Now in the things that we are saying, the main point is this: We have this kind of high priest, one who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,
a minister of the holy places and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.
For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, hence it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer.
Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, seeing there are already those who offer the gifts according to the law.
They serve as an example and a shadow of the heavenly sanctuary. This is why Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle, for He says, See that you make all things according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.
As it is, he has obtained a more excellent ministry, in as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, since it has been enacted on the basis of better promises.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to seek for a second.
For finding fault with them, he says, Look! The days are coming, says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
Not one like the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, says the Lord.
So 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 mind, and I will write them on their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they will be to me a people.
And they will never teach, each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.
When he speaks of “a new covenant,” he has made the first one obsolete. But that which is being made obsolete and growing aged is close to vanishing away.