Hebrews 9

¹ Now the first covenant also had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary.

² For a tent was prepared, the first one, in which were the lampstand, the table, and the bread of the Presence; it is called the Holy Place.

³ Behind the second curtain was the tent called the Most Holy Place.

⁴ It had a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant, covered all over with gold. In the ark were a golden jar containing the manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the tablets of the covenant.

⁵ Above it were the cherubim of glory, overshadowing the atonement cover. There is no time now to discuss these things in detail.

⁶ With everything arranged this way, the priests continually enter the first tent to carry out the acts of worship.

⁷ But only the high priest enters the second tent, once a year, and not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the people’s sins of ignorance.

⁸ By this, the Holy Spirit shows that the way into the sanctuary had not yet been revealed while the first tent was still standing.

⁹ This is an illustration for the present time, in which gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience.

¹⁰ They are only regulations concerning food, drink, and various washings—regulations for the body, imposed until the time of reform.

¹¹ But Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come, through the greater and more perfect tent, not made by human hands—that is, not part of this creation.

¹² He did not enter the sanctuary by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

¹³ For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are defiled, sanctify them for the cleansing of the body,

¹⁴ how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works so that we may serve the living God!

¹⁵ For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place to redeem the transgressions committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.

¹⁶ For where there is a will, the death of the one who made it must be established.

¹⁷ For a will takes effect only at death; it has no force while the one who made it is alive.

¹⁸ That is why even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood.

¹⁹ For after Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the Law to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled the book itself and all the people.

²⁰ He said, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded you to keep.”

²¹ In the same way, he also sprinkled the tent and all the vessels used in worship with blood.

²² According to the Law, almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

²³ It was necessary, then, for the copies of the things in heaven to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

²⁴ For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a copy of the true one, but heaven itself, to appear now before God on our behalf.

²⁵ Nor did he enter to offer himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary every year with someone else’s blood.

²⁶ Otherwise, he would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now, at the culmination of the ages, he has appeared once for all to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

²⁷ It is appointed for people to die once, and after that comes judgment.

²⁸ So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, apart from sin, to those who are waiting for him, for salvation.

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