The High Priest of a New Covenant

¹Here’s the main point of what we’re saying: We have just this kind of high priest, who’s sitting at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven.

²Now he serves in the heavenly sanctuary, the true holy tent set up by the Lord, not by mere human beings.

³Every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, so this priest had to have something to offer too.

⁴If he were on earth, he wouldn’t be a priest, because there already are priests who offer the gifts required by the law.

⁵They serve at a sanctuary that’s a picture and shadow of what’s in heaven. That’s why God warned Moses when he was about to build the holy tent, “When you make everything, be sure to follow the pattern I showed you on the mountain.”

⁶But Jesus has been given a greater work to do for God. He’s the mediator of a new covenant. It’s better than the old one, because it’s based on better promises. Jesus’ work is greater than the work of the earthly priests, just as much as the new covenant is better than the old one.

⁷If nothing had been wrong with that first covenant, no one would have tried to make room for another covenant.

⁸But God did find something wrong with the people. He said,

“The days are coming, says the Lord,

when I will make a new covenant

with the people of Israel

and with the people of Judah.

⁹It won’t be like the covenant

I made with their people of long ago

when I took them by the hand

and led them out of Egypt,

because they didn’t remain faithful to my covenant,

and I turned away from them,

says the Lord.

¹⁰This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel

after that time, says the Lord:

I will put my laws in their minds

and write them on their hearts.

I will be their God,

and they will be my people.

¹¹They won’t teach their neighbor anymore,

and one person won’t say to one another, ‘Know the Lord.’

That’s because everyone will know me,

from the least of them to the greatest.

¹²I will forgive their evil ways

and I won’t remember their sins anymore.”

¹³By calling this covenant “new,” God made the first one outdated. And what is outdated and obsolete will soon disappear.