¹⁷ What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years^(A) later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.

²⁴ These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.

⁶ But in fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant^(A) of which he is mediator^(B) is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises.

⁷ For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.^{(C) 8} But God found fault with the people and said^[a]:

²⁹ How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God^(A) underfoot,^(B) who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant^(C) that sanctified them,^(D) and who has insulted the Spirit^(E) of grace?^(F)

²⁴ to Jesus the mediator^(A) of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood^(B) that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.^(C)

Benediction and Final Greetings

²⁰ Now may the God of peace,^(A) who through the blood of the eternal covenant^(B) brought back from the dead^(C) our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,^(D)