5 Every high priest, you see, is chosen from among human beings, and is placed before God on their behalf, so that he can offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. ² He is able to sympathize with people who don’t know very much, or who wander off in different directions, since he too has his own share of weakness. ³ That’s why he has to offer sacrifices in relation to his own sins as well as those of the people.

The son becomes the priest

⁴ Nobody takes the office of priesthood on himself; you have to be called by God, just as Aaron was. ⁵ In the same way, the Messiah didn’t exalt himself so that he might become a high priest. It came about through the one who said to him,

⁶ As he says in another passage,

⁷ During the time of Jesus’ earthly life, he offered up prayers and supplications, with loud shouts and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death. He was heard because of his devotion. ⁸ Son though he was, he learned obedience through what he suffered. ⁹ When he had been made complete and perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, ¹⁰ since he has been designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Are you ready for solid food?

¹¹ We have plenty to say about all this. But it may be hard to make it clear, because your capacity to take things in has become sluggish. ¹² Yes: by now you really should have become teachers, but you need someone to teach you the basic elementary beginnings of God’s oracles. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³ Everyone who drinks milk, you see, is unskilled in the word of God’s justice; such people are just babies. ¹⁴ Mature people need solid food—and by “mature” I mean people whose faculties have been trained by practice, to distinguish good from evil.