Hebrews 9

¹Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness .

²For a tent was prepared , the first section , in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence . It is called the Holy Place .

³Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place ,

⁴having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold , in which was a golden urn holding the manna , and Aaron’s staff that budded , and the tablets of the covenant .

⁵Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat . Of these things we cannot now speak in detail .

⁶These preparations having thus been made , the priests go regularly into the first section , performing their ritual duties ,

⁷but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year , and not without taking blood , which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people .

⁸By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing

⁹( which is symbolic for the present age ). According to this arrangement , gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper ,

¹⁰but deal only with food and drink and various washings , regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation .

¹¹But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come , then through the greater and more perfect tent ( not made with hands , that is , not of this creation )

¹²he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood , thus securing an eternal redemption .

¹³For if the blood of goats and bulls , and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer , sanctify for the purification of the flesh ,

¹⁴how much more will the blood of Christ , who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God , purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God .

¹⁵Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant , so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance , since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant .

¹⁶For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established .

¹⁷For a will takes effect only at death , since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive .

¹⁸Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood .

¹⁹For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people , he took the blood of calves and goats , with water and scarlet wool and hyssop , and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people ,

²⁰saying , This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you .

²¹And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship .

²²Indeed , under the law almost everything is purified with blood , and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins .

²³Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites , but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these .

²⁴For Christ has entered , not into holy places made with hands , which are copies of the true things , but into heaven itself , now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf .

²⁵Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly , as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own ,

²⁶for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world . But as it is , he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself .

²⁷And just as it is appointed for man to die once , and after that comes judgment ,

²⁸so Christ , having been offered once to bear the sins of many , will appear a second time , not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him .