1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who went out to meet Abraham as he returned from cutting down the kings, and who blessed him,
2 to whom Abraham also assigned a tenth of everything—he is first, as his name is translated, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace;
3 without father, without mother, without genealogy, having no beginning of days and no end of life, but made like the Son of God—this man remains a priest without interruption.
4 See how great this man was, to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the choicest spoils!
5 And those sons of Levi who receive the priestly office have a command under the law to take a tenth from the people, that is, from their brothers, though they too have come out of Abraham's loins.
6 But the one whose ancestry is not reckoned from them has taken a tenth from Abraham and has blessed the man who held the promises.
7 And no one can deny that the lesser is blessed by the greater.
8 Here, men who die receive tenths; there, one receives them of whom it is attested that he lives.
9 And in a manner of speaking, Levi too, who receives tenths, has paid tenths through Abraham,
10 since he was yet in his father's loins when Melchizedek met him.
11 Now if completeness had come by the Levitical priesthood—for on it the people had received the law—what further need would there be for a different priest to rise after the order of Melchizedek, and not to be named after the order of Aaron?
12 For if the priesthood is transferred, a transfer of the law necessarily follows as well.
13 For the one these things are said of has belonged to another tribe, from which no man has attended the altar.
14 It is evident, after all, that our Lord has risen out of Judah, a tribe about which Moses said nothing concerning priesthood.
15 And the matter is plainer still if another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek,
16 who has come to be so not by the law of a fleshly command but by the power of an endless life.
17 For the witness is: "You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."
18 On the one hand, the earlier commandment is annulled because it was weak and of no use
19 (for the law brought nothing to perfection); on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, by which we come near to God.
20 And inasmuch as it was not without an oath that he was made priest—
21 (for those others became priests without an oath, but he with an oath, through the one who said to him, "The Lord has sworn and will not go back on it: 'You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.'")
22 to that extent Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.
23 Moreover, the others were made priests in great numbers, because death hindered them from remaining;
24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he abides forever.
25 That is why he is also able to save to the uttermost those who approach God through him, since he is always alive to plead on their behalf.
26 It was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners and become higher than the heavens,
27 who has no need, as the high priests did, to offer up sacrifices daily, first on account of his own sins and then those of the people; for this he did once and for all by offering himself up.
28 For the law sets up as high priests men who are weak, but the word of the oath that came after the law sets up a Son made perfect forever.