5
“It Was God Who Exalted Him in Honor”
1 In the case of any high priest, you see, since+ it is+ his fellow-men+ from whom he is chosen, it is+ as a representative+ of his fellow-men that he is appointed in service to God, so that he may present sacrifices and offerings to atone for their sins,+
2 being able to have in his dealings with those who sin ignorantly+ a compassionate heart,+ since he, too, is himself+ beset by weakness.
3 In fact, because he himself is weak,+ a high priest+ is required, just as he is with respect to the sins+ of the people, likewise to present a sin offering+ to atone,+ too,+ for his own sins.+
4 And it is+ not upon himself that one confers this honorable office;+ on the contrary, a high priest must be chosen+ by God, just as Aaron was.
5 In the same way, the Messiah, too, did not bestow the honor of being a high priest upon himself.+ No, it was+ God who exalted him in honor, saying to him,+
I, on this day, anoint you as my chosen king,+”+
6 and saying,+ too,+ in another place,
“ˢYou are a priest, forever into the ages, in the order of Melchizedek.”+
7 This priest,+ during his time in a state of weakness and mortality,+ having presented prayers and pleas for help,+ with intense shouts and tears, to the one who had the power to save him from death, and having been answered+ because of his humble and reverent submission,+
8 even though he was God’s Son,+ learned obedience+ as a result of the things he suffered,
9 and, having been fully and finally consecrated for priestly service, became for all who obey him the source+ of a salvation that endures forever into the ages,+
10 having been dubbed by God high priest “in the order of Melchizedek.”
11 Although+ in regard to this matter there is so+ much we have to say,+ it is difficult to explain, since you have become so+ dull and negligent.+
12 Indeed, though+ you ought to be teachers by this point, you need someone to take you back to the beginning and reteach you the elementary truths of the oracles of God;+ you are back to needing milk, not yet ready for solid food.+
13 Anyone who can only drink milk,+ you see, is still an infant,+ inexperienced in the teaching+ about+ righteousness.+
14 It is+ the mature, rather, to whom solid food is given,+ to those whose powers of discernment, through disciplined and repeated exercise,+ have been well trained, and so can skillfully distinguish good from evil.