Day after day every priest stands to minister and to offer again and again the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
Parallel translations
- WEB Every priest indeed stands day by day serving and often offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins,
- KJV And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
- ESV And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
- NKJV And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
- NASB Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;
- NLT Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Every old-covenant priest stood daily offering the same sacrifices that could never remove sins. Their work was endless and ineffective.
Overview
The author pictures the priests perpetually standing and repeating offerings that 'can never take away sins'. The standing posture and constant repetition signal unfinished work. This deliberately contrasts with the seated, finished posture of Christ in the next verse.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Heb 10:4because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
- Num 28:3And tell them that this is the offering made by fire you are to present to the LORD as a regular burnt offering each day: two unblemished year-old male lambs.
- Heb 5:1Every high priest is appointed from among men to represent them in matters relating to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
- Ps 50:8–13I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices, and your burnt offerings are ever before Me.
- Heb 7:27Unlike the other high priests, He does not need to offer daily sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people; He sacrificed for sin once for all when He offered up Himself.
- Heb 10:1For the law is only a shadow of the good things to come, not the realities themselves. It can never, by the same sacrifices offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
- Isa 1:11“What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?” says the LORD. “I am full from the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I take no delight in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
- Dan 9:27And he will confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of the temple will come the abomination that causes desolation, until the decreed destruction is poured out upon him.”
- Luke 1:9–10he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.
- Dan 12:11And from the time the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation set up, there will be 1,290 days.
- Dan 8:11It magnified itself, even to the Prince of the host; it removed His daily sacrifice and overthrew the place of His sanctuary.
- Dan 9:21while I was still praying, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice.
- Dan 11:31His forces will rise up and desecrate the temple fortress. They will abolish the daily sacrifice and set up the abomination of desolation.
- Num 28:24Offer the same food each day for seven days as an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma to the LORD. It is to be offered with its drink offering and the regular burnt offering.
- Ezek 45:4It will be a holy portion of the land to be used by the priests who minister in the sanctuary, who draw near to minister before the LORD. It will be a place for their houses, as well as a holy area for the sanctuary.
- Num 29:6These are in addition to the monthly and daily burnt offerings with their prescribed grain offerings and drink offerings. They are a pleasing aroma, an offering made by fire to the LORD.
- Exod 29:38–39This is what you are to offer regularly on the altar, each day: two lambs that are a year old.
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Christ at the center
Hebrews is sustained worship of Christ: better than angels, Moses, and the priests; the great High Priest after Melchizedek who by one sacrifice perfects forever those he saves.
How Hebrews 10:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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