14. It is clear that our Lord arose from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.
15. It is even more obvious if another priest is raised up after the likeness of Melchizedek,
16. who has become so, not by a law expressed in a commandment concerning physical descent but by the power of a life that cannot be destroyed.
17. For it is testified:“You are a priest foreveraccording to the order of Melchizedek.”
18. On the one hand, a former commandment is annulled because of its weakness and uselessness,
19. for the law brought nothing to perfection; on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.
20. And to the degree that this happened not without the taking of an oath—for others became priests without an oath,
21. but he with an oath, through the one who said to him:“The Lord has sworn, and he will not repent:‘You are a priest forever’”—
22. to that same degree has Jesus [also] become the guarantee of an [even] better covenant.
23. Those priests were many because they were prevented by death from remaining in office,
24. but he, because he remains forever, has a priesthood that does not pass away.
25. Therefore, he is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them.
26. It was fitting that we should have such a high priest: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, higher than the heavens.
27. He has no need, as did the high priests, to offer sacrifice day after day, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; he did that once for all when he offered himself.
28. For the law appoints men subject to weakness to be high priests, but the word of the oath, which was taken after the law, appoints a son, who has been made perfect forever.