7 This Malki-Tzedek, king of Shalem, a cohen of God Ha‘Elyon, met Avraham on his way back from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him; ² also Avraham gave him a tenth of everything.^[a]

Now first of all, by translation of his name, he is “king of righteousness”; and then he is also king of Shalem, which means “king of peace.”

³ There is no record of his father, mother, ancestry, birth or death; rather, like the Son of God, he continues as a cohen for all time.

⁴ Just think how great he was! Even the Patriarch Avraham gave him a tenth of the choicest spoils. ⁵ Now the descendants of Levi who became cohanim have a commandment in the Torah to take a tenth of the income of the people, that is, from their own brothers, despite the fact that they too are descended from Avraham. ⁶ But Malki-Tzedek, even though he was not descended from Levi, took a tenth from Avraham.

Also, he blessed Avraham, the man who received God’s promises; ⁷ and it is beyond all dispute that the one who blesses has higher status than the one who receives the blessing.

⁸ Moreover, in the case of the cohanim, the tenth is received by men who die; while in the case of Malki-Tzedek, it is received by someone who is testified to be still alive.

⁹ One might go even further and say that Levi, who himself receives tenths, paid a tenth through Avraham; ¹⁰ inasmuch as he was still in his ancestor Avraham’s body when Malki-Tzedek met him.

¹¹ Therefore, if it had been possible to reach the goal through the system of cohanim derived from Levi (since in connection with it, the people were given the Torah), what need would there have been for another, different kind of cohen, the one spoken of as to be compared with Malki-Tzedek and not to be compared with Aharon? ¹² For if the system of cohanim is transformed, there must of necessity occur a transformation of Torah. ¹³ The one about whom these things are said belongs to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar; ¹⁴ for everyone knows that our Lord arose out of Y’hudah, and that Moshe said nothing about this tribe when he spoke about cohanim.

¹⁵ It becomes even clearer if a “different kind of cohen,” one like Malki-Tzedek, arises, ¹⁶ one who became a cohen not by virtue of a rule in the Torah concerning physical descent, but by virtue of the power of an indestructible life. ¹⁷ For it is stated,

¹⁸ Thus, on the one hand, the earlier rule is set aside because of its weakness and inefficacy ¹⁹ (for the Torah did not bring anything to the goal); and, on the other hand, a hope of something better is introduced, through which we are drawing near to God.

⁸ By trusting, Avraham obeyed, after being called to go out^[a] to a place which God would give him as a possession; indeed, he went out without knowing where he was going. ⁹ By trusting, he lived as a temporary resident in the Land of the promise, as if it were not his, staying in tents with Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov, who were to receive what was promised along with him. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city with permanent foundations, of which the architect and builder is God.

¹¹ By trusting, he received potency to father a child, even when he was past the age for it, as was Sarah herself; because he regarded the One who had made the promise as trustworthy. ¹² Therefore this one man, who was virtually dead, fathered descendants