| Chapter 10 |
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For the law having a shadow of the coming good things -- not the very image of the matters, every year, by the same sacrifices that they offer continually, is never able to make perfect those coming near, |
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since, would they not have ceased to be offered, because of those serving having no more conscience of sins, having once been purified? |
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but in those [sacrifices] is a remembrance of sins every year, |
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for it is impossible for blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. |
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Wherefore, coming into the world, he saith, 'Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not will, and a body Thou didst prepare for me, |
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in burnt-offerings, and concerning sin-offerings, Thou didst not delight, |
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then I said, Lo, I come, (in a volume of the book it hath been written concerning me,) to do, O God, Thy will;' |
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saying above -- 'Sacrifice, and offering, and burnt-offerings, and concerning sin-offering Thou didst not will, nor delight in,' -- which according to the law are offered -- |
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then he said, 'Lo, I come to do, O God, Thy will;' he doth take away the first that the second he may establish; |
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in the which will we are having been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once, |
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and every priest, indeed, hath stood daily serving, and the same sacrifices many times offering, that are never able to take away sins. |
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And He, for sin one sacrifice having offered -- to the end, did sit down on the right hand of God, -- |
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as to the rest, expecting till He may place his enemies [as] his footstool, |
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for by one offering he hath perfected to the end those sanctified; |
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and testify to us also doth the Holy Spirit, for after that He hath said before, |
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'This [is] the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, giving My laws on their hearts, and upon their minds I will write them,' |
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and 'their sins and their lawlessness I will remember no more;' |
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and where forgiveness of these [is], there is no more offering for sin. |
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Having, therefore, brethren, boldness for the entrance into the holy places, in the blood of Jesus, |
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which way he did initiate for us -- new and living, through the vail, that is, his flesh -- |
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and a high priest over the house of God, |
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may we draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having the hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having the body bathed with pure water; |
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may we hold fast the unwavering profession of the hope, (for faithful [is] He who did promise), |
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and may we consider one another to provoke to love and to good works, |
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not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as a custom of certain [is], but exhorting, and so much the more as ye see the day coming nigh. |
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For we -- willfully sinning after the receiving the full knowledge of the truth -- no more for sins doth there remain a sacrifice, |
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but a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery zeal, about to devour the opposers; |
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any one who did set at nought a law of Moses, apart from mercies, by two or three witnesses, doth die, |
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of how much sorer punishment shall he be counted worthy who the Son of God did trample on, and the blood of the covenant did count a common thing, in which he was sanctified, and to the Spirit of the grace did despite? |
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for we have known Him who is saying, 'Vengeance [is] Mine, I will recompense, saith the Lord;' and again, 'The Lord shall judge His people;' -- |
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fearful [is] the falling into the hands of a living God. |
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And call to your remembrance the former days, in which, having been enlightened, ye did endure much conflict of sufferings, |
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partly both with reproaches and tribulations being made spectacles, and partly having become partners of those so living, |
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for also with my bonds ye sympathised, and the robbery of your goods with joy ye did receive, knowing that ye have in yourselves a better substance in the heavens, and an enduring one. |
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Ye may not cast away, then, your boldness, which hath great recompense of reward, |
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for of patience ye have need, that the will of God having done, ye may receive the promise, |
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for yet a very very little, He who is coming will come, and will not tarry; |
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and 'the righteous by faith shall live,' and 'if he may draw back, My soul hath no pleasure in him,' |
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and we are not of those drawing back to destruction, but of those believing to a preserving of soul. |