1.
Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;
2.
A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
Verse 2
The true tabernacle. The spiritual kingdom of Christ is so designated in contradistinction from the tabernacle in which the religious services of the Israelites were performed, which was only ceremonial and temporary, and pitched by man.
3.
For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.
Verse 3
This man; Jesus.
4.
For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:
Verse 4
The meaning is, that his priesthood, as spoken of in the passage upon which all this discussion rests, (Psalms 110:4,) cannot be an ordinary priesthood under the law of Moses, since he did not belong to the tribe to which the priestly office was confined.--There are priests; that is, of the tribe of Levi.
5.
Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.
Verse 5
Unto the example and shadow; that is, their ceremonies and services are intended to shadow forth and typify the higher spiritualities of the Christian dispensation.--See (saith he;) Exodus 25:40. In the directions given to Moses in Exodus, allusion is often made to a pattern which God showed him in the mount. The apostle seems to consider this conformity of the Mosaic tabernacle to the pattern by which it was made, as an emblem of the correspondence between the Jewish rites and the heavenly spiritualities which they were designed to prefigure.
6.
But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
Verse 6
Ministry; priestly service.
7.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
Verse 7
Faultless; complete and sufficient for the salvation of men.
8.
For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
Verse 8
Finding fault with them, he saith. The idea is, that the language quoted (see Jeremiah 31:31-34) implies that God did not regard the first dispensation as permanent and complete; but, recognizing its insufficiency and imperfection, he promised a better one to come.
9.
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
10.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
11.
And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
12.
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
13.
In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
Verse 13
He hath made the first old; that is, his language implies that it is old.