1 Now here is the sum of what we are saying: we have a high priest of this kind, who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,
2 a minister of the holy things and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man.
3 For every high priest is installed to present gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary that this one also has something to present.
4 Were he on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the law,
5 who serve a sketch and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was instructed by God when he was about to complete the tabernacle: "See," he says, "that you make all things in keeping with the pattern shown to you on the mountain."
6 But now he has obtained a ministry more excellent, by as much as he is mediator of a better covenant, which has been given legal force on better promises.
7 For if that first covenant had been without fault, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
8 For God finds fault with them when he says: "Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will bring about a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
9 not according to the covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not abide in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord.
10 For this is the covenant I will covenant with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: putting my laws into their understanding, I will also write them upon their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they will be to me a people.
11 And they will by no means teach, each one his fellow citizen or his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least to the greatest.
12 For I will be gracious toward their wrongdoing, and I will never again call to mind their sins and their lawless acts."
13 By speaking of a "new" covenant, he has treated the first as old; and what is growing old and aging will soon vanish.