¹The first one did indeed have ordinances of religious service and the worldly sanctuary. ²For the first tabernacle was fitted out in which there was the lampstand and the table and the exhibition of the showbread, which is called the sanctuary. ³But after the second veil is the tabernacle which is called the holy of holies, ⁴having a golden censer and the ark of the covenant, overlaid on all sides with gold, in which is a golden jar containing the manna, and Aaron's rod which budded, and the tablets of the covenant. ⁵And above it are the cherubim of glory overshadowing the atonement cover, concerning whom it is not now possible to speak particularly. ⁶And with these things fitted out in this way, the priests continually go into the first tabernacle, carrying out the religious services, ⁷but the high priest alone goes into the second tabernacle once a year, not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of ignorance of the people, ⁸the holy spirit demonstrating this: that the way of the sanctuary has not yet been made manifest since the first tabernacle is still standing, ⁹which is a figure pointing to the present time, in accordance with which gifts and sacrifices are offered which are not able to make the officiator perfect as pertaining to the conscience, ¹⁰just being based on food and drink and various baptisms and carnal statutes, imposed on them until the time of reform. ¹¹But now Christ has come as high priest of good things to come, through a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, ¹²and not through the blood of goats and calves, but it is through his own blood that he went into the sanctuary once and for all, having made himself an age-abiding redemption. ¹³For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkled on the defiled, sanctify for the purity of the flesh, ¹⁴how much more will the blood of Christ, who through age-abiding spirit offered himself unblemished to God, purify your conscience from dead works, for you to serve the living God! ¹⁵And because of this he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, his death having taken place as a ransom for the transgressions under the first covenant, those who have been called might receive the promise of the age-abiding inheritance. ¹⁶For where there is a covenant, the death of the testator must necessarily be announced. ¹⁷For a testament is applicable on the basis of the deceased, since it is never in force while the testator is alive, ¹⁸on which grounds the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood either. ¹⁹For when the whole body of commandments according to the law under Moses had been stated to all the people, he took the blood of the calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and he sprinkled both the book itself and the whole people, ²⁰saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.” ²¹And he likewise sprinkled the tabernacle and all the equipment for the service with blood. ²²And almost everything is purified by blood according to the law, and without the shedding of blood forgiveness does not take place. ²³So it was necessary that the figures of things in the heavens should be purified by these means, but the upper-heavenly things themselves by better sacrifices than these. ²⁴For Christ did not enter into a sanctuary made with hands, which is a prefiguration of the true one, but into heaven itself, to be exhibited now in the presence of God for our sakes. ²⁵And not in order to offer himself repeatedly, as when the high priest enters into the sanctuary each year with blood which is not his, ²⁶since then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the overthrow of the world. But now he has been manifested once for the consummation of the ages to annul sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷And just as it is the destiny for men to die once, and after this the judgment, ²⁸so too Christ, having been offered once in order to take upon himself the sins of many, will appear a second time without sin to those who eagerly await him for salvation.

Reference(s) in Chapter 9: v.20 ↔ Exodus 24:8.