Epistle to the Hebrews

a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.

For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer.

For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, seeing there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law;

who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses was warned by God when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, "See, you shall make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain."

But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.

For finding fault with them, he said, "Behold, the days come," says the Lord, "That I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, In the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; For they didn't continue in my covenant, And I disregarded them," says the Lord.

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel . After those days," says the Lord; "I will put my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. I will be to them a God, And they will be to me a people.

They will not teach every man his fellow citizen, Every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' For all will know me, From the least of them to the greatest of them.

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more."

In that he says, "A new covenant," he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing away.

Now indeed even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service, and an earthly sanctuary.

For there was a tabernacle prepared. In the first part were the lampstand, the table, and the show bread; which is called the Holy Place.

After the second veil was the tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies,

having a golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which was a golden pot holding the manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant;

and above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, of which things we can't now speak in detail.

Now these things having been thus prepared, the priests go in continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services,

but into the second the high priest alone, once in the year, not without blood, which he offers for himself, and for the errors of the people.

The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the Holy Place wasn't yet revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing;