The Ark Returns: Priesthood Made Perfect

1. The word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and encamped beside Ebenezer; and the Philistines encamped in Aphek. 2. The Philistines put themselves in array against Israel. When they joined battle, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men of the army in the field. 3. When the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has Yahweh defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us get the ark of Yahweh’s covenant out of Shiloh and bring it to us, that it may come among us, and save us out of the hand of our enemies.” 4. So the people sent to Shiloh; and they brought from there the ark of the covenant of Yahweh of Armies, who sits above the cherubim: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. 5. When the ark of Yahweh’s covenant came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again. 6. When the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, “What does the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” They understood that Yahweh’s ark had come into the camp. 7. The Philistines were afraid, for they said, “God has come into the camp.” They said, “Woe to us! For there has not been such a thing before. 8. Woe to us! Who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods that struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness. 9. Be strong, and behave like men, O you Philistines, that you not be servants to the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Strengthen yourselves like men, and fight!” 10. The Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and each man fled to his tent. There was a very great slaughter; for thirty thousand footmen of Israel fell. 11. God’s ark was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain. 12. A man of Benjamin ran out of the army, and came to Shiloh the same day, with his clothes torn, and with dirt on his head. 13. When he came, behold, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road watching; for his heart trembled for God’s ark. When the man came into the city and told about it, all the city cried out. 14. When Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, “What does the noise of this tumult mean?” The man hurried, and came and told Eli. 15. Now Eli was ninety-eight years old. His eyes were set, so that he could not see. 16. The man said to Eli, “I am he who came out of the army, and I fled today out of the army.” He said, “How did the matter go, my son?” 17. He who brought the news answered, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been also a great slaughter among the people. Your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and God’s ark has been captured.” 18. When he made mention of God’s ark, Eli fell from off his seat backward by the side of the gate; and his neck broke, and he died; for he was an old man, and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years. 19. His daughter-in-law, Phinehas’ wife, was with child, near to be delivered. When she heard the news that God’s ark was taken, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and gave birth; for her pains came on her. 20. About the time of her death the women who stood by her said to her, “Don’t be afraid; for you have given birth to a son.” But she didn’t answer, neither did she regard it. 21. She named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel”; because God’s ark was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband. 22. She said, “The glory has departed from Israel; for God’s ark has been taken.” 1. Now the Philistines had taken God’s ark, and they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2. The Philistines took God’s ark, and brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. 3. When the people of Ashdod arose early on the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before Yahweh’s ark. They took Dagon, and set him in his place again. 4. When they arose early on the following morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before Yahweh’s ark; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off on the threshold. Only Dagon’s torso was intact. 5. Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any who come into Dagon’s house, step on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod, to this day. 6. But Yahweh’s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and struck them with tumors, even Ashdod and its borders. 7. When the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel shall not stay with us; for his hand is severe on us, and on Dagon our god.” 8. They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” They answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried over to Gath.” They carried the ark of the God of Israel there. 9. It was so, that after they had carried it there, Yahweh’s hand was against the city with a very great confusion; and he struck the men of the city, both small and great so that tumors broke out on them. 10. So they sent God’s ark to Ekron. As God’s ark came to Ekron, the Ekronites cried out, saying, “They have brought the ark of the God of Israel here to us, to kill us and our people.” 11. They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and they said, “Send the ark of the God of Israel away, and let it go again to its own place, that it not kill us and our people.” For there was a deadly confusion throughout all the city. The hand of God was very heavy there. 12. The men who didn’t die were struck with the tumors; and the cry of the city went up to heaven. 1. Yahweh’s ark was in the country of the Philistines seven months. 2. The Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What shall we do with Yahweh’s ark? Show us how we should send it to its place.” 3. They said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, don’t send it empty; but by all means return a trespass offering to him. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.” 4. Then they said, “What should the trespass offering be which we shall return to him?” They said, “Five golden tumors, and five golden mice, for the number of the lords of the Philistines; for one plague was on you all, and on your lords. 5. Therefore you shall make images of your tumors, and images of your mice that mar the land; and you shall give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will release his hand from you, from your gods, and from your land. 6. Why then do you harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had worked wonderfully among them, didn’t they let the people go, and they departed? 7. “Now therefore take and prepare yourselves a new cart, and two milk cows, on which there has come no yoke; and tie the cows to the cart, and bring their calves home from them; 8. and take Yahweh’s ark, and lay it on the cart. Put the jewels of gold, which you return him for a trespass offering, in a coffer by its side; and send it away, that it may go. 9. Behold; if it goes up by the way of its own border to Beth Shemesh, then he has done us this great evil; but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us. It was a chance that happened to us.” 10. The men did so, and took two milk cows, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. 11. They put Yahweh’s ark on the cart, and the coffer with the golden mice and the images of their tumors. 12. The cows took the straight way by the way to Beth Shemesh. They went along the highway, lowing as they went, and didn’t turn away to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them to the border of Beth Shemesh. 13. The people of Beth Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley; and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it. 14. The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and stood there, where there was a great stone. Then they split the wood of the cart, and offered up the cows for a burnt offering to Yahweh. 15. The Levites took down Yahweh’s ark, and the coffer that was with it, in which the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone; and the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day to Yahweh. 16. When the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day. 17. These are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering to Yahweh: for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one; 18. and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fortified cities and of country villages, even to the great stone, on which they set down Yahweh’s ark. That stone remains to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh. 19. He struck of the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into Yahweh’s ark, he struck fifty thousand seventy of the men. Then the people mourned, because Yahweh had struck the people with a great slaughter. 20. The men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before Yahweh, this holy God? To whom shall he go up from us?” 21. They sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have brought back Yahweh’s ark. Come down, and bring it up to yourselves.” 1. The men of Kiriath Jearim came, and took Yahweh’s ark, and brought it into Abinadab’s house on the hill, and consecrated Eleazar his son to keep Yahweh’s ark. 2. From the day that the ark stayed in Kiriath Jearim, the time was long; for it was twenty years; and all the house of Israel lamented after Yahweh. 3. Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you are returning to Yahweh with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, and direct your hearts to Yahweh, and serve him only; and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” 4. Then the children of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and served Yahweh only. 5. Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to Yahweh for you.” 6. They gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before Yahweh, and fasted on that day, and said there, “We have sinned against Yahweh.” Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah. 7. When the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. When the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. 8. The children of Israel said to Samuel, “Don’t stop crying to Yahweh our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.” 9. Samuel took a suckling lamb, and offered it for a whole burnt offering to Yahweh. Samuel cried to Yahweh for Israel; and Yahweh answered him. 10. As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines came near to battle against Israel; but Yahweh thundered with a great thunder on that day on the Philistines, and confused them; and they were struck down before Israel. 11. The men of Israel went out of Mizpah, and pursued the Philistines, and struck them, until they came under Beth Kar. 12. Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Yahweh helped us until now.” 13. So the Philistines were subdued, and they stopped coming within the border of Israel. Yahweh’s hand was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. 14. The cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even to Gath; and Israel recovered its border out of the hand of the Philistines. There was peace between Israel and the Amorites. 15. Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. 16. He went from year to year in a circuit to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah; and he judged Israel in all those places. 17. His return was to Ramah, for his house was there; and he judged Israel there; and he built an altar to Yahweh there.

1. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2. to whom also Abraham divided a tenth part of all (being first, by interpretation, “king of righteousness”, and then also “king of Salem”, which means “king of peace”; 3. without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God), remains a priest continually. 4. Now consider how great this man was, to whom even Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth out of the best plunder. 5. They indeed of the sons of Levi who receive the priest’s office have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brothers, though these have come out of the body of Abraham, 6. but he whose genealogy is not counted from them has accepted tithes from Abraham, and has blessed him who has the promises. 7. But without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater. 8. Here people who die receive tithes, but there one receives tithes of whom it is testified that he lives. 9. We can say that through Abraham even Levi, who receives tithes, has paid tithes, 10. for he was yet in the body of his father when Melchizedek met him. 11. Now if there were perfection through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people have received the law), what further need was there for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be called after the order of Aaron? 12. For the priesthood being changed, there is of necessity a change made also in the law. 13. For he of whom these things are said belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar. 14. For it is evident that our Lord has sprung out of Judah, about which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. 15. This is yet more abundantly evident, if after the likeness of Melchizedek there arises another priest, 16. who has been made, not after the law of a fleshly commandment, but after the power of an endless life: 17. for it is testified, “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” 18. For there is an annulling of a foregoing commandment because of its weakness and uselessness 19. (for the law made nothing perfect), and a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. 20. Inasmuch as he was not made priest without the taking of an oath 21. (for they indeed have been made priests without an oath), but he with an oath by him that says of him, “The Lord swore and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.’” 22. By so much, Jesus has become the collateral of a better covenant. 23. Many, indeed, have been made priests, because they are hindered from continuing by death. 24. But he, because he lives forever, has his priesthood unchangeable. 25. Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them. 26. For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; 27. who doesn’t need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself. 28. For the law appoints men as high priests who have weakness, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints a Son forever who has been perfected. 1. Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this. We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2. a servant of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man. 3. For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer. 4. For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, seeing there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; 5. who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses was warned by God when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, “See, you shall make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.” 6. But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which on better promises has been given as law. 7. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8. For finding fault with them, he said, “Behold, the days come”, says the Lord, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; 9. not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they didn’t continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them,” says the Lord. 10. “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days,” says the Lord; “I will put my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11. They will not teach every man his fellow citizen, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all will know me, from their least to their greatest. 12. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more.” 13. In that he says, “A new covenant”, he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing away. 1. Now indeed even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service, and an earthly sanctuary. 2. For a tabernacle was prepared. In the first part were the lamp stand, the table, and the show bread; which is called the Holy Place. 3. After the second veil was the tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, 4. having a golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which was a golden pot holding the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; 5. and above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, of which things we can’t speak now in detail. 6. Now these things having been thus prepared, the priests go in continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services, 7. but into the second the high priest alone, once in the year, not without blood, which he offers for himself, and for the errors of the people. 8. The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the Holy Place wasn’t yet revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing; 9. which is a symbol of the present age, where gifts and sacrifices are offered that are incapable, concerning the conscience, of making the worshiper perfect; 10. being only (with meats and drinks and various washings) fleshly ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation. 11. But Christ having come as a high priest of the coming good things, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, 12. nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption. 13. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify to the cleanness of the flesh: 14. how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15. For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. 16. For where a last will and testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him who made it. 17. For a will is in force where there has been death, for it is never in force while he who made it lives. 18. Therefore even the first covenant has not been dedicated without blood. 19. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20. saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” 21. Moreover he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry in the same way with the blood. 22. According to the law, nearly everything is cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission. 23. It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24. For Christ hasn’t entered into holy places made with hands, which are representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25. nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place year by year with blood not his own, 26. or else he must have suffered often since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the ages, he has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27. Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment, 28. so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, without sin, to those who are eagerly waiting for him for salvation.

1. God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture? 2. Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance; Mount Zion, in which you have lived. 3. Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary. 4. Your adversaries have roared in the middle of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs. 5. They behaved like men wielding axes, cutting through a thicket of trees. 6. Now they break all its carved work down with hatchet and hammers. 7. They have burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have profaned the dwelling place of your Name. 8. They said in their heart, “We will crush them completely.” They have burned up all the places in the land where God was worshiped. 9. We see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any prophet, neither is there among us anyone who knows how long. 10. How long, God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever? 11. Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it from your chest and consume them! 12. Yet God is my King of old, working salvation throughout the earth. 13. You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters. 14. You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and desert creatures. 15. You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers. 16. The day is yours, the night is also yours. You have prepared the light and the sun. 17. You have set all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter. 18. Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, Yahweh. Foolish people have blasphemed your name. 19. Don’t deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Don’t forget the life of your poor forever. 20. Honor your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth. 21. Don’t let the oppressed return ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise your name. 22. Arise, God! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day. 23. Don’t forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.