Hebrews 9
1Now the first covenant had righteous requirements for divine service and the earthly holy sanctuary.
2For a tent was set up. There was the first room, in which were the menorah, and the table, and the Bread of the Presence; this is called the Holy Place.
3And behind the second curtain was the tent that is called the Holy of Holies,
4which had a golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant completely overlaid with gold (in which was a golden pot holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant),
5and above it were cherubim of glory overshadowing the atonement-cover, of which things we cannot speak in detail now.
6Now with these things prepared in this way, the priests go regularly into the outer tent, performing the sacred services.
7But into the second room, the high priest went alone, once a year, not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the errors of the People,
8by this the Holy Spirit was making it clear that the way into the Holy of Holies had not yet been revealed while the first tabernacle is still standing
9(which is a parable for the present time). According to that arrangement, both gifts and sacrifices are offered that are not able to perfect the conscience of the one who is serving them,
10since they deal only with foods and drinks and various washings, which are righteous requirements concerning the flesh, imposed until the time of the new order.
11But when Christ came as the high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that was not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation.
12He entered once and for all into the Holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus obtaining everlasting redemption.
13For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who have been defiled, make people holy (as regards the “cleanness” of the flesh),
14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the everlasting spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
15And for this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called will receive the promise of the inheritance in the age to come.
16For where there is a covenant, it is necessary that the death of the covenant-maker be represented.
17For a covenant is ratified on the basis of sacrificial deaths, for it is never valid while the covenant-maker is represented as living.
18That is why even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood.
19For when every commandment of the law had been spoken by Moses to all the People, 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,
20saying, This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.
21And in the same way, he sprinkled the tent and all the articles of the ministry with the blood.
22Indeed, under the law almost everything is cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
23Therefore, it was necessary for the copies of the things in heaven to be cleansed with these sacrifices, but the heavenly people themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24For Christ did not enter into a holy sanctuary made with hands, which is a copy of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God on our behalf.
25Nor did he enter in order to offer himself over and over, like the high priest who enters into the Holy of Holies year after year with blood that is not his own,
26since then it would have been necessary for him to have suffered over and over from the foundation of the world. But now he has been revealed once, at the end of the ages, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27And just as it is appointed for a person to die one time, and after that comes the Judgment,
28so Christ also, having been offered one time to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to atone for sin, but to save those who eagerly wait for him.