The Messiah Has a Better Ministry

1Now the main point in what we are saying is this: we do have this kind of high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven 2and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tent set up by the Lord and not by any human. 3For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore, this high priesta had to offer something, too. 4Now if he were on earth, he would not even be a priest, because other men offer the gifts prescribed by the Law. 5They serve in a sanctuary that is a copy, a shadow of the heavenly one. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tent: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.”b 6However, Jesusc has now obtained a more superior ministry, since the covenant he mediates is founded on better promises.

The New Covenant is Better than the Old

7If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one, 8but Godd found something wrong with his peoplee when he said,

“Look! The days are coming, declares the Lord,f

when I will establish a new covenant

with the house of Israel

and with the house of Judah.

9It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors at the time

when I took them by the hand

and brought them out of the land of Egypt.

Because they did not remain loyal to my covenant,

I ignored them, declares the Lord.g

10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel

after that time, declares the Lord:h

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.

11Never again will everyone teach his neighbor

or his brother by saying, ‘Know the Lord,’i

because all of them will know me,

from the least important to the most important.

12For I will be merciful regarding their wrong deeds,

and I will never again remember their sins.”j

13In speaking of a “new” covenant, he has made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.