< Hebrews 9 >
1 Now indeed therefore the first had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary.
2 For a tabernacle was prepared, the first in which was also the lampstand, and the table, and the presentation of the loaves, which is called the Holy place.
3 And behind the second curtain, the tabernacle called the Holy of holies,
4 having a golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid entirely in gold, in which was a golden pot holding the manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant.
5 And above it were cherubim of glory overshadowing the place of forgiveness, about which things it is not now to speak in detail.
6 And these things thus having been prepared, the priests indeed enter into the first part of the tabernacle continually, accomplishing the services.
7 But into the second part, the high priest alone, once a year, not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people,
8 this signifying from the Holy Spirit, the way into the holy things is not yet to be made known while the first tabernacle still remains.
9 Which is a figure for the present time, according to which both gifts and sacrifices are offered that are not able to make the man officiating fully perfect in respect to conscience,
10 only in foods and drinks and various washings: carnal ordinances imposed until a time of reformation.
11 But Christ, having arrived a high priest of the good things that are coming, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation,
12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, he entered in once into the Holy things, having found eternal redemption. (aiōnios )
13 For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling those who were defiled, sanctifies for the purification of the flesh,
14 how much more the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself unblemished to God, will cleanse your conscience from dead works in order to serve a living God? (aiōnios )
15 And because of this he is mediator of a new covenant, so that a death having occurred for the redemption of the transgressions against the first covenant, those who are called might take the promise of the eternal inheritance. (aiōnios )
16 For where a covenant is, a necessity is to present the death of the man who made the covenant.
17 For a covenant is effective with the dead, since it is never enforced while the man who made the covenant lives.
18 Whereupon neither has the first been dedicated without blood.
19 For of every commandment according to law that was spoken by Moses to all the people, after taking the blood of the calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, he sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
20 saying, This is the blood of the covenant that God made for you.
21 And likewise he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the service.
22 And almost all things, according to the law, are cleansed with blood, and remission does not occur without bloodshed.
23 Indeed therefore, a necessity was for the models of the things in the heavens themselves to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things with better sacrifices than these.
24 For the Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, representative of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.
25 And not so that he might offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the Holy things each year with blood by another,
26 since it would be necessary for him to suffer often, from the foundation of the world. But now once, at the end of the ages, he was made known for an annulment of sin by the sacrifice of himself. (aiōn )
27 And inasmuch as it is reserved to men once to die, and after this, judgment,
28 so also the Christ, having been offered once in order to take up the sins of many, will appear a second time, independent of sin, to those waiting for him for salvation.
