6 But now Christ has obtained a ministry as much more excellent as the covenant of which he is mediator is better and based upon better promises.7 For if that first covenant had been faultless a place would not have been sought for a second.8 But finding fault with it he says, "The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make for the house of Israel and for the house of Judah a new covenant,9 not in the manner of the covenant which I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not abide by my covenant and I ceased to care for them, says the Lord.10 This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put my laws into their minds and will write them upon their hearts and I will be their God and they will be my people.11 They shall not teach each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother saying, 'Know the Lord'; for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them,12 and I will be merciful to their wrong-doings and their sins I will remember no more."13 In saying "new" he has pronounced the first covenant old. But what grows old and decadent is near to disappearance.