Mediator of a Better Covenant
8 Now the main point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,(A)2 a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent[a] that the Lord, and not any mortal, has set up.(B)3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.(C)4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are already those[b] who offer gifts according to the law. 5 They offer worship in a sanctuary that is[c] a sketch and shadow of the heavenly one, just as Moses was warned when he was about to erect the tent.[d] For, God[e] said, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.”(D)6 But Jesus[f] has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on the basis of better promises.(E)7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one.(F)
8 God[g] finds fault with them when he says:
“The days are surely coming, says the Lord,
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah,(G)
9 not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors
on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt,
for they did not continue in my covenant,
and so I had no concern for them, says the Lord.
10 This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.(H)
11 And they shall not teach one another
or say to each other,[h] ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.(I)
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins[i] no more.”(J)
13 In speaking of a new covenant, he has made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.(K)
Footnotes
- 8.2Or tabernacle
- 8.4Other ancient authorities read priests
- 8.5Gk lacks a sanctuary that is
- 8.5Or tabernacle
- 8.5Gk he
- 8.6Gk he
- 8.8Gk He
- 8.11Or teach each one their fellow-citizen and each one their sibling, saying
- 8.12Other ancient authorities add and their lawless deeds