CHAPTER 9

1 The first then had indeed ordinances of worship and a worldly sanctuary:

2 For there was made the first tabernacle in which were the candlestick, and the table, and the shew­bread, which is called the sanctuary;

3 And after the second vail, the tabernacle which is called the Holy of holies, which has the golden censer, and the ark

4 Of the covenant covered around with gold, in which is the golden pot which has manna, and Aaron's rod which had budded, and the tables of the covenant;

5 And over it the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy­seat: of which it is not for us now to speak particularly.

6 Now these things being thus set in order, into the first tabernacle the priests always enter who perform the service;

7 But into the second, the high priest alone once a year, not without blood, which he offers for the ignorances of himself and of the people;

8 The Holy Spirit intimating this, -- That the way to the holiest was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was yet standing;

9 Which was a likeness for the time present, in which gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot as to conscience sanctify the worshipper,

10 Being imposed only with meats and drinks, and divers washings and sanctifications of the flesh, until the time of emendation.

11 But Christ, having afterwards come a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation,

12 Nor by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.

13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkled on the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh;

14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who by the eternal Spirit offered himself, being faultless, to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

15 And for this reason he is the Mediator of a new testament, that by means of death for the redemption of transgressions under the first testament, they who were called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance

16 For where a testament is, there must necessarily be the death of the testator:

17 For a testament is of force as to the dead, for it is never valid as long as the testator is living.

18 Hence the first was not dedicated without blood:

19 For when every command according to the law had been spoken by Moses to the whole people, taking the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, he sprinkled the book and all the people,

20 Saying, "This is the blood of the testament which God hath commanded you."

21 And he sprinkled also in a like manner with blood the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry;

22 And nearly all things are cleansed by blood according to the law: and without shedding of blood there is no remission.

23 It is then necessary that the exemplars of those things which are in heaven should be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

24 For Christ has not entered into holy places made with hands, the exemplars of the true, but into heaven itself, that he may now appear before God for us;

25 Not indeed that he may often offer himself, as the high priest who enters into the holiest every year with another's blood,

26 (for then he must have often suffered since the creation of the world;) but now at the end of the ages hath he once appeared for the destruction of sin by the sacrifice of himself.

27 And as it is appointed to men once to die, and after this the judgment;

28 So Christ, having been once offered, that he might take away the sins of many, will appear the second time without sin unto salvation, to those who wait for him.