Day 285 of 365

¹Let us fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into his rest.

²For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard did not profit them, because they were not united by faith with those who heard.

³For we who have believed do enter into that rest, even as he has said, "As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest;" although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

⁴For he has said this somewhere about the seventh day, "God rested on the seventh day from all his works;"

⁵and in this place again, "They will not enter into my rest."

⁶Seeing therefore it remains that some should enter therein, and they to whom the good news was before preached failed to enter in because of disobedience,

⁷he again defines a certain day, "Today," saying through David so long a time afterward (just as has been said), "Today if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts."

⁸For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day.

⁹There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

¹⁰For he who has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his.

¹¹Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.

¹²For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

¹³There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

¹⁴Having then a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold tightly to our confession.

¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.

¹⁶Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace for help in time of need.

¹For every high priest, being taken from among men, is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

²The high priest can deal gently with those who are ignorant and going astray, because he himself is also surrounded with weakness.

³Because of this, he must offer sacrifices for sins for the people, as well as for himself.

⁴Nobody takes this honor on himself, but he is called by God, just like Aaron was.

⁵So also Christ did not glorify himself to be made a high priest, but it was he who said to him, "You are my Son. Today I have become your father."

⁶As he says also in another place, "You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek."

⁷He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear,

⁸though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered.

⁹Having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him the author of eternal salvation,

¹⁰named by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

¹¹About him we have many words to say, and hard to interpret, seeing you have become dull of hearing.

¹²For when by reason of the time you ought to be teachers, you again need to have someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God. You have come to need milk, and not solid food.

¹³For everyone who lives on milk is not experienced in the word of righteousness, for he is a baby.

¹⁴But solid food is for those who are full grown, who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.

¹Therefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on to perfection-not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith toward God,

²of the teaching of washings, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

³This will we do, if God permits.

⁴For concerning those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit,

⁵and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come,

⁶and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify the Son of God for themselves again, and put him to open shame.

⁷For the land which has drunk the rain that comes often on it, and brings forth a crop suitable for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receives blessing from God;

⁸but if it bears thorns and thistles, it is rejected and near being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

⁹But, beloved, we are persuaded of better things for you, and things that accompany salvation, even though we speak like this.

¹⁰For God is not unrighteous, so as to forget your work and the love which you showed toward his name, in that you served the saints, and still do serve them.

¹¹We desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fullness of hope even to the end,

¹²that you won't be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherited the promises.

¹³For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he could swear by none greater, he swore by himself,

¹⁴saying, "Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you."

¹⁵Thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

¹⁶For men swear by a greater one, and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation.

¹⁷In this way God, being determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath;

¹⁸that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us.

¹⁹This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil;

²⁰where as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

¹For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,

²to whom also Abraham divided a tenth part of all (being first, by interpretation, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace;

³without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God), remains a priest continually.

⁴Now consider how great this man was, to whom even Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth out of the best spoils.

⁵They indeed of the sons of Levi who receive the priest's office have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the Law, that is, of their brothers, though these have come out of the body of Abraham,

⁶but he whose genealogy is not counted from them has accepted tithes from Abraham, and has blessed him who has the promises.

⁷But without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater.

⁸Here people who die receive tithes, but there one receives tithes of whom it is testified that he lives.

⁹We can say that through Abraham even Levi, who receives tithes, has paid tithes,

¹⁰for he was yet in the body of his father when Melchizedek met him.

¹¹Now if there was perfection through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people have received the law), what further need was there for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be called after the order of Aaron?

¹²For the priesthood being changed, there is of necessity a change made also in the law.

¹³For he of whom these things are said belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar.

¹⁴For it is evident that our Lord has sprung out of Judah, about which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priests.

¹⁵This is yet more abundantly evident, if after the likeness of Melchizedek there arises another priest,

¹⁶who has been made, not after the law of a fleshly commandment, but after the power of an endless life:

¹⁷for it is testified, "You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek."

¹⁸For there is an annulling of a foregoing commandment because of its weakness and uselessness

¹⁹(for the law made nothing perfect), and a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.

²⁰Inasmuch as he was not made priest without the taking of an oath

²¹(for they indeed have been made priests without an oath), but he with an oath by him that says of him, "The Lord swore and will not change his mind, 'You are a priest forever.'"

²²By so much, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant.

²³Many, indeed, have been made priests, because they are hindered from continuing by death.

²⁴But he, because he lives forever, has his priesthood unchangeable.

²⁵Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them.

²⁶For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;

²⁷who does not need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself.

²⁸For the Law appoints men as high priests who have weakness, but the word of the oath which came after the Law appoints a Son forever who has been perfected.