1 Now the main point in what we are saying is this: we do have this kind of high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven

2 and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord and not by any human.

3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore, this high priest had to offer something too.

4 Now if he were on earth, he would not even be a priest, because other men offer the gifts prescribed by the law.

5 They serve in a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of the heavenly one. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain."

6 However, Jesus has now obtained a ministry that is as superior to theirs as the covenant he mediates is founded on better promises.

7 For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one.

8 But God found something wrong with his people when he said, "Look! The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenantwith the house of Israeland with the house of Judah.

9 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors at the timewhen I took them by the handand brought them out of the land of Egypt. Because they did not remain loyal to my covenant,I ignored them, declares the Lord.

10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israelafter those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws in their mindsand write them on their hearts. I will be their God,and they will be my people.

11 Never again will everyone teach his neighbor or his brother by saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because all of them will know me,from the least important to the most important.

12 For I will be merciful regarding their wrong deeds,and I will never again remember their sins."

13 In speaking of a "new" covenant, he has made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.