Hebrews 9

¹ Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary.

² For a tent was set up. In its first room were the lampstand, the table, and the bread of the Presence; this is called the Holy Place.

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

⁴ which had the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant overlaid all around with gold. In it were a golden jar holding the manna, Aaron's staff that had budded, and the tablets of the covenant.

⁵ Above it were the cherubim of glory, overshadowing the place of atonement. But we cannot now speak of these things in detail.

⁶ With these things prepared in this way, the priests go regularly into the first room to carry out their duties.

⁷ But only the high priest goes into the second room, and only once a year, and never without blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins the people committed in ignorance.

⁸ By this the Holy Spirit shows that the way into the holy places had not yet been revealed as long as the first tent was still standing,

⁹ which is a symbol for the present time. According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the worshiper in conscience.

¹⁰ They deal only with food and drink and various ceremonial washings—regulations for the body imposed until the time of the new order.

¹¹ But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come, he passed through the greater and more perfect tent, not made by human hands—that is, not of this creation.

¹² He entered the holy places once for all, not by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood, and so secured an eternal redemption.

¹³ For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are defiled, sanctify them so that their bodies are clean,

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

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

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

¹⁷ For a will takes effect only at death, since it is never in force while the one who made it is alive.

¹⁸ That is why even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood.

¹⁹ For when Moses had spoken every commandment in the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the scroll itself and all the people,

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

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

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

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

²⁴ For Christ did not enter holy places made by human hands, mere copies of the true ones, but heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

²⁵ Nor did he enter to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood that is not his own;

²⁶ for 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.

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

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