Hê-bơ-rơ 7

Melchizedek, king and priest

¹This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham, who was coming back from defeating the kings, and blessed him, ²and Abraham set aside for him a tenth of everything. Translated, his name means first of all “king of righteousness”; and he is also king of Salem, which means “king of peace.” ³He is without father, without mother, without genealogy, with no beginning of days and no end of life. Made like the Son of God, he remains a priest for all time.^a

⁴See how great this man was: Abraham the patriarch himself gave him a tenth of the choicest plunder. ⁵Now those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office are commanded by the law to collect a tenth from the people, that is, from their fellow Israelites, though they too are descended from Abraham. ⁶But this man, whose descent is not traced from Levi, took a tenth from Abraham and blessed the man who held the promises. ⁷No one can dispute that it is the greater who blesses the lesser. ⁸In the one case, the tenth is collected by mortal men; in the other, by one of whom Scripture testifies that he lives. ⁹One might even say that Levi, who receives the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, ¹⁰for Levi was still in the body of his ancestor when Melchizedek met Abraham.

A different priest and a better hope

¹¹If the Levitical priesthood could have brought perfection (and the people’s law was given on the basis of that priesthood), why would a different priest still have to arise, a priest of the order of Melchizedek, and not one named of the order of Aaron? ¹²A change of priesthood necessarily brings with it a change of law. ¹³The one of whom these things are said belongs to a different tribe, and no one from that tribe has ever served at the altar. ¹⁴It is plain to all that our Lord came from Judah, and Moses said nothing at all about priests from that tribe.

¹⁵And this becomes clearer still, since another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, ¹⁶one who has become a priest not by a legal rule about bodily descent but by the power of a life that cannot be destroyed. ¹⁷For Scripture testifies of him, “You are a priest forever of the order of Melchizedek.” ¹⁸So the commandment that came before is annulled, for it was weak and could not help, ¹⁹since the law brought nothing to perfection. Instead a better hope has been brought in, and by that hope we come near to God.

²⁰And this was done with an oath. The others became priests with no oath, ²¹but he became a priest with an oath, sworn by the one who said to him, “The Lord has sworn, and he will not go back on it: ‘You are a priest forever.’” ²²As much greater as that oath makes his priesthood, so much better is the covenant of which Jesus has become the guarantee.

²³There have been many Levitical priests, one after another, because death cut short each one’s service; ²⁴But he remains forever, and so the priesthood he holds will never pass to another.^{b 25}For this reason he is able to save completely those who approach God through him, since he is always alive to plead on their behalf.^c

²⁶This is the kind of high priest that suits our need: holy, innocent, unstained, separate from sinners, and raised above the heavens. ²⁷He has no need to do what the other high priests do day by day: offer sacrifices first for their own sins and then for the sins of the people. He did that once for all when he offered up himself. ²⁸The law appoints mortal men, weak as they are, to be high priests. But the oath, sworn later than the law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever.