Hebrews 10 :: New King James Version (NKJV)

Animal Sacrifices Insufficient

Justified by Faith in Christ’s Sacrifice

Heb 10:1For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.

Heb 10:2

Heb 10:2For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.

Heb 10:3

Heb 10:3But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.

Heb 10:4

Heb 10:4For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

Christ’s Death Fulfills God’s Will

(cf. Ps. 40:6–8 )

Heb 10:5

Heb 10:5Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:

“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me.

Heb 10:6

Heb 10:6In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You had no pleasure.

Heb 10:7

Heb 10:7Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—
In the volume of the book it is written of Me—
To do Your will, O God.’ ”[fn]

Heb 10:8

Heb 10:8Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law),

Heb 10:9

Heb 10:9then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.”[fn] He takes away the first that He may establish the second.

Heb 10:10

Heb 10:10By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Christ’s Death Perfects the Sanctified

Heb 10:11

Heb 10:11And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

Heb 10:12

Heb 10:12But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,

Heb 10:13

Heb 10:13from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.

Heb 10:14

Heb 10:14For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

Heb 10:15

Heb 10:15But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,

Heb 10:16

Heb 10:16“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,”[fn]

Heb 10:17

Heb 10:17then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”[fn]

Heb 10:18

Heb 10:18Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

Hold Fast Your Confession

Heb 10:19

Heb 10:19Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,

Heb 10:20

Heb 10:20by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,

Heb 10:21

Heb 10:21and having a High Priest over the house of God,

Heb 10:22

Heb 10:22let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Heb 10:23

Heb 10:23Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

Heb 10:24

Heb 10:24And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,

Heb 10:25

Heb 10:25not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

The Just Live by Faith

Heb 10:26

Heb 10:26For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

Heb 10:27

Heb 10:27but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.

Heb 10:28

Heb 10:28Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Heb 10:29

Heb 10:29Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

Heb 10:30

Heb 10:30For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,”[fn] says the Lord.[fn] And again, “The LORD will judge His people.”[fn]

Heb 10:31

Heb 10:31It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Heb 10:32

Heb 10:32But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings:

Heb 10:33

Heb 10:33partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated;

Heb 10:34

Heb 10:34for you had compassion on me[fn] in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.[fn]

Heb 10:35

Heb 10:35Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.

Heb 10:36

Heb 10:36For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:

Heb 10:37

Heb 10:37“For yet a little while,
And He[fn] who is coming will come and will not tarry.

Heb 10:38

Heb 10:38Now the[fn] just shall live by faith;
But if anyone draws back,
My soul has no pleasure in him.”[fn]

Heb 10:39

Heb 10:39But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

See the NKJV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NKJV Footnotes

(10:7)

Psalm 40:6–8

(10:9)

NU-Text and M-Text omit O God.

NU-Text omits says the Lord.

(10:30)

Deuteronomy 32:36

(10:34)

NU-Text reads the prisoners instead of me in my chains.

(10:34)

NU-Text omits in heaven.

(10:37)

Or that which

(10:38)

NU-Text reads My just one.

(10:38)

Habakkuk 2:3, 4

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For more information on this translation, see the NKJV Preface.