Hebrews 8

The Better Covenant

1 Here is the main point: we have exactly this kind of High Priest, seated at the right hand of God’s majestic throne in heaven.

2 He serves in the true sanctuary, the real tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by human hands.

3 Every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, so our High Priest also needed something to offer.

4 If Jesus were serving only on earth, He would not be a priest, because priests were already offering gifts according to the law.

5 Their service was only a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. That is why God warned Moses, “Build everything according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain.”

6 But Jesus received a far greater ministry. He is the mediator of a better covenant, established on better promises.

7 If the first covenant had completed everything, there would have been no need to look for another.

8 But God found fault with the people and said, “The days are coming when I will make a new covenant with Israel and Judah.”

9 “It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. They did not remain faithful to My covenant, so I turned away from them.”

10 “This is the covenant I will make after those days: 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.”

11 “Nobody will have to tell a neighbor or family member, ‘Get to know the Lord,’ because all of them, from the least to the greatest, will know Me.”

12 “I will show mercy toward their wrongdoing, and I will never again hold their sins against them.”

13 By calling this covenant “new,” God made the first one old. What is aging and outdated is ready to disappear.