Hebrews 7

A Better Priest and a Better Hope

1 Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham after Abraham defeated the kings, and he blessed him.

2 Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. His name means “king of righteousness,” and king of Salem means “king of peace.”

3 Scripture gives no record of his father, mother, family line, beginning, or end. Presented like the Son of God, he remains a priest continually.

4 Think about how great he was: even Abraham, the patriarch, gave him a tenth of the best spoils.

5 Under the law, Levi’s descendants who become priests are commanded to collect a tenth from their own people, even though all of them come from Abraham.

6 But Melchizedek was outside that family line, yet he received a tenth from Abraham and blessed the man who held God’s promises.

7 There is no argument about it: the greater person blesses the lesser.

8 In the Levitical system, dying people receive tithes. But in Melchizedek’s case, Scripture presents him as living.

9 You could even say Levi, who later collected tithes, paid a tithe through Abraham,

10 because Levi was still in his ancestor Abraham when Melchizedek met him.

11 If the Levitical priesthood could make people complete, and the law was built around it, why would another priest still need to come in Melchizedek’s order instead of Aaron’s,

12 When the priesthood changes, the law connected to it must change too.

13 The One we are talking about came from a different tribe, one that never served at the altar.

14 Everybody knows our Lord came from Judah, and Moses never assigned priestly service to that tribe.

15 The change becomes even clearer when another priest appears like Melchizedek,

16 appointed not by a rule about physical ancestry, but by the power of a life that can never end.

17 Scripture testifies, “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”

18 The former command was set aside because it was weak and unable to finish the job.

19 The law made nothing perfect, but now a better hope has been brought in, and through that hope we draw near to God.

20 Jesus did not become priest without an oath from God.

21 The other priests entered office without an oath, but God told Jesus, “The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind: You are a priest forever.”

22 Because of that oath, Jesus guarantees a better covenant.

23 There had to be many former priests because death kept each one from continuing in office.

24 But Jesus lives forever, so His priesthood never passes to somebody else.

25 That means He can save completely everyone who comes to God through Him, because He always lives to speak on their behalf.

26 He is exactly the High Priest we need: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sin, and lifted higher than the heavens.

27 Unlike other high priests, He does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for His own sins and then for the people’s. He offered Himself once for everybody, and the work was done.

28 The law appoints weak human beings as high priests, but God’s oath, which came later, appointed His Son, made complete forever.