Mediator of a Better Covenant

8 Now the main point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,* 2 a minister in the sanctuary and the true tentv that the Lord, and not any mortal, has set up.* 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.* 4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are already thosew who offer gifts according to the law. 5 They offer worship in a sanctuary that isx a sketch and shadow of the heavenly one, just as Moses was warned when he was about to erect the tent.y For, Godz said, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.”* 6 But Jesusa has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on the basis of better promises.* 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one.*

8 Godb finds fault with them when he says:

“The days are surely coming, says the Lord,

when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel

and with the house of Judah,*

9 not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors

on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt,

for they did not continue in my covenant,

and so I had no concern for them, says the Lord.

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

after those days, says the Lord:

I will put my laws in their minds

and write them on their hearts,

and I will be their God,

and they shall be my people.*

11 And they shall not teach one another

or say to each other,c ‘Know the Lord,’

for they shall all know me,

from the least of them to the greatest.*

12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,

and I will remember their sinsd no more.”*

13 In speaking of a new covenant, he has made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.*