9:1  Now even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary.

9:2  For people prepared a tabernacle, the outer one, in which stood the lampstand and the table and the sacred bread; this we called the holy place.

9:3  Behind the second veil there stood a tabernacle which we called the Holy of Holies,

9:4  having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which stood a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron's rod which budded, and the tables of the covenant;

9:5  and above it appeared the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat; but of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

9:6  Now when people have prepared these things, the priests continually enter the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship,

9:7  but into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance.

9:8  The Holy Spirit signifies this, that the way into the holy place has not yet become disclosed while the outer tabernacle still stands,

9:9  which serves as a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices priests offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience,

9:10  since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation.

9:11  But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, in other words, not of this creation;

9:12  and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

9:13  For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have become defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh,

9:14  how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

9:15  For this reason He serves as the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that people committed under the first covenant, those who God called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

9:16  For where a covenant takes place, there must of necessity occur the death of the one who made it.

9:17  For a covenant becomes valid only when men die, for it had never become enforced while the one who made it lives.

9:18  Therefore even the first covenant had not become inaugurated without blood.

9:19  For after Moses had spoken every commandment to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,

9:20  saying, "THIS REPRESENTS THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT WHICH GOD COMMANDED YOU."

9:21  And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood.

9:22  And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things become cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood no forgiveness takes place.

9:23  Therefore it became necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to become cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

9:24  For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;

9:25  nor would HE offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that does not belong to him.

9:26  Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He manifested Himself to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

9:27  And inasmuch as men have an appointment to die once and after this comes judgment,

9:28  so Christ also, having offered himself once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.