Hebrews

¹ After God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets long ago in many pieces and in many ways, ² in these last days, God spoke to us through a son, whom God designated as heir of everything and through whom God made the Age. ³ Since the son is the shining projection of God's praiseworthy presence and the engraved image of God's fundamental nature, and he sustains everything with his powerful speech, he sat at the prestigious right hand in high places after accomplishing a cleansing of deviations. ⁴ So he became as much more important than the messengers as he has inherited a superior name compared with them.

⁵ You see, to which of the messengers did God ever say, “You are my son. Today I have birthed you”? Or again, “I will become a father to him, and he will become a son to me”? ⁶ But when God brings the firstborn into the inhabited land again, God says to have “all God’s messengers bow down to him,” ⁷ and, while God says for the messengers, “The one who makes the winds their messengers and fiery flames their attendants,” ⁸ in contrast, for the son, God says, “God, your throne is throughout age after age, and the scepter of your reign is a straight scepter. ⁹ You loved justness and loathed torahlessness; because of this, God—your God—anointed you with oil of celebration beyond your partners.” ¹⁰ Also, “You laid the foundation for the land at the beginning, Lord, and the heavens are the work of your hands. ¹¹ They will come to ruin, but you continue on, and the entire things will wear out like clothing, ¹² and you will fold them up as if they were a robe, and they will be replaced like clothing, but you are the same, and your years will never come to an end.” ¹³ But, for which of the messengers has God ever said, “Sit at my right, until I place your enemies as footstools for your feet”? ¹⁴ Aren’t they all attending winds who are sent to serve among those who are going to inherit liberation?

¹ Because of this, it is necessary for us to give more attention to the things we heard, so we won’t slip. ² If the message that was spoken through messengers came to be stable and if every sidestep and refusal to listen has received its just restitution, ³ then how will we get out of it while ignoring such a widespread liberation, which has been received beginning when it was spoken by the Lord and confirmed for us by those who listened to him, ⁴ by God who joined with them in providing evidence with both signs and wonders as well as various powerful acts specifically distributed by the Sacred Life-breath based on God’s intent?

⁵ God did not coordinate the coming world that we are talking about under messengers, ⁶ but someone provided evidence somewhere:

“What is humanity that you call them to mind,

Or a son of humanity that you look after him?

⁷⁠You made him weaker than messengers for a little while,

You bestowed him with the laurel wreath with renown and honor,

⁸⁠you coordinated everything under his feet.”

You see, with the coordination of everything under him, God left nothing uncoordinated under him. For now, we don’t yet see everything coordinated under him, ⁹ but we see Jesus—who was made weaker than the messengers for a little while—bestowed with the laurel wreath with renown and honor, through fatal suffering, so that with God’s generosity, he would experience death for everyone’s sake.

¹⁰ It was fitting for him, because of whom everything exists and through whom everything exists, to finish bringing many children to renown after beginning their liberation through his sufferings. ¹¹ Both the one who designates for sacred purposes and the ones being designated for sacred purposes are all from one family; that’s why he is not ashamed to call them family members ¹² when saying, “I will announce your name to my family members, in the middle of the assembly I will sing your praise,” ¹³ and again, “I will be confident about God,” and again, “Here am I and the children God gave me.”

¹⁴ Then, since the children have a shared flesh and blood in common, he also similarly shared in theirs so that—through death—he could take away the power of the one who holds the power of death (that is, the False Accuser), ¹⁵ and could set free those who were subjected to enslavement throughout their lives by fear of death. ¹⁶ Clearly, he doesn’t lay claim to messengers, but instead Abraham’s seed. ¹⁷ That’s why he owed it to be made like the members of the Family in everything, so that he could become a compassionately committed and faithful high priest and bring all of it to God to make peace regarding the deviations of the people. ¹⁸ Since with what he has suffered when going through trials, he can help those who are going through trials.

¹ Because of that, sacred members of the Family, sharers in the calling of the highest heavens, direct your minds toward Jesus, the emissary and high priest whom we openly acknowledge, ² who is faithful to the one who appointed him, as Moses also was appointed in God's House. ³ He has been deemed deserving of more renown than Moses, in proportion with how much more honor the builder of the house has than the house has. ⁴ Every house is built by someone, but God is the one who builds everything. ⁵ While, certainly, Moses was faithful “throughout God's whole House” as an attendant reporting the things that would be spoken, ⁶ Messiah’s faithfulness is as a son over God's House. We are of God's House if we hold onto the courage to speak and vocal confidence of hope.

⁷ Because of that, just like the Sacred Life-Breath says,

“If you hear God's voice today

⁸⁠Do not harden your hearts as in the time of bitter hostility,

in the day of testing in the wilderness

⁹⁠Where your ancestors tested and scrutinized me,

and they saw my actions for forty years

¹⁰⁠That’s why I was outraged by that generation,

and I said, ‘They are always being led off course by their hearts,

and they did not understand my paths.’

¹¹⁠As I swore in my anger,

‘They will absolutely not come into my rest!’”

¹² Family, watch out so that a destructive, faithless heart that withdraws itself from God-Who-Is-Alive will not be within any of you. ¹³ Instead, encourage each other each day as long as it’s still called ‘today,’ so that none of you would be hardened by Deviation’s tricks. ¹⁴ We have become sharers with Messiah if we hold onto the beginning from its founding until the end is stable. ¹⁵ As it says, “If you hear God's voice today, do not harden your hearts as in the time of bitter hostility.” ¹⁶ You see, who acted with bitter hostility after hearing? Wasn’t it everyone who came out of Egypt by Moses’ actions? ¹⁷ And with which people was God outraged for forty years? Wasn’t it those who deviated, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸ And about which people did God swear they would not come into God's rest if not those who refused to be persuaded? ¹⁹ And we see that they were not able to come in because of faithlessness.

¹ Therefore, we should be conscientiously concerned so that none among you would seem to have been left out, since the promise to come into God's rest remains available. ² You see, we are also people who have received the announcement of the triumphant message just like they are. However, the message they heard did not help them, since they haven’t become interconnected through the faithfulness of those who listened to it. ³ We who are faithful came into the rest—even though God has said, “As I swore in my anger, ‘They will absolutely not come into my rest!’”—just like the activities that came into being at the founding of the whole world. ⁴ This is how God has spoken somewhere about the seventh day: “And God rested on the seventh day from all God's work activities,” ⁵ even, again, with this: “They will absolutely not come into my rest!”

⁶ Therefore, since it is still left for some people to come into it, and the ones who were previously given the triumphant message did not come in because of stubborn refusal to be persuaded, ⁷ God is again designating a specific day—"today”—speaking through David after so much time, just as he previously said, “If you hear his voice today, do not harden your hearts” ⁸ If Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken about another day after those things. ⁹ So, a Shabbat observance is still left for the people of God. ¹⁰ Whoever comes into God’s rest also rests from their work activities just like God did from God's own work. ¹¹ Therefore, we should give effort toward coming into that rest so that no one would fall into the same model of stubborn refusal to be persuaded.

¹² You see, the message of God is alive and active and sharper than any double-edged short sword, penetrating enough to separate living being and life-breath, joints and marrow, and able to discern thoughts and considerations of the heart. ¹³ No creation is obscured from God's vantage point but everything exposed and stripped bare to the eyes of the one with whom the message is for us.

¹⁴ Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has traveled through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, we should hold onto our acknowledgement of him. ¹⁵ We don’t have a high priest who is not able to sympathize with our vulnerability, but who has been subjected to all manner of trials without deviation. ¹⁶ Therefore, we may go up to the generous throne with courage to speak so we may receive loving faithfulness and find generosity for well-timed help.

¹ Every high priest, since they are selected from humanity, is appointed to represent humanity to God in everything, so they may present both gifts and sacrificial offerings for deviations, ² and are able to respond thoughtfully to those who don’t understand and wander from the path since they are also clothed with vulnerability, ³ and because of this they owe it, they owe it regarding themselves as well as regarding the people, to present the gifts and sacrificial offerings for deviations. ⁴ No one takes this honor for themselves, but rather they are called by God just like Aaron was.

⁵ Likewise, the Messiah did not presume to become high priest himself, instead, it was the one who said to him, “You are my son. Today I have birthed you.” ⁶ Similarly, it says in another place, “You are a priest throughout the Age based on the order of Melchizedek.” ⁷ During his bodily days, the Messiah presented both requests and appeals with loud cries and tears to one who is able to liberate him from death, and he was listened to because of conscientious respectfulness. ⁸ Even though he was a son, he learned to listen from the things he suffered. ⁹ After he was brought to maturity, he became the cause of agelong liberation for everyone who listens to him, ¹⁰ since he was publicly appointed by God as high priest based on the order of Melchizedek.

¹¹ There is much to say about this message, and it is difficult to explain since you have become reluctant to listen. ¹² Although you’re due to be teachers by this time, you again need someone to teach you the basic principles from the beginning of the discussions of God and have come to be in need of milk, not solid food. ¹³ Everyone who partakes of milk isn’t experienced in the discussion of justness because they are infants. ¹⁴ But, the solid food is for those who are mature, those who have insights that have been trained through dedicated exercise for discerning between what’s helpful and what’s harmful.

¹ That’s why after moving on from the beginner discussion of the Messiah, we can be brought to maturity, not laying a foundation over again of transforming the mind away from actions aligned with death, of faithfulness to God, ² of teaching about ritual washings, about placing hands on people, and about both the reawakening of the dead and the Age-aligned rectification. ³ We will do this only if God permits it. ⁴ You see, it is impossible for those who were enlightened once, who tasted the heavenly gift and became partakers of the Sacred Life-breath, ⁵ who tasted both God’s beautiful talk and powerful acts of the coming Age, ⁶ and who fell off the path, to restore them by transforming the mind while they are exposing to public shame and crucifying the son of God over again among themselves. ⁷ You see, the land that drank up the rain that frequently falls on it and produces plants available for those who tend it receives a share of the pronouncement of well-being from God. ⁸ However, when it produces thorns and thistles, it is appraised as unfit and approaching a declaration of hardship, the end of which is burning.

⁹ But even though we speak this way, loved ones, we are convinced of better things about you, specifically of holding onto liberation ¹⁰ because God is not unjust, forgetting your work and love that you demonstrated as God's representatives, since you have served and continue to serve those who are designated to sacred purposes. ¹¹ But, we deeply desire each of you to demonstrate the same eagerness for full confidence in our hope until the end ¹² so that you won’t become reluctant, but instead, would be imitators of those who inherit the promises through faithfulness and patient perseverance.

¹³ When God made a promise to Abraham, having nothing more significant to swear by, God swore by themself, ¹⁴ “I will certainly pronounce well-being over you and increase your flourishing!” ¹⁵ And that’s how, after patiently persevering, he came upon the promise. ¹⁶ People swear by something greater than themselves, and the oath is a termination of any opportunity for response against agreement between them. ¹⁷ Regarding the promise, because God intended thoroughly to demonstrate an irrevocable intention to the heirs of the promise, God intervened with an oath. ¹⁸ That way, because of it being impossible for God to lie about these two irrevocable things, we who have sought refuge have strong encouragement to hold firmly onto the hope that has been presented. ¹⁹ That hope is like an anchor that we have for our very being, both reliable and stable, that extends into the inner room behind the curtain, ²⁰ where Jesus entered as a forerunner on our behalf since he became “a high priest based on the order of Melchizedek throughout the Age.”

¹ You see, this Melchizedek, King of Salem, priest of the highest God, met Abraham while returning from the slaughter of the kings and spoke well over him, ² and Abraham gave him the tenth of everything as his portion. First, his name means ‘king of justness,’ and on top of that, he is also King of Salem, which means ‘king of peace.’ ³ He is fatherless, motherless, without a record of his lineage, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but having acted like the Son of God, he remains a priest permanently.

⁴ Notice how honored this person was to whom Abraham, our original ancestor, gave a tenth of the loot. ⁵ Also, those who are descended from Levi and receive the priesthood have a direction for the people to give them a tenth based on Torah, even though they are their family and came from Abraham’s groin. ⁶ Yet, this person, who is not of their lineage, has received a tenth from Abraham and has pronounced well-being over the one who held the promise. ⁷ Without any contradiction, the one with the lower status receives a pronouncement of well-being over them from the one with the higher status. ⁸ In the first case, people who die receive a tenth, but in the second case, one who is reported to be alive receives it. ⁹ And with that being said, even Levi, who receives them, gave a tenth through Abraham ¹⁰ since he was still in the groin of his ancestor when Melchizedek met with him.

¹¹ Therefore, if completion really was through the Levitical priesthood (since the people received Torah by means of it), why is there still need to speak about raising up a different priest based on the order of Melchizedek and not based on the order of Aaron? ¹² When the priesthood is transferred, a transfer of Torah also happens out of necessity ¹³ since the one about whom these things are said has had a share in a different tribe from which no one has ever approached the altar. ¹⁴ It’s clear that our Lord arose out of Judah, and Moses said nothing about priests in connection with that tribe. ¹⁵ And even more plainly clear is that if a different priest is raised up who resembles Melchizedek, ¹⁶ then they have not come to be a priest based on Torah, from a directive about family line, but instead based on the power of life that isn’t cut short ¹⁷ since it is reported that “You are a priest throughout the Age based on the order of Melchizedek.”

¹⁸ In one way, an earlier directive is rejected because of being weak and ineffective ¹⁹ (Torah did not make anyone complete), but in another way, it is a coming beside of a more beneficial hope through which we come closer to God. ²⁰ In fact, it went so far as to include taking an oath. While the ones who had already been made priests were made so without an oath being taken, ²¹ in contrast, this one was made priest after an oath was taken by the one who said to him, “The LORD swears an oath and will not have a change of heart: ‘You are a priest throughout the Age.’” ²² Jesus has become the guarantor of an arrangement that is so much more effective.

²³ And while, since they were prevented by death from continuing in it, there have been many who were made priests, ²⁴ in contrast, he holds a permanent priesthood because he stays present throughout the Age. ²⁵ That’s how he’s able to completely liberate those who approach God through him: always being alive to make an appeal on their behalf.

²⁶ A high priest such as this was fitting for us: one who is ethical, does no harm to people, is uncorrupted, who has been differentiated from deviators, and who came to be higher than the heavens. ²⁷ Unlike those high priests do, he doesn’t need, first, to offer a sacrifice for his own deviations and, then, for the people each day. That’s because he did it all at once when he offered himself. ²⁸ Torah appoints people as high priests who lack sufficient power, but what was spoken after Torah with the swearing of an oath appoints the son, who has been made complete, for the duration of the Age.

¹ Now, the summary of the point being made is this: We have this kind of high priest, one who sat to the right of the prestigious throne in the heavens, ² a representative for performing ritual service with the sacred things and the true tabernacle which the Lord, not humanity, assembled. ³ Every high priest is appointed both to offer gifts and present sacrificial offerings. That’s why this one having something he could offer is necessary. ⁴ Therefore, if he were on the earth then he would not be a priest, since then he would be one of the ones who offer gifts based on Torah. ⁵ They serve as representatives, a symbol and silhouette, of the heavenly things just as Moses was instructed when he was about to complete the tabernacle. God said, “See that you do everything based on the model I showed you on the mountain.” ⁶ However, at this point, this one has hit the target of an unparalleled performance of representative service, which is as much more effective as the covenant that he mediates is more effective, and which has been prescribed on a more effective promise.

⁷ You see, if that first one were free of flaws, then there wouldn’t be any reason to look for a second one. ⁸ God indicated to them that it was flawed by saying:

“Look, days are coming,” says the LORD,

“When I will complete for the house of Israel

And for the house of Judah, a new covenant

⁹⁠Not based on the covenant that I made with their ancestors

On the day when I grasped them by their hand

To lead them out of the land of Egypt,

Since they did not stay within my covenant,

And I withdrew from them,” says the LORD.

¹⁰⁠“Here is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel

After those days:” says the LORD,

“I am giving my instructions into their minds

And I will inscribe them on their hearts,

And I will be their God for them

And they will be my people for me.

¹¹⁠They certainly would not teach, each to their neighbor

And each to their family, saying,

‘Know the LORD,’

Because everyone will know me,

From the least powerful to the most powerful,

¹²⁠Because I will be lovingly faithful regarding their injustices

And I won’t call their deviations to mind anymore.”

¹³ By speaking of a new one, God has declared the first one outdated, and the old and outdated one is nearing disappearance.

¹ In fact, the first one had standards both for performing ritual service and for the sacred ornamentation. ² You see, the first tabernacle was set up with the lampstand, the table, and the presentation of the loaves of bread inside, it is called the Sacred Place. ³ Then, after the second curtain, there is a tent called The Sacred Place of Sacred Places ⁴ which held a golden censer and the Ark of the Covenant covered entirely with gold. Inside it was the golden jar that contained manna, Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant, ⁵ and above it, radiant cherubim cast their shadows on the reconciliation cover, however, now is not the time to speak about these things in detail.

⁶ With these things having been set up this way, the priests go into the first tent each day while completing the ritual representative services, ⁷ while only the high priest goes into the second tent once a year—and not without blood which he offers for the people’s and his own unrecognized uncleanness. ⁸ While the Sacred Life-breath makes it clear that the path of the Sacred Place has not yet been illuminated as long as the first tent still stands, ⁹ it was a symbol for that time, by which both gifts and sacrificial offerings were presented that were not able to make the one performing ritual representative service complete in their consciousness of just living. ¹⁰ They were only presented on the basis of food and drink and various ritual washings, regulations for the physical body put in place until the time of restoration.

¹¹ But Messiah—who arrived as high priest of beneficial things that came to be through the greater and more complete tabernacle that is not made by hands, is not of this creation— ¹² went into the Sacred Place once and for all, but not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, having recognized the payment for agelong freedom from enslavement. ¹³ If the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer being sprinkled on those who had been made unclean designates them for sacred purposes by cleansing the body, ¹⁴ how much more will the blood of Messiah, who by the agelong Life-breath presented himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciousness of just living, turning it away from lifeless actions and toward representative service for the God-who-is-Alive.

¹⁵ Because of this, he is a mediator of a new covenant since he experienced death to purchase liberation from sidesteps against the first covenant so that those who have been called can experience the promise of the agelong inheritance. ¹⁶ You see, where there is a will, it is a necessity to present the death of the one who made the agreement ¹⁷ since a will is enacted for the dead because it has no power as long as the one who made the agreement is alive. ¹⁸ That’s why the first one was not initiated without blood. ¹⁹ After every direction based in torah was spoken by Moses to the whole people, he took the blood of the calves and the goats with water and red wool and hyssop and sprinkled them on both the scroll itself and on the people ²⁰ while he said, “This is the blood of the covenant which God made with you.” ²¹ Likewise, he also sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the tools of ritual representative service with blood. ²² In fact, according to Torah, almost everything was cleansed with blood, and without pouring out blood, letting go does not happen.

²³ Therefore, while it is necessary for these things that are modeled after heavenly things to be cleansed, in contrast, the heavenly things themselves produce more effective sacrificial offerings than these ones. ²⁴ You see, Messiah did not go into the Sacred Place made by hands, the model representing the true one, but instead into the heavens themselves to present himself for us to God’s face even now. ²⁵ However, he did not go to offer himself repeatedly, like how the high priest goes into the Sacred Place every year with another’s blood, ²⁶ because it would be necessary for him to suffer repeatedly, starting from the founding of the world system. Instead, he has now presented himself once at the completion of the ages to reject deviation by the sacrificial offering of himself. ²⁷ As much as it awaits people to die once, but afterward to appear for justice, ²⁸ similarly, after being offered once in order to carry the deviations of many, Messiah will show himself a second time—separate from rejecting deviation—to those who expectantly await him for liberation.

¹ Since the Torah contains a silhouette of the coming beneficial things, not the actual statue itself, they perpetually bring the same sacrificial offerings each year which are never able to complete those who approach with them. ² Otherwise, wouldn’t they have been stopped being offered because no one would have consciousness of deviations anymore if the representative servants had been cleansed once and for all? ³ Instead, there is a reminder of deviations with those sacrifices each year ⁴ since it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to bring an end to deviations.

⁵ That’s why, coming into the world system, he says,

“You did not want a sacrificial offering and a presentation,

But you prepared a body for me.

⁶⁠Offerings burnt whole and those concerning deviations

You did not cherish.’

⁷⁠Then I said, ‘Look! I am here.

It has been written about me on the spindle of the scroll

About doing what you do want, God.’”

⁸ When he says above, “A sacrificial offering and a presentation” and “offerings burnt whole and those concerning deviations you did not want and did not cherish” (which are offered based on Torah), ⁹ he has then said, “Look! I am here to do what you do want.” He revokes the first so that he may set up the second. ¹⁰ By that desire, we have been designated for sacred purposes through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.

¹¹ While every priest has taken their place each day performing service as representatives and repeatedly offering the same sacrifices, which are never able to strip away deviations, ¹² in contrast, this one sat at the right hand of God after offering one permanent sacrifice for deviations, ¹³ waiting out the remaining time until his enemies are placed as a footstool under his feet. ¹⁴ With one offering, he has made those who have been designated for sacred purposes permanently complete.

¹⁵ The Sacred Life-breath tells us about this very thing since after having stated, ¹⁶ “This is the covenant I will make with them after those days,” says the Lord, “while imparting my instructions on their hearts, and I will write them on their way of thinking.” ¹⁷ then she states, “Their deviations and their actions that are devoid of Torah I absolutely won’t still call to mind.” ¹⁸ So where there is a letting go of these things, there is no longer an offering concerning deviations.

¹⁹ Therefore, Family, since we have freedom to speak within the entrance of the Sacred Place on the basis of the blood of Jesus— ²⁰ which he initiated for us as a fresh and current path through the curtain, that is, by means of his body— ²¹ and a great priest over the House of God, ²² we can approach with a sincere heart on the basis of the complete accomplishment of faithfulness, with our heart having been sprinkled for cleansing from simple awareness of harm and the body having been washed with clean water. ²³ We can hold onto the tireless acknowledgment of hope because the one who made the Promise is faithful, ²⁴ and we can set our attention on each other to prompt love and gracious actions, ²⁵ not abandoning gathering ourselves together, as has become customary for some people, but encouraging each other, and all the more so as you see the Day getting closer.

²⁶ You see, for those of us who deviate voluntarily after receiving understanding of the truth, there is no sacrificial offering left anymore. ²⁷ Instead, there’s a terrifying expectation of justice, an impassioned fire about to consume those who are hostile. ²⁸ Anyone who disregarded Moses’ Torah was killed without pity based on two or three witnesses. ²⁹ How much more severe retribution do you think will be considered appropriate for the one who tramples over the Son of God and considers worthless the blood of the covenant with which they were designated for sacred purposes, and who behaves insultingly toward the Life-breath of generosity? ³⁰ We have come to know the one who says, “Carrying out a sentence is for me; I will repay.” and then, “The Lord will carry out justice for the Lord's people.” ³¹ Falling into the hands of the God-who-is-Alive is terrifying.

³² Remember the earlier times when you endured enormous, agonizing conflict after you were enlightened. ³³ On the one hand, this involved being made a spectacle with both abuses and oppression, but on the other hand, it involved becoming co-participants with those who are treated this way. ³⁴ In fact, you experienced the same suffering as those imprisoned and accepted the seizure of your possessions with joy since you knew that you have a better and more lasting possession. ³⁵ Therefore, don’t throw away your freedom to speak up, which has a large payoff, ³⁶ because you have need of endurance so that you can experience the promise by doing what God desires. ³⁷ You see, “in only a little while longer, the one who is coming will arrive and not delay; ³⁸ but whoever of mine lives justly will be alive because of faithfulness, and if they back down, my very being is not content with them.” ³⁹ But we are not characterized by backing down, which leads to destruction, but we are characterized by faithfulness, which leads to protection from harm for our very being.

¹ Now faithfulness is the groundwork for the things being hoped for, a trial run of the circumstances that aren’t yet seen. ² With this, those who came before us were shown to be genuine. ³ We recognize that with faithfulness the ages have been arranged with a statement from God for making what wasn’t clearly visible come to be seen.

⁴ With faithfulness, Abel presented a more significant sacrificial offering to God than Cain, which showed him to be genuinely just, since his gift was reported to be genuine by God, and by it he still speaks after having died.

⁵ With faithfulness, Enoch was transferred—not seeing death—and he was never found because God transferred him. You see, before the transfer he had been reported to be fully pleasing by God. ⁶ But without faithfulness, it is impossible to be fully pleasing. You see, it is necessary for the one who approaches God to be faithful because God is and becomes the one who compensates those who seek God out.

⁷ With faithfulness, Noah gave careful attention to things that were not yet seen, and acting with care for the protection of his household, he constructed and outfitted an ark, with which he sentenced the world system to death, and he became an heir of the justness that is based on faithfulness.

⁸ With faithfulness, Abraham listened when he was called to go out to a place that he was going to receive for an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going.

⁹ With faithfulness, he lived as an immigrant in the promised land, living in tents as in a place belonging to others with Isaac and Jacob, who were fellow heirs of the same promise. ¹⁰ You see, he was waiting for the city that has foundations and whose architect and builder is God.

¹¹ With faithfulness, Sarah, who was infertile, also herself received ability to conceive—when she was at the age that she was—since she considered the one who made the promise faithful. ¹² Because of this, descendants originated from one person—and these from someone who was nearing death—“just like the stars in the heavens in number and like the innumerable grains of sand along the seashore.”

¹³ These people all died in a state of faithfulness without having received the things that were promised but, instead, having seen them at a distance and embraced them, and they acknowledged that they were foreigners and immigrants in the land. ¹⁴ Those who speak the way they did make it clear that they are seeking out their homeland. ¹⁵ If they had been calling to mind the land they had come out of, then they would have had opportunity to go back. ¹⁶ Therefore, they reach out for a better one—that is, one that is of the heavens. Because of this, God is not shamed by them calling God their God. So then, God has prepared a city for them.

¹⁷ With faithfulness, Abraham has offered Isaac when he was tested. He started to offer his only child after having received the promises ¹⁸ with which he had been told that “through Isaac, your descendants will be identified,” ¹⁹ since he reasoned that God is able to raise him up from among the dead, and he did receive him back from there, in a way.

²⁰ With faithfulness, Isaac also spoke well over Jacob and Esau regarding what was coming.

²¹ With faithfulness, as he was dying, Jacob spoke well over each of Joseph’s sons and bowed down as he leaned on his staff.

²² With faithfulness, as he was approaching his end, Joseph gave consideration to the exodus of Israel’s descendants and gave directions about his bones.

²³ With faithfulness, after Moses was born he was hidden for three months by his parents because they looked at the beautiful child and were not afraid of the king’s mandate.

²⁴ With faithfulness, Moses, after growing up, rejected being called a son of Pharaoh’s daughter, ²⁵ preferring to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to have momentary enjoyment of deviation. ²⁶ He considered the abuse received as an anointed one greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt because he focused intently on the payoff.

²⁷ With faithfulness, he left Egypt behind without being afraid of the fury of the king because he persisted as if he could see the yet unseen.

²⁸ With faithfulness, he carried out the Passover and pouring the blood so that the destroyer would not harm their firstborn children.

²⁹ With faithfulness, as if across dry land, they crossed the Red Sea, and when the Egyptians tried it, they were swallowed up.

³⁰ With faithfulness, the walls of Jericho fell after they were encircled for seven days.

³¹ With faithfulness, Rahab the sex worker was not destroyed with those who disregard the promises after receiving the spies with peace.

³² What else should I say? I’ll run out of time if I go into detail about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, and also Samuel and the prophets. ³³ They won out against royal powers, performed justice, came upon the promises, closed up the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the power of fire, escaped the bite of a sword, were empowered out from powerlessness, became strong in battle, and made enemy armies retreat. ³⁵ Women received their dead because of a reawakening, but others were tortured without expecting liberation by payment of the price for freedom so that they would hit the mark of a better reawakening. ³⁶ Still others experienced tests of taunts and whips and also chains and imprisonment. ³⁷ They were executed by being pelted with stones, sawed in half, murdered with a sword, and went around wearing a coat made of goatskin, experiencing poverty, being oppressed, and being mistreated ³⁸ (they didn’t fit in with the world system), wandering in the wilderness and mountains and caves and the crevices in the land.

³⁹ Though these people were all shown to be genuine by faithfulness, they did not experience the Promise ⁴⁰ of God, who foresaw something better concerning us, that they would not be made complete without us.

¹ For that reason and since we have all around us such an extensive crowd of people who attest to the truth, after putting down every burden and easily discarded deviation, we may run the race laid out for us with endurance, ² focusing on Jesus, the one who begins and completes faithfulness, who endured the cross and disregarded its shame in exchange for the joy laid out for him, and “He has sat at the right hand of the throne of God.” ³ So, meditate on the one who endured that kind of opposition against himself from deviators so that you won’t become fatigued in your very beings, becoming exhausted.

⁴ In your struggle, you haven’t yet mounted a resistance against deviation to the point of blood. ⁵ You have neglected to remember the encouragement which is discussed for you as “sons”: “My son, don’t minimize the Lord’s childrearing, and don’t become exhausted when being challenged by him. ⁶ You see, the Lord trains up whomever the Lord loves and corrects every son the Lord receives.” ⁷ Endure during the childrearing; God is treating you as “sons.” What son does a father not train up? ⁸ But if you don’t experience the childrearing of which all have become participants, then you are counterfeits and not “sons.”

⁹ Moreover, since certainly we have people who have trained us up—the parents of our bodies—and respected them, wouldn’t we also cooperate with the Father of our life-breaths even more so and live? ¹⁰ You see, while the first ones trained us up for a little while as seemed good to them, the other one does so to unify us for sharing his designation for sacred purposes. ¹¹ While, to whoever passes by, all childrearing seems to be not prompted by joy but by grief, later to the ones trained up by it, it pays back the peaceable fruit of justness. ¹² Because of this, “support the hands that have fallen and the knees that have gone limp,” ¹³ and “make level paths for your feet” so that what is limping wouldn’t be sprained and—even better—would be healed.

¹⁴ Pursue peace among everyone—the sacred purpose for which you are designated, without which no one will see the Lord— ¹⁵ keeping an eye out that no one is left out of God’s generosity, that no one would give provocation, being a root of bitterness shooting up, and because of it many people be contaminated. ¹⁶ Watch over people so that no one is caused to sell themselves to be used for sex or to make themselves available for public use, being like Esau who sold his own birthright in exchange for a single meal. ¹⁷ As you know, later when he wanted to inherit what well-wishes were to be spoken over him, he was disqualified since there was no opportunity to change his mind, even though he sought it with tears.

¹⁸ You see, you have not come to something tangible, a burning fire and darkness and shadow and a blast of wind ¹⁹ and the sound of a trumpet and a speaking voice, of which those who heard pleaded that the conversation not be inflicted on them ²⁰ because they couldn’t bear what was being stated explicitly to them: “If even a wild animal touches the mountain, it will be stoned…” ²¹ What was being shown was terrifying like that, even Moses said, “I’m shaking with fear!” ²² However, you have come to Mount Zion and the city of the God-who-is-Alive, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable messengers, to the gathering of all the people ²³ and to the assembly of firstborns registered in the heavens, and to the judge, God of everyone, and to the just life-breaths who have been made complete ²⁴ and to the mediator of the new covenant, Jesus, and to the blood for sprinkling which speaks of something better than Abel’s does.

²⁵ Watch out not to excuse yourselves from the One who speaks. For if those ones did not escape after excusing themselves from the one giving proclamations on the land, it will be much more so if we turn away from the One doing so from the heavens. ²⁶ That One’s voice shook the land at that time, but now he has promised, “I will still yet once shake not only the land but also the heavens.” ²⁷ The “still yet once” indicates a change from what is being shaken, as in the things that have been done, so that the things that are not shaken would remain. ²⁸ That’s why, since we are embracing an unshakeable royal power, we can experience generosity, through which we perform service as representatives that is pleasing to God with care and respect, ²⁹ and since our “God is a consuming fire.”

¹ Familial love must stay present. ² Do not neglect welcoming strangers because through it some have welcomed messengers as guests unknowingly. ³ Be mindful of those in prison as if you have been imprisoned along with them, and be mindful of those who are being mistreated as if within the same body. ⁴ Marriage must be held as precious among everyone and the bed uncontaminated; God will determine what is just regarding sex workers and people who engage in marital infidelity. ⁵ How you live must be free from greed, having been satisfied with what is available. You see, God has said, “I will absolutely not desert you and absolutely not abandon you.” ⁶ So then we say with confidence, “The Lord is a helper to me, and I won’t be terrified. What will a person do to me?” ⁷ Be mindful of those of you who act as guides, who spoke God’s conversation among you. As you observe the outcomes of how they live, imitate their faithfulness.

⁸ Jesus Messiah is the same yesterday and today and throughout the ages. ⁹ Don’t be swept away by varied and contrasting teachings. You see, it’s favorable for the heart to be made secure by generosity, not by food that doesn’t benefit those nearby. ¹⁰ We have an altar from which those who perform representative service in the tabernacle do not have the right to eat. ¹¹ You see, the blood offered by the high priest concerning deviation in the Sacred Place is from animals whose bodies are burned outside the camp. ¹² Because of this, Jesus also suffered outside the gate so that he would designate the people for sacred purposes with his own blood. ¹³ So now, we should go outside the camp along with him, bearing the abuse he experienced. ¹⁴ You see, we don’t have here a city that lasts, but we are looking for the one that is coming. ¹⁵ Therefore, because of him we may present a sacrificial offering of gratitude to God throughout everything, which is the fruit of our lips acknowledging his name. ¹⁶ So do not neglect promoting well-being and sharing because God is pleased with sacrificial offerings like these.

¹⁷ Be persuaded by those among you who act as guides and stop fighting them, for they keep watch over your very beings as people who will be held accountable, so that they may do this with joy and not groaning, which would not be beneficial for you. ¹⁸ Pray for us, for we are persuaded that we have a genuine consciousness, wanting to live authentically in everything. ¹⁹ Even more than that, please, I ask you to do this so that I might be restored to you soon.

²⁰ May the God of peace—the one who brought the Great Shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus, up from among the dead with the blood of the agelong covenant— ²¹ equip you with every fitting thing for making what God desires, making among us what is pleasing in God's perspective through Jesus Messiah, to whom be praise throughout the Age. Amen.

²² I ask you, Family, please bring yourselves to accept the discussion of encouragement since I wrote a letter to you briefly. ²³ You know that after our brother Timothy has been set free, if he comes soon, he will be with me when I see you.

²⁴ Well wishes to everyone among you who acts as a guide and to everyone designated for sacred purposes. Those from Italy wish you well. ²⁵ Good fortune be with all of you.