Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people have received the law), why is there yet a need [for] another priest to rise, according to the order of Melchizedek, and not to be called according to the order of Aaron?

For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there occurs a change of law also.

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

not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day when I took their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. Because they did not persevere in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD.

And by no means will they teach each [one] his fellow citizen, and each [one] his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.

By the saying "new," He has made the first obsolete. And the [one] becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish.

For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the image itself of the things, can never with the same sacrifices, which they offer continually every year, make those approaching perfect.

But in them there is a reminder of sins every year.

Therefore, when He entered into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.

Then I said, 'Behold, I have come--In the volume of the book it is written of Me-- To do Your will, O God.'"

then He has said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God." He takes away the first in order that He may establish the second.

Therefore do we nullify the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish [the] law.

Brothers, I speak in human fashion: A covenant is of a man, yet having been confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it.

And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, does not annul the covenant previously confirmed to Christ by God, so that it make the promise of no effect.

For the law made nothing perfect; but there [is] the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.

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

For finding fault [with] them, He says: "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,

which [was] symbolic for the present time, according to which both gifts and sacrifices are being offered, which are not able, in respect to conscience, to make perfect the [one] performing the service,

[concerned] only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances which are imposed until a time of reformation.

For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the image itself of the things, can never with the same sacrifices, which they offer continually every year, make those approaching perfect.

But in them there is a reminder of sins every year.

Do not be carried away with various and strange doctrines. For it is good [for] the heart to be established by grace, not by foods, by which those having walked were not profited.

and from all things from which you could not (by the Law of Moses) be justified, by Him everyone that believes is justified.

For what [was] impossible [for] the law to do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and concerning sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

But now, having known God, or rather, having been known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which once again you wish to be slaves?

Tell me, you who wish to be under the law, do you not hear the law?

For bodily exercise is profitable a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the present life and of the coming life.