1Now the first covenant also had regulations for worship and its earthly sanctuary.
2For a tent was prepared, the first one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the presentation of the loaves; this is called the Holy Place.
3And behind the second curtain was a tent called the Holy of Holies,
4having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which were a golden jar holding the manna and Aaron’s staff that had budded and the tablets of the covenant,
5and above it the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat—about which things it is not now possible to speak in detail.
6Now with these things thus prepared, the priests go continually into the first tent, performing the acts of worship;
7but into the second only the high priest goes, once a year, and not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance.
8The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the holy places had not yet been made manifest while the first tent still had its standing.
9This is a symbol pointing to the present time, according to which gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot, as to conscience, perfect the worshiper,
10since they deal only with foods and drinks and various washings—regulations for the flesh imposed until the time of reformation.
11But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come, through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands—that is, not of this creation—
12and not through the blood of goats and calves but through his own blood, he entered once for all into the holy places, having obtained eternal redemption.
13For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the purity of the flesh,
14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God!
15And for this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has occurred for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant, those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
16For where there is a will, the death of the one who made it must be established;
17for a will is confirmed over the dead, since it is surely never in force while the one who made it lives.
18Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.
19For when every commandment according to the law had been spoken by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of the calves and of the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the scroll itself and all the people,
20saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.”
21And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in the service.
22And nearly everything is cleansed with blood according to the law, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
23It was necessary, then, for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24For Christ did not enter holy places made with hands, mere copies of the true ones, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God on our behalf;
25nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places year after year with blood not his own;
26for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now, once for all at the culmination of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27And just as it is appointed for people to die once, and after this comes judgment,
28so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, apart from sin, to those who eagerly await him, for salvation.
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