< Hebrews 8 >
1 Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum: We have such a High Priest, who has taken his seat at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens--
2 a minister of the holy places; namely, of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.
3 For every high priest is constituted to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Hence, it was necessary that this High Priest, also, should have something he might offer.
4 For, indeed, if he were on earth, he could not be a priest, there being priests who offer gifts according to the law.
5 (These perform divine service for an example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses, when about to construct the tabernacle, was admonished of God: "See, now (says he, ) that you make all things according to the type that was showed you in the Mount.")
6 Besides, he has now obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as he is the mediator of a better institution, which has been established upon better promises.
7 For if that first institution had been faultless, a place would not have been sought for a second.
8 But, finding fault, he says to them, "Behold, the days come, says the Lord, when I will make a new institution with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
9 not according to the institution which I made with their fathers, at the time of my taking them by the hand, to lead them out of the land of Egypt--because they did not abide in my institution, I also neglected them, says the Lord.
10 Now this is the institution which I will make with the house of Israel, after these days, says the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind, and inscribe them on their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.
11 And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.
12 Because I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more."
13 By saying, "a new institution," he has made the former old: now, that which is decaying and growing old, is ready to vanish away.
