Discovery BoxHebrews 9:5 
Context9:5 And above the ark 1 were the cherubim 2 of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Now is not the time to speak of these things in detail.
Hebrews 9:7
Context9:7 But only the high priest enters once a year into the inner tent, 3 and not without blood that he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. 4
Hebrews 9:11-12
Context9:11 But now Christ has come 5 as the high priest of the good things to come. He passed through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, 9:12 and he entered once for all into the most holy place not by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood, and so he himself secured 6 eternal redemption.
1 tn Grk “above it”; in the translation the referent (the ark) has been specified for clarity.
2 sn The cherubim (pl.) were an order of angels mentioned repeatedly in the OT but only here in the NT. They were associated with God’s presence, glory, and holiness. Their images that sat on top of the ark of the covenant are described in Exod 25:18-20.
3 tn Grk “the second tent.”
4 tn Or perhaps “the unintentional sins of the people”; Grk “the ignorances of the people.” Cf. BDAG 13 s.v. ἀγνόημα, “sin committed in ignorance/unintentionally.” This term seems to be simply a synonym for “sins” (cf. Heb 5:2) and does not pick up the distinction made in Num 15:22-31 between unwitting sin and “high-handed” sin. The Day of Atonement ritual in Lev 16 covered all the sins of the people, not just the unwitting ones.
5 tn Grk “But Christ, when he came,” introducing a sentence that includes all of Heb 9:11-12. The main construction is “Christ, having come…, entered…, having secured…,” and everything else describes his entrance.
6 tn This verb occurs in the Greek middle voice, which here intensifies the role of the subject, Christ, in accomplishing the action: “he alone secured”; “he and no other secured.”
