Isaiah 56:7

56:7 I will bring them to my holy mountain;

I will make them happy in the temple where people pray to me. ¹ 

Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar,

for my temple will be known as a temple where all nations may pray.” ² 

Isaiah 61:6

61:6 You will be called, ‘the Lord’s priests,

servants of our God.’ ³ 

You will enjoy ⁴  the wealth of nations

and boast about ⁵  the riches you receive from them. ⁶ 

Ezekiel 43:19-27

43:19 you will give a young bull for a sin offering to the Levitical priests who are descended from Zadok, who approach me to minister to me, declares the sovereign Lord. 43:20 You will take some of its blood, and place it on the four horns of the altar, on the four corners of the ledge, and on the border all around; you will cleanse it and make atonement for it. ⁷  43:21 You will also take the bull for the sin offering, and it will be burned in the appointed place in the temple, outside the sanctuary.

43:22 “On the second day, you will offer a male goat without blemish for a sin offering. They will purify the altar just as they purified it with the bull. 43:23 When you have finished purifying it, you will offer an unblemished young bull and an unblemished ram from the flock. 43:24 You will present them before the Lord, and the priests will scatter salt on them ⁸  and offer them up as a burnt offering to the Lord.

43:25 “For seven days you will provide every day a goat for a sin offering; a young bull and a ram from the flock, both without blemish, will be provided. 43:26 For seven days they will make atonement for the altar and cleanse it, so they will consecrate it. ⁹  43:27 When the prescribed period is over, ¹⁰  on the eighth day and thereafter the priests will offer up on the altar your burnt offerings and your peace offerings; ¹¹  I will accept you, declares the sovereign Lord.”

Ezekiel 44:9-11

44:9 This is what the sovereign Lord says: No foreigner, who is uncircumcised in heart and flesh among all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel, will enter into my sanctuary. ¹² 

44:10 “‘But the Levites who went far from me, straying off from me after their idols when Israel went astray, will be responsible for ¹³  their sin. 44:11 Yet they will be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the temple, and serving the temple. They will slaughter the burnt offerings and the sacrifices for the people, and they will stand before them to minister to them.

Ezekiel 45:5

45:5 An area eight and a quarter miles ¹⁴  in length and three and one-third miles ¹⁵  in width will be for the Levites, who minister at the temple, as the place for the cities ¹⁶  in which they will live.

Romans 1:21

1:21 For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts ¹⁷  were darkened.

Romans 15:16

15:16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. I serve ¹⁸  the gospel of God ¹⁹  like a priest, so that the Gentiles may become an acceptable offering, ²⁰  sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 13:15-16

13:15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, acknowledging his name. 13:16 And do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, ²¹  for God is pleased with such sacrifices.

Hebrews 13:1

Final Exhortations

13:1 Brotherly love must continue.

Hebrews 2:5

Exposition of Psalm 8: Jesus and the Destiny of Humanity

2:5 For he did not put the world to come, ²²  about which we are speaking, ²³  under the control of angels.

Hebrews 2:9

2:9 but we see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, ²⁴  now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, ²⁵  so that by God’s grace he would experience ²⁶  death on behalf of everyone.

Revelation 1:6

1:6 and has appointed ²⁷  us as a kingdom, ²⁸  as priests ²⁹  serving his God and Father – to him be the glory and the power for ever and ever! ³⁰  Amen.

Revelation 5:10

5:10 You have appointed ³¹  them ³²  as a kingdom and priests ³³  to serve ³⁴  our God, and they will reign ³⁵  on the earth.”

[56:7]  ¹ tn Heb “in the house of my prayer.”

[56:7]  ² tn Heb “for my house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations.”

[61:6]  ³ tn The Hebrew text adds, “it will be said concerning you.”

[61:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “eat” (KJV, NAB, NASB); NIV “feed on”; NLT “be fed with.”

[61:6]  ⁵ tc The form in the Hebrew text is probably a corruption of יִתְאַמְּרוּ (yit’ammÿru), a Hitpael from אָמַר (’amar), meaning “boast about” (see HALOT 67 s.v. II אמר, HALOT 416 s.v. ימר, and BDB 56 s.v. אָמַר).

[61:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “their glory” (i.e., riches).

[43:20]  ⁷ sn Note the similar language in Lev 16:18.

[43:24]  ⁸ sn It is likely that salt was used with sacrificial meals (Num 18:19; 2 Chr 13:5).

[43:26]  ⁹ tn Heb “fill its hands.”

[43:27]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and they will complete the days.”

[43:27]  ¹¹ sn The people also could partake of the food of the peace offering (Lev 3).

[44:9]  ¹² sn Tobiah, an Ammonite (Neh 13:8), was dismissed from the temple.

[44:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “will bear.”

[45:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “twenty-five thousand cubits” (i.e., 13.125 kilometers).

[45:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “ten thousand cubits” (i.e., 5.25 kilometers).

[45:5]  ¹⁶ tc The translation follows the LXX here. The MT reads “twenty.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:246.

[1:21]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “heart.”

[15:16]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “serving.” This is a continuation of the previous sentence in the Greek text, but in keeping with contemporary English style, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[15:16]  ¹⁹ tn The genitive in the phrase τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ θεοῦ (to euangelion tou qeou, “the gospel of God”) could be translated as either a subjective genitive (“the gospel which God brings”) or an objective genitive (“the gospel about God”). Either is grammatically possible. This is possibly an instance of a plenary genitive (see ExSyn 119-21; M. Zerwick, Biblical Greek, §§36-39). If so, an interplay between the two concepts is intended: The gospel which God brings is in fact the gospel about himself.

[15:16]  ²⁰ tn Grk “so that the offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable.” This could be understood to refer to an offering belonging to the Gentiles (a possessive genitive) or made by the Gentiles (subjective genitive), but more likely the phrase should be understood as an appositive genitive, with the Gentiles themselves consisting of the offering (so J. D. G. Dunn, Romans [WBC 38], 2:860). The latter view is reflected in the translation “so that the Gentiles may become an acceptable offering.”

[13:16]  ²¹ tn Grk “neglect doing good and fellowship.”

[2:5]  ²² sn The phrase the world to come means “the coming inhabited earth,” using the Greek term which describes the world of people and their civilizations.

[2:5]  ²³ sn See the previous reference to the world in Heb 1:6.

[2:9]  ²⁴ tn Or “who was made a little lower than the angels.”

[2:9]  ²⁵ tn Grk “because of the suffering of death.”

[2:9]  ²⁶ tn Grk “would taste.” Here the Greek verb does not mean “sample a small amount” (as a typical English reader might infer from the word “taste”), but “experience something cognitively or emotionally; come to know something” (cf. BDAG 195 s.v. γεύομαι 2).

[1:6]  ²⁷ tn The verb ποιέω (poiew) can indicate appointment or assignment rather than simply “make” or “do.” See Mark 3:14 (L&N 37.106).

[1:6]  ²⁸ tn See BDAG 168 s.v. βασιλεία 1.a for the idea of “he made us a kingdom,” which was translated as “he appointed us (to be or function) as a kingdom” (see the note on the word “appointed” earlier in the verse).

[1:6]  ²⁹ tn Grk “a kingdom, priests.” The term ἱερεῖς (Jiereis) is either in apposition to βασιλείαν (basileian) or as a second complement to the object “us” (ἡμᾶς, Jhmas). The translation retains this ambiguity.

[1:6]  ³⁰ tc Both the longer reading τῶν αἰώνων (twn aiwnwn, “to the ages of the ages” or, more idiomatically, “for ever and ever”; found in א C Ï) and the shorter (“for ever”; found in ̹⁸ A P 2050 pc bo) have good ms support. The author uses the longer expression (εἰς [τοὺς] αἰῶνας [τῶν] αἰώνων, ei" [tou"] aiwna" [twn] aiwnwn) in every other instance of αἰών in Revelation, twelve passages in all (1:18; 4:9, 10; 5:13; 7:12; 10:6; 11:15; 14:11; 15:7; 19:3; 20:10; 22:5). Thus, on the one hand, the style of the author is consistent, while on the other hand, the scribes may have been familiar with such a stylistic feature, causing them to add the words here. The issues are more complex than can be presented here; the longer reading, however, is probably original (the shorter reading arising from accidental omission of the genitive phrase due to similarity with the preceding words).

[5:10]  ³¹ tn The verb ἐποίησας (epoihsas) is understood to mean “appointed” here. For an example of this use, see Mark 3:14.

[5:10]  ³² tc The vast majority of witnesses have αὐτούς (autous, “them”) here, while the Textus Receptus reads ἡμᾶς (Jhmas, “us”) with insignificant support (pc gig vg^cl sa Prim Bea). There is no question that the original text read αὐτούς here.

[5:10]  ³³ tn The reference to “kingdom and priests” may be a hendiadys: “priestly kingdom.”

[5:10]  ³⁴ tn The words “to serve” are not in the Greek text, but are implied by the word “priests.”

[5:10]  ³⁵ tc The textual problem here between the present tense βασιλεύουσιν (basileuousin, “they are reigning”; so A 1006 1611 Ï^K pc) and the future βασιλεύσουσιν (basileusousin, “they will reign”; so א 1854 2053 Ï^A pc lat co) is a difficult one. Both readings have excellent support. On the one hand, the present tense seems to be the harder reading in this context. On the other hand, codex A elsewhere mistakes the future for the present (20:6). Further, the lunar sigma in uncial script could have been overlooked by some scribes, resulting in the present tense. All things considered, there is a slight preference for the future.