1 THE chief point of what I have been saying is this: we have such a High Priest who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of Majesty in the heavens,

2 and who ministers in the holy place and in the true Tent set up by the Lord, not by man.

3 Now every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Whence it is necessary for this one to have something to offer.

4 If he were upon the earth he would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law.

5 They minister as an example and shadow of the things in heaven, just as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the Tent. "See," it was said, "that you make everything according to the model shown you on the mountain."

6 But now Christ has obtained a ministry as much more excellent as the covenant of which he is mediator is better and based upon better promises.

7 For if that first covenant had been faultless a place would not have been sought for a second.

8 But finding fault with it he says, "The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make for the house of Israel and for the house of Judah a new covenant,

9 not in the manner of the covenant which I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not abide by my covenant and I ceased to care 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 into their minds and will write them upon their hearts and I will be their God and they will be my people.

11 They shall not teach each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother saying, 'Know the Lord'; for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them,

12 and I will be merciful to their wrong-doings and their sins I will remember no more."

13 In saying "new" he has pronounced the first covenant old. But what grows old and decadent is near to disappearance.