to the text read neighbor.
- Hebrews 8:12 Jeremiah 31:31-34