Category: Hebrews

God’s Final Word in His Son

1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,

2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.

3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

4 having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.

5 For to which of the angels did He ever say,

“You areMySon,

TodayIhave begottenYou”?

And again,

“Iwill be aFather toHim

AndHe shall be aSon toMe”?

6 And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says,

“And let all the angels ofGod worshipHim.”

7 And of the angels He says,

“Who makesHis angels winds,

AndHis ministers a flame of fire.”

8 But of the SonHe says,

“Your throne, O God,is forever and ever,

And the righteous scepter is the scepter ofHis kingdom.

9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;

ThereforeGod, YourGod,has anointedYou

With the oil of gladness aboveYour companions.”

10 And,

“You, Lord,in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth,

And the heavens are the works ofYour hands;

11 They will perish,butYou remain;

And they all will become old like a garment,

12 And like a mantleYou will roll them up;

Like a garment they will also be changed.

ButYou are the same,

AndYour years will not come to an end.”

13 But to which of the angels has He ever said,

“Sit atMy right hand,

UntilImakeYour enemies

Afootstool forYour feet”?

14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/HEB/1-35aafc2216e5cbb733366978ab0625b3.mp3?version_id=100—

Give Heed

1 For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift awayfrom it.

2 For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty,

3 how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,

4 God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.

Earth Subject to Man

5 For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking.

6 But one has testified somewhere, saying,

“What is man,thatYou remember him?

Or the son of man,thatYou are concerned about him?

7 You have made him for a little while lower than the angels;

You have crowned him with glory and honor,

And have appointed him over the works ofYour hands;

8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”

For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.

Jesus Briefly Humbled

9 But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels,namely,Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.

10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.

11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from oneFather;for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,

12 saying,

“Iwill proclaimYour name toMy brethren,

In the midst of the congregationIwill singYour praise.”

13 And again,

“Iwill putMy trust inHim.”

And again,

“Behold, Iand the children whomGod has givenMe.”

14 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,

15 and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

16 For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham.

17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

18 For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/HEB/2-c4b1467438fd011bf376ed6df76408db.mp3?version_id=100—

Jesus Our High Priest

1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession;

2 He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house.

3 For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house.

4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.

5 Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later;

6 but Christwas faithfulas a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.

7 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today if you hearHis voice,

8 Do not harden your hearts as when they provokedMe,

As in the day of trial in the wilderness,

9 Where your fathers triedMeby testingMe,

And sawMy works for forty years.

10 ThereforeIwas angry with this generation,

And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,

And they did not knowMy ways’;

11 AsIswore inMy wrath,

‘They shall not enterMy rest.’ ”

The Peril of Unbelief

12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.

13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it isstillcalled “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

14 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,

15 while it is said,

“Today if you hearHis voice,

Do not harden your hearts,as when they provokedMe.”

16 For who provokedHimwhen they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egyptledby Moses?

17 And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?

19 Sowe see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/HEB/3-581020f33f84728c8324edb7915d50c1.mp3?version_id=100—

The Believer’s Rest

1 Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.

2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

3 For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said,

“AsIswore inMy wrath,

They shall not enterMy rest,”

although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.

4 For He has said somewhere concerning the seventhday:“AndGod rested on the seventh day from allHis works”;

5 and again in thispassage,“They shall not enterMy rest.”

6 Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience,

7 He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before,

“Today if you hearHis voice,

Do not harden your hearts.”

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that.

9 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.

11 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, throughfollowingthe same example of disobedience.

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

13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things aswe are, yetwithout sin.

16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/HEB/4-8bb0b1e2f6a94fcd49203acd3055afee.mp3?version_id=100—

The Perfect High Priest

1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins;

2 he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness;

3 and because of it he is obligated to offersacrificesfor sins, as for the people, so also for himself.

4 And no one takes the honor to himself, butreceives itwhen he is called by God, even as Aaron was.

5 So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him,

“You areMySon,

TodayIhave begottenYou”;

6 just as He says also in anotherpassage,

“You are a priest forever

According to the order ofMelchizedek.”

7 In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.

8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.

9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,

10 being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

11 Concerninghim we have much to say, andit ishard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

13 For everyone who partakesonlyof milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.

14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/HEB/5-89db6ba2846ebd5316d79f15e382f08c.mp3?version_id=100—

The Peril of Falling Away

1 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

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

3 And this we will do, if God permits.

4 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,

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

6 andthenhave fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.

7 For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God;

8 but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.

Better Things for You

9 But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way.

10 For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.

11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end,

12 so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

13 For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself,

14 saying, “Iwill surely bless you andIwill surely multiply you.”

15 And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.

16 For men swear by one greaterthan themselves,and with them an oathgivenas confirmation is an end of every dispute.

17 In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath,

18 so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.

19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, ahopeboth sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil,

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

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/HEB/6-d3d79f047a28b856bf96a7a9c847d0a9.mp3?version_id=100—

Melchizedek’s Priesthood Like Christ’s

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

2 to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth part of allthe spoils,was first of all, by the translationof his name,king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace.

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

4 Now observe how great this man was to whom Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth of the choicest spoils.

5 And those indeed of the sons of Levi who receive the priest’s office have commandment in the Law to collect a tenth from the people, that is, from their brethren, although these are descended from Abraham.

6 But the one whose genealogy is not traced from them collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises.

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

8 In this case mortal men receive tithes, but in that case onereceives them,of whom it is witnessed that he lives on.

9 And, so to speak, through Abraham even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes,

10 for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.

11 Now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the Law), what further needwas therefor another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron?

12 For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also.

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

14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests.

15 And this is clearer still, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek,

16 who has becomesuchnot on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life.

17 For it is attestedof Him,

“You are a priest forever

According to the order ofMelchizedek.”

18 For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness

19 (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.

20 And inasmuch asit wasnot without an oath

21 (for they indeed became priests without an oath, but He with an oath through the One who said to Him,

“TheLord has sworn

And will not changeHis mind,

‘You are a priest forever’ ”);

22 so much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.

23 Theformerpriests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing,

24 but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently.

25 Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

26 For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens;

27 who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for thesinsof the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.

28 For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law,appointsa Son, made perfect forever.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/HEB/7-728188162f1e364024cc28d0cb88fb33.mp3?version_id=100—

A Better Ministry

1 Now the main point in what has been saidis this:we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

2 a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.

3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; so it is necessary that thishigh priestalso have something to offer.

4 Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law;

5 who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warnedby Godwhen he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, “See,” He says, “that you makeall thingsaccording to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.”

6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.

A New Covenant

7 For if that firstcovenanthad been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second.

8 For finding fault with them, He says,

“Behold,days are coming,says theLord,

WhenIwill effect a new covenant

With the house ofIsrael and with the house ofJudah;

9 Not like the covenant whichImade with their fathers

On the day whenItook them by the hand

To lead them out of the land ofEgypt;

For they did not continue inMy covenant,

AndIdid not care for them,says theLord.

10 For this is the covenant thatIwill make with the house ofIsrael

After those days,says theLord:

Iwill putMy laws into their minds,

AndIwill write them on their hearts.

AndIwill be theirGod,

And they shall beMy people.

11 And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen,

And everyone his brother,saying, ‘Know theLord,’

For all will knowMe,

From the least to the greatest of them.

12 ForIwill be merciful to their iniquities,

AndIwill remember their sins no more.”

13 When He said, “A newcovenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/HEB/8-583d3b51f39b7c5d6adff68d856a7394.mp3?version_id=100—

The Old and the New

1 Now even the firstcovenanthad regulations of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary.

2 For there was a tabernacle prepared, the outer one, in whichwerethe lampstand and the table and the sacred bread; this is called the holy place.

3 Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies,

4 having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod which budded, and the tables of the covenant;

5 and above itwerethe cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat; but of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

6 Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship,

7 but into the second, only the high priestentersonce a year, not withouttakingblood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance.

8 The Holy Spiritissignifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing,

9 whichisa symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience,

10 since theyrelateonly to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation.

11 But when Christ appearedasa high priest of the good thingsto come,He enteredthrough the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;

12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh,

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

15 For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that werecommittedunder the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

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

17 For a covenant is validonlywhen men are dead,for it is never in force while the one who made it lives.

18 Therefore even the firstcovenantwas not inaugurated without blood.

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

20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant whichGod commanded you.”

21 And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood.

22 And according to the Law,one mayalmostsay,all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

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

24 For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, amerecopy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;

25 nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own.

26 Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after thiscomesjudgment,

28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation withoutreference tosin, to those who eagerly await Him.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/HEB/9-7bb1e140fd345249c8aecee3cb56daa6.mp3?version_id=100—

One Sacrifice of Christ Is Sufficient

1 For the Law, since it hasonlya shadow of the good things to comeandnot the very form of things,can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.

2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?

3 But in thosesacrificesthere is a reminder of sins year by year.

4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

5 Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says,

“Sacrifice and offeringYou have not desired,

But a bodyYou have prepared forMe;

6 In whole burnt offerings andsacrificesfor sinYou have taken no pleasure.

7 ThenIsaid, ‘Behold, Ihave come

(In the scroll of the book it is written ofMe)

To doYour will, O God.’ ”

8 After saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings andsacrificesfor sinYou have not desired,nor haveYou taken pleasurein them” (which are offered according to the Law),

9 then He said, “Behold, Ihave come to doYour will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second.

10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

11 Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;

12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time,sat down at the right hand ofGod,

13 waiting from that time onwarduntilHis enemies be made a footstool forHis feet.

14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying,

16 “This is the covenant thatIwill make with them

After those days,says theLord:

Iwill putMy laws upon their heart,

And on their mindIwill write them,”

He then says,

17 “And their sins and their lawless deeds

Iwill remember no more.”

18 Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longeranyoffering for sin.

A New and Living Way

19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,

20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,

21 and sincewe havea great priest over the house of God,

22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkledcleanfrom an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;

24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,

25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouragingone another;and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Christ or Judgment

26 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

27 but a terrifying expectation of judgment andthe fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

28 Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy onthe testimony oftwo or three witnesses.

29 How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?

30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance isMine, Iwill repay.” And again, “TheLord will judgeHis people.”

31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

32 But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings,

33 partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.

34 For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.

35 Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

37 For yet in a very little while,

He who is coming will come,and will not delay.

38 ButMy righteous one shall live by faith;

And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.

39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/HEB/10-992a6453fe8186be428997b4229980f7.mp3?version_id=100—