Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

1 Here is the whole point of what we have been saying: we do have just such acohen gadolas has been described. And he does sit at the right hand ofHaG’dulahin heaven.

2 There he serves in the Holy Place, that is, in the true Tent of Meeting, the one erected not by human beings but byAdonai.

3 For everycohen gadolis appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; so thiscohen gadoltoo has to have something he can offer.

4 Now if he were on earth, he wouldn’t be acohenat all, since there already arecohanimoffering the gifts required by theTorah.

5 But what they are serving is only a copy and shadow of the heavenly original; for when Moshe was about to erect the Tent, God warned him, “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern you were shown on the mountain.”

6 But now the work Yeshua has been given to do is far superior to theirs, just as the covenant he mediates is better. For this covenant has been given asTorahon the basis of better promises.

7 Indeed, if the first covenant had not given ground for faultfinding, there would have been no need for a second one.

8 For God does find fault with the people when he says,

“‘See! The days are coming,’ saysAdonai,

‘when I will establish

over the house of Isra’el and over the house of Y’hudah

a new covenant.

9 “‘It will not be like the covenant

which I made with their fathers

on the day when I took them by their hand

and led them forth out of the land of Egypt;

because they, for their part,

did not remain faithful to my covenant;

so I, for my part,

stopped concerning myself with them,’

saysAdonai.

10 “‘For this is the covenant which I will make

with the house of Isra’el after those days,’

saysAdonai:

‘I will put myTorahin their minds

and write it on their hearts;

I will be their God,

and they will be my people.

11 “‘None of them will teach his fellow-citizen

or his brother, saying, “KnowAdonai!”

For all will know me,

from the least of them to the greatest,

12 because I will be merciful toward their wickednesses

and remember their sins no more.’”

13 By using the term, “new,” he has made the first covenant “old”; and something being made old, something in the process of aging, is on its way to vanishing altogether.

1 Now the first covenant had both regulations for worship and a Holy Place here on earth.

2 A tent was set up, the outer one, which was called the Holy Place; in it were themenorah, the table and the Bread of the Presence.

3 Behind the secondparokhetwas a tent called the Holiest Place,

4 which had the golden altar for burning incense and the Ark of the Covenant, entirely covered with gold. In the Ark were the gold jar containing theman, Aharon’s rod that sprouted and the stone Tablets of the Covenant;

5 and above it were thek’ruvimrepresenting theSh’khinah, casting their shadow on the lid of the Ark — but now is not the time to discuss these things in detail.

6 With things so arranged, thecohanimgo into the outer tent all the time to discharge their duties;

7 but only thecohen hagadolenters the inner one; and he goes in only once a year, and he must always bring blood, which he offers both for himself and for the sins committed in ignorance by the people.

8 By this arrangement, theRuach HaKodeshshowed that so long as the first Tent had standing, the way into the Holiest Place was still closed.

9 This symbolizes the present age and indicates that the conscience of the person performing the service cannot be brought to the goal by the gifts and sacrifices he offers.

10 For they involve only food and drink and various ceremonial washings — regulations concerning the outward life, imposed until the time for God to reshape the whole structure.

11 But when the Messiah appeared ascohen gadolof the good things that are happening already, then, through the greater and more perfect Tent which is not man-made (that is, it is not of this created world),

12 he entered the Holiest Place once and for all.

And he entered not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus setting people free forever.

13 For if sprinkling ceremonially unclean persons with the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer restores their outward purity;

14 then how much more the blood of the Messiah, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself to God as a sacrifice without blemish, will purify our conscience from works that lead to death, so that we can serve the living God!

15 It is because of this death that he is mediator of a new covenant [or will]. Because a death has occurred which sets people free from the transgressions committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.

16 For where there is a will, there must necessarily be produced evidence of its maker’s death,

17 since a will goes into effect only upon death; it never has force while its maker is still alive.

18 This is why the first covenant too was inaugurated with blood.

19 After Moshe had proclaimed every command of theTorahto all the people, he took the blood of the calves with some water and used scarlet wool and hyssop to sprinkle both the scroll itself and all the people;

20 and he said, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has ordained for you.”

21 Likewise, he sprinkled with the blood both the Tent and all the things used in its ceremonies.

22 In fact, according to theTorah, almost everything is purified with blood; indeed, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

23 Now this is how the copies of the heavenly things had to be purified, but the heavenly things themselves require better sacrifices than these.

24 For the Messiah has entered a Holiest Place which is not man-made and merely a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, in order to appear now on our behalf in the very presence of God.

25 Further, he did not enter heaven to offer himself over and over again, like thecohen hagadolwho enters the Holiest Place year after year with blood that is not his own;

26 for then he would have had to suffer death many times — from the founding of the universe on. But as it is, he has appeared once at the end of the ages in order to do away with sin through the sacrifice of himself.

27 Just as human beings have to die once, but after this comes judgment,

28 so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to deliver those who are eagerly waiting for him.

1 For theTorahhas in it a shadow of the good things to come, but not the actual manifestation of the originals. Therefore, it can never, by means of the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, bring to the goal those who approach the Holy Place to offer them.

2 Otherwise, wouldn’t the offering of those sacrifices have ceased? For if the people performing the service had been cleansed once and for all, they would no longer have sins on their conscience.

3 No, it is quite the contrary — in these sacrifices is a reminder of sins, year after year.

4 For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.

5 This is why, on coming into the world, he says,

“It has not been your will

to have an animal sacrifice and a meal offering;

rather, you have prepared for me a body.

6 No, you have not been pleased

with burnt offerings and sin offerings.

7 Then I said, ‘Look!

In the scroll of the book

it is written about me.

I have come to do your will.’”

8 In saying first, “You neither willed nor were pleased with animal sacrifices, meal offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings,” things which are offered in accordance with theTorah;

9 and then, “Look, I have come to do your will”; he takes away the first system in order to set up the second.

10 It is in connection with this will that we have been separated for God and made holy, once and for all, through the offering of Yeshua the Messiah’s body.

11 Now everycohenstands every day doing his service, offering over and over the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

12 But this one, after he had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, sat down at the right hand of God,

13 from then on to wait until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet.

14 For by a single offering he has brought to the goal for all time those who are being set apart for God and made holy.

15 And theRuach HaKodeshtoo bears witness to us; for after saying,

16 “ ‘This is the covenant which I will make

with them after those days,’ saysAdonai:

‘I will put myTorahon their hearts,

and write it on their minds . . . ,’ ”

17 he then adds,

“ ‘And their sins and their wickednesses

I will remember no more.’ ”

18 Now where there is forgiveness for these, an offering for sins is no longer needed.

19 So, brothers, we have confidence to use the way into the Holiest Place opened by the blood of Yeshua.

20 He inaugurated it for us as a new and living way through theparokhet, by means of his flesh.

21 We also have a greatcohenover God’s household.

22 Therefore, let us approach the Holiest Place with a sincere heart, in the full assurance that comes from trusting — with our hearts sprinkled clean from a bad conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

23 Let us continue holding fast to the hope we acknowledge, without wavering; for the One who made the promise is trustworthy.

24 And let us keep paying attention to one another, in order to spur each other on to love and good deeds,

25 not neglecting our own congregational meetings, as some have made a practice of doing, but, rather, encouraging each other.

And let us do this all the more as you see the Day approaching.

26 For if we deliberately continue to sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

27 but only the terrifying prospect of Judgment, of raging fire that will consume the enemies.

28 Someone who disregards theTorahof Moshe is put to death without mercy on the word of two or three witnesses.

29 Think how much worse will be the punishment deserved by someone who has trampled underfoot the Son of God; who has treated as something common the blood of the covenant which made him holy; and who has insulted the Spirit, giver of God’s grace!

30 For the One we know is the One who said,

“Vengeance is my responsibility;

I will repay,”

and then said,

“Adonaiwill judge his people.”

31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!

32 But remember the earlier days, when, after you had received the light, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings.

33 Sometimes you were publicly disgraced and persecuted, while at other times you stood loyally by those who were treated this way.

34 For you shared the sufferings of those who had been put in prison. Also when your possessions were seized, you accepted it gladly; since you knew that what you possessed was better and would last forever.

35 So don’t throw away that courage of yours, which carries with it such a great reward.

36 For you need to hold out; so that, by having done what God wills, you may receive what he has promised.

37 For

“There is so, so little time!

The One coming will indeed come,

he will not delay.

38 But the person who is righteous

will live his life by trusting,

and if he shrinks back,

I will not be pleased with him.”

39 However, we are not the kind who shrink back and are destroyed; on the contrary, we keep trusting and thus preserve our lives!

1 Trusting is being confident of what we hope for, convinced about things we do not see.

2 It was for this that Scripture attested the merit of the people of old.

3 By trusting, we understand that the universe was created through a spoken word of God, so that what is seen did not come into being out of existing phenomena.

4 By trusting, Hevel offered a greater sacrifice than Kayin; because of this, he was attested as righteous, with God giving him this testimony on the ground of his gifts. Through having trusted, he still continues to speak, even though he is dead.

5 By trusting, Hanokh was taken away from this life without seeing death — “He was not to be found, because God took him away” — for he has been attested as having been, prior to being taken away, well pleasing to God.

6 And without trusting, it is impossible to be well pleasing to God, because whoever approaches him must trust that he does exist and that he becomes a Rewarder to those who seek him out.

7 By trusting, Noach, after receiving divine warning about things as yet unseen, was filled with holy fear and built an ark to save his household. Through this trusting, he put the world under condemnation and received the righteousness that comes from trusting.

8 By trusting, Avraham obeyed, after being called to go out to a place which God would give him as a possession; indeed, he went out without knowing where he was going.

9 By trusting, he lived as a temporary resident in the Land of the promise, as if it were not his, staying in tents with Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov, who were to receive what was promised along with him.

10 For he was looking forward to the city with permanent foundations, of which the architect and builder is God.

11 By trusting, he received potency to father a child, even when he was past the age for it, as was Sarah herself; because he regarded the One who had made the promise as trustworthy.

12 Therefore this one man, who was virtually dead, fathered descendants

as numerous as the stars in the sky,

and as countless as the grains of the sand on the seashore.

13 All these people kept on trusting until they died, without receiving what had been promised. They had only seen it and welcomed it from a distance, while acknowledging that they were aliens and temporary residents on the earth.

14 For people who speak this way make it clear that they are looking for a fatherland.

15 Now if they were to keep recalling the one they left, they would have an opportunity to return;

16 but as it is, they aspire to a better fatherland, a heavenly one. This is why God is not ashamed to be calledtheirGod, for he has prepared for them a city.

17 By trusting, Avraham, when he was put to the test, offered up Yitz’chak as a sacrifice. Yes, he offered up his only son, he who had received the promises,

18 to whom it had been said, “What is called your ‘seed’ will be in Yitz’chak.”

19 For he had concluded that God could even raise people from the dead! And, figuratively speaking, he did so receive him.

20 By trusting, Yitz’chak in his blessings over Ya‘akov and Esav made reference to events yet to come.

21 By trusting, Ya‘akov, when he was dying, blessed each of Yosef’s sons, leaning on his walking-stick as he bowed in prayer.

22 By trusting, Yosef, near the end of his life, remembered about the Exodus of the people of Isra’el and gave instructions about what to do with his bones.

23 By trusting, the parents of Moshe hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw that he was a beautiful child, and they weren’t afraid of the king’s decree.

24 By trusting, Moshe, after he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.

25 He chose being mistreated along with God’s people rather than enjoying the passing pleasures of sin.

26 He had come to regard abuse suffered on behalf of the Messiah as greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he kept his eyes fixed on the reward.

27 By trusting, he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered as one who sees the unseen.

28 By trusting, he obeyed the requirements for thePesach, including the smearing of the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Isra’el.

29 By trusting, they walked through the Red Sea as through dry land; when the Egyptians tried to do it, the sea swallowed them up.

30 By trusting, the walls of Yericho fell down — after the people had marched around them for seven days.

31 By trusting, Rachav the prostitute welcomed the spies and therefore did not die along with those who were disobedient.

32 What more should I say? There isn’t time to tell about Gid‘on, Barak, Shimshon, Yiftach, David, Sh’mu’el and the prophets;

33 who, through trusting, conquered kingdoms, worked righteousness, received what was promised, shut the mouths of lions,

34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, had their weakness turned to strength, grew mighty in battle and routed foreign armies.

35 Women received back their dead resurrected; other people were stretched on the rack and beaten to death, refusing to be ransomed, so that they would gain a better resurrection.

36 Others underwent the trials of being mocked and whipped, then chained and imprisoned.

37 They were stoned, sawed in two, murdered by the sword; they went about clothed in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, mistreated,

38 wandering about in deserts and mountains, living in caves and holes in the ground! The world was not worthy of them!

39 All of these had their merit attested because of their trusting. Nevertheless, they did not receive what had been promised,

40 because God had planned something better that would involve us, so that only with us would they be brought to the goal.

1 So then, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us, too, put aside every impediment — that is, the sin which easily hampers our forward movement — and keep running with endurance in the contest set before us,

2 looking away to the Initiator and Completer of that trusting, Yeshua — who, in exchange for obtaining the joy set before him, endured execution on a stake as a criminal, scorning the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3 Yes, think about him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you won’t grow tired or become despondent.

4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in the contest against sin.

5 Also you have forgotten the counsel which speaks with you as sons:

“My son, don’t despise the discipline ofAdonai

or become despondent when he corrects you.

6 ForAdonaidisciplines those he loves

and whips everyone he accepts as a son.”

7 Regard your endurance as discipline; God is dealing with you as sons. For what son goes undisciplined by his father?

8 All legitimate sons undergo discipline; so if you don’t, you’re amamzerand not a son!

9 Furthermore, we had physical fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them; how much more should we submit to our spiritual Father and live!

10 For they disciplined us only for a short time and only as best they could; but he disciplines us in a way that provides genuine benefit to us and enables us to share in his holiness.

11 Now, all discipline, while it is happening, does indeed seem painful, not enjoyable; but for those who have been trained by it, it later produces its peaceful fruit, which is righteousness.

12 So,

strengthen your drooping arms,

and steady your tottering knees;

13 and

make a level path for your feet;

so that what has been injured will not get wrenched out of joint but rather will be healed.

14 Keep pursuingshalomwith everyone and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

15 See to it that no one misses out on God’s grace, that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble and thus contaminates many,

16 and that no one is sexually immoral, or godless like Esav, who in exchange for a single meal gave up his rights as the firstborn.

17 For you know that afterwards, when he wanted to obtain his father’s blessing, he was rejected; indeed, even though he sought it with tears, his change of heart was to no avail.

18 For you have not come to a tangible mountain, to an ignited fire, to darkness, to murk, to a whirlwind,

19 to the sound of ashofar, and to a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further message be given to them —

20 for they couldn’t bear what was being commanded them, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it is to be stoned to death”;

21 and so terrifying was the sight that Moshe said, “I am quaking with dread.”

22 On the contrary, you have come to Mount Tziyon, that is, the city of the living God, heavenly Yerushalayim; to myriads of angels in festive assembly;

23 to a community of the firstborn whose names have been recorded in heaven; to a Judge who is God of everyone; to spirits of righteous people who have been brought to the goal;

24 to the mediator of a new covenant, Yeshua; and to the sprinkled blood that speaks better things than that of Hevel.

25 See that you don’t reject the One speaking! For if those did not escape who rejected him when he gave divine warning on earth, think how much less we will escape if we turn away from him when he warns from heaven.

26 Even then, his voice shook the earth; but now, he has made this promise:

“One more time I will shake

not only the earth, but heaven too!”

27 And this phrase, “one more time,” makes clear that the things shaken are removed, since they are created things, so that the things not shaken may remain.

28 Therefore, since we have received an unshakeable Kingdom, let us have grace, through which we may offer service that will please God, with reverence and fear.

29 For indeed,

“Our God is a consuming fire!”

1 Let brotherly friendship continue;

2 but don’t forget to be friendly to outsiders; for in so doing, some people, without knowing it, have entertained angels.

3 Remember those in prison and being mistreated, as if you were in prison with them and undergoing their torture yourselves.

4 Marriage is honorable in every respect; and, in particular, sex within marriage is pure. But God will indeed punish fornicators and adulterers.

5 Keep your lives free from the love of money; and be satisfied with what you have; for God himself has said, “I will never fail you or abandon you.”

6 Therefore, we say with confidence,

“Adonaiis my helper; I will not be afraid —

what can a human being do to me?”

7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke God’s message to you. Reflect on the results of their way of life, and imitate their trust —

8 Yeshua the Messiah is the same yesterday, today and forever.

9 Do not be carried away by various strange teachings; for what is good is for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods. People who have made these the focus of their lives have not benefited thereby.

10 We have an altar from which those who serve in the Tent are not permitted to eat.

11 For thecohen hagadolbrings the blood of animals into the Holiest Place as a sin offering, but their bodies are burned outside the camp.

12 So too Yeshua suffered death outside the gate, in order to make the people holy through his own blood.

13 Therefore, let us go out to him who is outside the camp and share his disgrace.

14 For we have no permanent city here; on the contrary, we seek the one to come.

15 Through him, therefore, let us offer God a sacrifice of praise continually. For this is the natural product of lips that acknowledge his name.

16 But don’t forget doing good and sharing with others, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your lives, as people who will have to render an account. So make it a task of joy for them, not one of groaning; for that is of no advantage to you.

18 Keep praying for us, for we are certain that we have a clear conscience and want to conduct ourselves properly in everything we do.

19 And all the more I beg you to do this, so that I may be restored to you that much sooner.

20 The God ofshalombrought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Yeshua, by the blood of an eternal covenant.

21 May that God equip you with every good thing you need to do his will; and may he do in us whatever pleases him, through Yeshua the Messiah. To him be the glory forever and ever.Amen.

22 Now I urge you, brothers, to bear with my message of exhortation; for I have written you only briefly.

23 Know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he comes soon enough, I will bring him with me when I come to see you.

24 Greet all your leaders and all God’s people. The people from Italy send greetings to you.

25 Grace be with you all.