1 In many parts, and many ways, God of old having spoken to the fathers in the prophets,

² in these last days did speak to us in a Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He did make the ages;

³ who being the brightness of the glory, and the impress of His subsistence, bearing up also the all things by the saying of his might -- through himself having made a cleansing of our sins, sat down at the right hand of the greatness in the highest,

⁴ having become so much better than the messengers, as he did inherit a more excellent name than they.

⁵ For to which of the messengers said He ever, `My Son thou art -- I to-day have begotten thee?' and again, `I will be to him for a father, and he shall be to Me for a son?'

⁶ and when again He may bring in the first-born to the world, He saith, `And let them bow before him -- all messengers of God;'

⁷ and unto the messengers, indeed, He saith, `Who is making His messengers spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire;'

⁸ and unto the Son: `Thy throne, O God, [is] to the age of the age; a scepter of righteousness [is] the scepter of thy reign;

⁹ thou didst love righteousness, and didst hate lawlessness; because of this did He anoint thee -- God, thy God -- with oil of gladness above thy partners;'

¹⁰ and, `Thou, at the beginning, Lord, the earth didst found, and a work of thy hands are the heavens;

¹¹ these shall perish, and Thou dost remain, and all, as a garment, shall become old,

¹² and as a mantle Thou shall roll them together, and they shall be changed, and Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail.'

¹³ And unto which of the messengers said He ever, `Sit at My right hand, till I may make thine enemies thy footstool?'

¹⁴ are they not all spirits of service -- for ministration being sent forth because of those about to inherit salvation?

2 Because of this it behoveth [us] more abundantly to take heed to the things heard, lest we may glide aside,

² for if the word being spoken through messengers did become stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience did receive a just recompense,

³ how shall we escape, having neglected so great salvation? which a beginning receiving -- to be spoken through the Lord -- by those having heard was confirmed to us,

⁴ God also bearing joint-witness both with signs and wonders, and manifold powers, and distributions of the Holy Spirit, according to His will.

⁵ For not to messengers did He subject the coming world, concerning which we speak,

⁶ and one in a certain place did testify fully, saying, `What is man, that Thou art mindful of him, or a son of man, that Thou dost look after him?

⁷ Thou didst make him some little less than messengers, with glory and honour Thou didst crown him, and didst set him over the works of Thy hands,

⁸ all things Thou didst put in subjection under his feet,' for in the subjecting to him the all things, nothing did He leave to him unsubjected, and now not yet do we see the all things subjected to him,

⁹ and him who was made some little less than messengers we see -- Jesus -- because of the suffering of the death, with glory and honour having been crowned, that by the grace of God for every one he might taste of death.

¹⁰ For it was becoming to Him, because of whom [are] the all things, and through whom [are] the all things, many sons to glory bringing, the author of their salvation through sufferings to make perfect,

¹¹ for both he who is sanctifying and those sanctified [are] all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,

¹² saying, `I will declare Thy name to my brethren, in the midst of an assembly I will sing praise to Thee;' and again, `I will be trusting on Him;'

¹³ and again, `Behold I and the children that God did give to me.'

¹⁴ Seeing, then, the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself also in like manner did take part of the same, that through death he might destroy him having the power of death -- that is, the devil --

¹⁵ and might deliver those, whoever, with fear of death, throughout all their life, were subjects of bondage,

¹⁶ for, doubtless, of messengers it doth not lay hold, but of seed of Abraham it layeth hold,

¹⁷ wherefore it did behove him in all things to be made like to the brethren, that he might become a kind and stedfast chief-priest in the things with God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people,

¹⁸ for in that he suffered, himself being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.

3 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the apostle and chief priest of our profession, Christ Jesus,

² being stedfast to Him who did appoint him, as also Moses in all his house,

³ for of more glory than Moses hath this one been counted worthy, inasmuch as more honour than the house hath he who doth build it,

⁴ for every house is builded by some one, and He who the all things did build [is] God,

⁵ and Moses indeed [was] stedfast in all his house, as an attendant, for a testimony of those things that were to be spoken,

⁶ and Christ, as a Son over his house, whose house are we, if the boldness and the rejoicing of the hope unto the end we hold fast.

⁷ Wherefore, (as the Holy Spirit saith, `To-day, if His voice ye may hear --

⁸ ye may not harden your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of the temptation in the wilderness,

⁹ in which tempt Me did your fathers, they did prove Me, and saw My works forty years;

¹⁰ wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, Always do they go astray in heart, and these have not known My ways;

¹¹ so I sware in My anger, If they shall enter into My rest -- !')

¹² See, brethren, lest there shall be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in the falling away from the living God,

¹³ but exhort ye one another every day, while the To-day is called, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of the sin,

¹⁴ for partakers we have become of the Christ, if the beginning of the confidence unto the end we may hold fast,

¹⁵ in its being said, `To-day, if His voice ye may hear, ye may not harden your hearts, as in the provocation,'

¹⁶ for certain having heard did provoke, but not all who did come out of Egypt through Moses;

¹⁷ but with whom was He grieved forty years? was it not with those who did sin, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?

¹⁸ and to whom did He swear that they shall not enter into His rest, except to those who did not believe? --

¹⁹ and we see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.

4 We may fear, then, lest a promise being left of entering into His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short,

² for we also are having good news proclaimed, even as they, but the word heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard,

³ for we do enter into the rest -- we who did believe, as He said, `So I sware in My anger, If they shall enter into My rest -- ;' and yet the works were done from the foundation of the world,

⁴ for He spake in a certain place concerning the seventh [day] thus: `And God did rest in the seventh day from all His works;'

⁵ and in this [place] again, `If they shall enter into My rest -- ;'

⁶ since then, it remaineth for certain to enter into it, and those who did first hear good news entered not in because of unbelief --

⁷ again He doth limit a certain day, `To-day,' (in David saying, after so long a time,) as it hath been said, `To-day, if His voice ye may hear, ye may not harden your hearts,'

⁸ for if Joshua had given them rest, He would not concerning another day have spoken after these things;

⁹ there doth remain, then, a sabbatic rest to the people of God,

¹⁰ for he who did enter into his rest, he also rested from his works, as God from His own.

¹¹ May we be diligent, then, to enter into that rest, that no one in the same example of the unbelief may fall,

¹² for the reckoning of God is living, and working, and sharp above every two-edged sword, and piercing unto the dividing asunder both of soul and spirit, of joints also and marrow, and a discerner of thoughts and intents of the heart;

¹³ and there is not a created thing not manifest before Him, but all things [are] naked and open to His eyes -- with whom is our reckoning.

¹⁴ Having, then, a great chief priest passed through the heavens -- Jesus the Son of God -- may we hold fast the profession,

¹⁵ for we have not a chief priest unable to sympathise with our infirmities, but [one] tempted in all things in like manner -- apart from sin;

¹⁶ we may come near, then, with freedom, to the throne of the grace, that we may receive kindness, and find grace -- for seasonable help.

5 For every chief priest -- out of men taken -- in behalf of men is set in things [pertaining] to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins,

² able to be gentle to those ignorant and going astray, since himself also is compassed with infirmity;

³ and because of this infirmity he ought, as for the people, so also for himself to offer for sins;

⁴ and no one to himself doth take the honour, but he who is called by God, as also Aaron:

⁵ so also the Christ did not glorify himself to become chief priest, but He who spake unto him: `My Son thou art, I to-day have begotten thee;'

⁶ as also in another [place] He saith, `Thou [art] a priest -- to the age, according to the order of Melchisedek;'

⁷ who in the days of his flesh both prayers and supplications unto Him who was able to save him from death -- with strong crying and tears -- having offered up, and having been heard in respect to that which he feared,

⁸ through being a Son, did learn by the things which he suffered -- the obedience,

⁹ and having been made perfect, he did become to all those obeying him a cause of salvation age-during,

¹⁰ having been addressed by God a chief priest, according to the order of Melchisedek,

¹¹ concerning whom we have much discourse and of hard explanation to say, since ye have become dull of hearing,

¹² for even owing to be teachers, because of the time, again ye have need that one teach you what [are] the elements of the beginning of the oracles of God, and ye have become having need of milk, and not of strong food,

¹³ for every one who is partaking of milk [is] unskilled in the word of righteousness -- for he is an infant,

¹⁴ and of perfect men is the strong food, who because of the use are having the senses exercised, unto the discernment both of good and of evil.

6 Wherefore, having left the word of the beginning of the Christ, unto the perfection we may advance, not again a foundation laying of reformation from dead works, and of faith on God,

² of the teaching of baptisms, of laying on also of hands, of rising again also of the dead, and of judgment age-during,

³ and this we will do, if God may permit,

⁴ for [it is] impossible for those once enlightened, having tasted also of the heavenly gift, and partakers having became of the Holy Spirit,

⁵ and did taste the good saying of God, the powers also of the coming age,

⁶ and having fallen away, again to renew [them] to reformation, having crucified again to themselves the Son of God, and exposed to public shame.

⁷ For earth, that is drinking in the rain many times coming upon it, and is bringing forth herbs fit for those because of whom also it is dressed, doth partake of blessing from God,

⁸ and that which is bearing thorns and briers [is] disapproved of, and nigh to cursing, whose end [is] for burning;

⁹ and we are persuaded, concerning you, beloved, the things that are better, and accompanying salvation, though even thus we speak,

¹⁰ for God is not unrighteous to forget your work, and the labour of the love, that ye shewed to His name, having ministered to the saints and ministering;

¹¹ and we desire each one of you the same diligence to shew, unto the full assurance of the hope unto the end,

¹² that ye may not become slothful, but followers of those who through faith and patient endurance are inheriting the promises.

¹³ For to Abraham God, having made promise, seeing He was able to swear by no greater, did swear by Himself,

¹⁴ saying, `Blessing indeed I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee;'

¹⁵ and so, having patiently endured, he did obtain the promise;

¹⁶ for men indeed do swear by the greater, and an end of all controversy to them for confirmation [is] the oath,

¹⁷ in which God, more abundantly willing to shew to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, did interpose by an oath,

¹⁸ that through two immutable things, in which [it is] impossible for God to lie, a strong comfort we may have who did flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before [us],

¹⁹ which we have, as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and entering into that within the vail,

²⁰ whither a forerunner for us did enter -- Jesus, after the order of Melchisedek chief priest having become -- to the age.