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Hebrews 10

1For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come rather than the very image of the realities, can never bring those who approach to completion by the same sacrifices offered continually year after year. 2Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, once cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year, 4for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

5Therefore, when he comes into the world, he says, “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me. 6In burnt offerings and offerings for sin you took no pleasure. 7Then I said, ‘Look, I have come—in the scroll of the book it is written about me—to do your will, O God.’” 8After saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and offerings for sin you did not desire or take pleasure in”—which are offered according to the law—9he then said, “Look, I have come to do your will.” He takes away the first to establish the second. 10By that will we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

11And every priest stands daily, serving and repeatedly offering the same sacrifices, which can never remove sins. 12But this one, after offering one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at God's right hand, 13from then on waiting until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet. 14For by one offering he has brought to completion for all time those who are being made holy. 15And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, 16“This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their mind,” 17he also says, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will never again remember.” 18Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

19Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20by the new and living way he inaugurated for us through the curtain, that is, his flesh, 21and since we have a great priest over God's house, 22let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold firmly to the confession of our hope without wavering, for the one who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider one another, to spur one another to love and good works, 25not abandoning our gathering together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

26For if we deliberately go on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins remains, 27but a fearful expectation of judgment and a zeal of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28Anyone who sets aside Moses' law dies without compassion on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, regarded as common the blood of the covenant by which he was made holy, and insulted the Spirit of grace? 30For we know the one who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

32But remember the earlier days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings, 33sometimes being publicly exposed to insults and afflictions, and sometimes becoming partners of those treated in that way. 34For you sympathized with prisoners, and you accepted the plundering of your possessions with joy, knowing that you yourselves have a better and lasting possession. 35Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36For you need endurance, so that after doing God's will you may receive what was promised. 37For “in just a little while, the coming one will come and will not delay. 38But my righteous one will live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul takes no pleasure in him.” 39But we do not belong to shrinking back into destruction, but to faith that preserves the soul.

Translation notes 6

10:1–4 — Shadow and repeated sacrifice. The base makes the law the singular subject of “can never”; some texts have a plural verb. “Consciousness of sins” and “conscience” translate the same Greek noun in its related senses. The argument concerns effective cleansing and access to God, not the loss of all capacity to recognize wrongdoing.

10:5–10 — Body and will. Psalm 40:6–8 is quoted as spoken by Christ. “A body you prepared for me” follows Hebrews' Greek quotation rather than the Hebrew psalm's opened or dug ears. “Offerings” is supplied with “for sin.” The first and second in verse 9 concern the contrasted sacrifices and doing God's will, within the larger covenant argument.

10:11–18 — Standing and sitting. Repeated priestly standing contrasts with Christ's seated position after a single offering. “For all time” at verse 12 may instead be attached to his sitting; verse 14 clearly connects lasting completion with the one offering. “Being made holy” preserves the participle without converting it into a detailed timetable. The author returns to Jeremiah 31; “he also says” in verse 17 supplies the continuation of the unfinished sentence, not words printed in this Greek base.

10:19–25 — Flesh, washing, and gathering. The curtain is identified with Jesus' flesh; the translation does not add a mechanism for the image. Sprinkling and washing draw on purification language, with baptism a natural resonance of the bodily washing. “Brothers” includes the gathered community. “Spur” renders a word for provocation, used positively here. The Day is the anticipated day of divine action and judgment; no date or interval is supplied.

10:26–31 — Deliberate sin and judgment. The continuing deliberate sin is explained by the rejection of the Son, covenant blood, and Spirit in verse 29. It is not reduced to an accidental lapse, nor is an exception to the warning inserted. The most natural subject of “was made holy” is the person who now rejects the blood; some interpreters understand Christ instead. “Common” is the opposite of holy here, meaning treated as ordinary or profane. The quotations in verse 30 draw on Deuteronomy 32:35–36. The text speaks of consuming fire without naming Gehenna or Hades.

10:32–39 — Possessions, endurance, and faith. The base has sympathy with “prisoners,” not “my chains,” and does not add “in heaven” to the better possession. The closing quotation draws on Habakkuk 2:3–4, with wording also recalling Isaiah 26:20. “My righteous one” and the same person's possible shrinking back are retained. “Soul” can mean one's life or whole person here; the final phrase concerns preservation, not an asserted division between a saved soul and a lost body.