New Revised Standard NRS
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who approach.
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For the law, being only a poor copy of the future good things, and not the true image of those things, is never able to make the people who come to the altar every year with the same offerings completely clean.
2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased being offered, since the worshipers, cleansed once for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sin?
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For if this had been possible, would there not have been an end of those offerings, because the worshippers would have been made completely clean and would have been no longer conscious of sins?
3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year after year.
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But year by year there is a memory of sins in those offerings.
4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
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Because it is not possible for the blood of oxen and goats to take away sins.
5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me;
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So that when he comes into the world, he says, You had no desire for offerings, but you made a body ready for me;
6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.
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You had no joy in burned offerings or in offerings for sin.
7 Then I said, "See, God, I have come to do your will, O God' (in the scroll of the book it is written of me)."
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Then I said, See, I have come to do your pleasure, O God (as it is said of me in the roll of the book).
8 When he said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the law),
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After saying, You had no desire for offerings, for burned offerings or offerings for sin (which are made by the law) and you had no pleasure in them,
9 then he added, "See, I have come to do your will." He abolishes the first in order to establish the second.
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Then he said, See, I have come to do your pleasure. He took away the old order, so that he might put the new order in its place.
10 And it is by God's will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
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By that pleasure we have been made holy, by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for ever.
11 And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins.
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And every priest takes his place at the altar day by day, doing what is necessary, and making again and again the same offerings which are never able to take away sins.
12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, "he sat down at the right hand of God,"
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But when Jesus had made one offering for sins for ever, he took his place at the right hand of God;
13 and since then has been waiting "until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet."
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And has been waiting there from that time, till all who are against him are made a foot-rest for his feet.
14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
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Because by one offering he has made complete for ever those who are made holy.
15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying,
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And the Holy Spirit is a witness for us: for after he had said,
16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds,"
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This is the agreement which I will make with them after those days, says the Lord; I will put my laws in their hearts, writing them in their minds; he said,
17 he also adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more."
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And I will keep no more memory of their sins and of their evil-doings.
18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
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Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no more offering for sin.
19 Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus,
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So then, my brothers, being able to go into the holy place without fear, because of the blood of Jesus,
20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh),
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By the new and living way which he made open for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
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And having a great priest over the house of God,
22 let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
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Let us go in with true hearts, in certain faith, having our hearts made free from the sense of sin and our bodies washed with clean water:
23 Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.
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Let us keep the witness of our hope strong and unshaking, for he is true who has given his word:
24 And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds,
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And let us be moving one another at all times to love and good works;
25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
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Not giving up our meetings, as is the way of some, but keeping one another strong in faith; and all the more because you see the day coming near.
26 For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
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For if we do evil on purpose after we have had the knowledge of what is true, there is no more offering for sins,
27 but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
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But only a great fear of being judged, and of the fire of wrath which will be the destruction of the haters of God.
28 Anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy "on the testimony of two or three witnesses."
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A man who has gone against the law of Moses is put to death without pity on the word of two or three witnesses:
29 How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace?
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But will not the man by whom the Son of God has been crushed under foot, and the blood of the agreement with which he was washed clean has been taken as an unholy thing, and who has had no respect for the Spirit of grace, be judged bad enough for a very much worse punishment?
30 For we know the one who said, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people."
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For we have had experience of him who says, Punishment is mine, I will give reward. And again, The Lord will be judge of his people.
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
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We may well go in fear of falling into the hands of the living God.
32 But recall those earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings,
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But give thought to the days after you had seen the light, when you went through a great war of troubles;
33 sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.
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In part, in being attacked by angry words and cruel acts, before the eyes of everyone, and in part, in being united with those who were attacked in this way.
34 For you had compassion for those who were in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting.
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For you had pity on those who were in prison, and had joy in the loss of your property, in the knowledge that you still had a better property and one which you would keep for ever.
35 Do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward.
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So do not give up your hope which will be greatly rewarded.
36 For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.
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For, having done what was right in God's eyes, you have need of waiting before his word has effect for you.
37 For yet "in a very little while, the one who is coming will come and will not delay;
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In a very little time he who is coming will come; he will not be slow.
38 but my righteous one will live by faith. My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back."
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But the upright man will be living by his faith; and if he goes back, my soul will have no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved.
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But we are not of those who go back to destruction; but of those who have faith even to the salvation of the soul.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.