Hebrews 8
8
The Mediator of a Better Covenant and a More Excellent Ministry
1 Now the main point of what has been said is this: We have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,* 2 a minister in the holy places* and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord set up, not man. 3 For every high priest is appointed so as to offer both gifts and sacrifices; therefore, it is necessary for this One also to have something which He may offer. 4 Now, if He were on earth, He would not even be a priest, since there are those who offer the gifts in accordance with the Law, 5 who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was divinely instructed* when he was about to complete the tabernacle, for He says, “See that you construct all things in accordance with the pattern shown to you on the mountain.”* 6 But now, He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.
The New Covenant
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, no place would have been sought for a second. 8 For finding fault with them, He says,
“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord,
when I will bring about a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah—
9 not in accordance with the covenant which I made with their fathers
on the day when I took them by the hand
to bring them out of the land of Egypt,
because they did not remain in My covenant,
and so I neglected them,
says the Lord.
10 For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put My laws into their minds,
and I will inscribe them on their hearts.
And I will be their God,*
and they shall be My people.*
11 And they will not teach each one his fellow citizen
and each one his brother, saying,
‘Know the Lord,’
because all of them will know Me,
from the least to the greatest of them.
12 For I will be merciful towards their acts of wickedness,
and I will remember their sins no more.”*
13 In saying “new”, He has made obsolete the first. And what is becoming obsolete and aging is ready to disappear.
Notes
1 Greek in the heavens
2 Or sanctuary
5 Or divinely warned
5 Quoted from Ex. 25:40
10 Greek I will be to them for a God
10 Greek they will be to Me for a people
12 Some ancient manuscripts insert and their lawless acts at the end of the verse, probably to harmonise it with the reading in 10:17
8-12 Quoted from Jer. 31:31-34
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Hebrews 8: AFINTLIT
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Copyright © 2026 Michael Adeyemi Adegbola. This Scripture text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
