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Hebrews 8

1Now the main point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2a servant of the sanctuary and of the true tent that the Lord pitched, not a human being. 3For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; therefore this one too must have something to offer. 4Now if he were on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there are those who offer gifts according to the law. 5They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was instructed when he was about to complete the tent. For God says, “See that you make everything according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain.” 6But now he has obtained a more excellent service, to the same extent that he is mediator of a better covenant, which has been established on better promises.

7For if that first covenant had been faultless, no place would have been sought for a second. 8For finding fault with them, he says, “Look, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 9not like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not remain in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. 10For 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 mind and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11And they will certainly not teach, each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least to the greatest among them. 12For I will be merciful toward their wrongdoings, and I will never again remember their sins.”

13By saying “new,” he has made the first old. And what is growing old and aging is near disappearance.

Translation notes 3

8:1–6 — True tent and better covenant. “Tent” refers to the tabernacle; the heavenly reality is contrasted with its earthly copy and shadow. The quotation in verse 5 is Exodus 25:40. “Service” is priestly ministry, not an informal role. “Mediator” describes the one through whom the covenant is established, not a negotiator seeking a compromise. “Better” deliberately repeats a central comparative term in Hebrews.

8:7–9 — Fault and the new covenant. The long quotation is Jeremiah 31:31–34, rendered as Hebrews gives it. The base says God finds fault “with them,” the people; a dative variant permits a different attachment, “finding fault, he says to them.” “I disregarded them” follows this Greek quotation rather than replacing it with “I was their husband,” familiar from the Hebrew form of Jeremiah.

8:10–13 — Israel, knowledge, and aging. The promises explicitly name Israel and Judah; neither is replaced with a supplied modern community. The repeated knowing and the emphatic refusal to remember sins are retained. “Made the first old” can be rendered “made the first obsolete.” The author says its disappearance is near; the translation does not turn that statement into a date for the book or a timetable for the end of Judaism.