1 To continue: In the first covenant, God regulated how people should perform rituals, and he told them to make [MTY] a sanctuary. 2 That sanctuary was a tent that the Israelites set up. In its outer room there was the lampstand and the table on which they put the bread that the priests presented to God. That room was called ‘the holy place’. 3 Behind the curtain inside the holy place there was another room. That was called ‘the very holy place’. 4 It had an altar, made from gold, for burning incense. It also had the chest which they called the chest of the covenant. All its sides were covered with gold. In it was the golden pot which contained pieces of the food they called manna. That was the food with which God miraculously fed the people before they entered the promised land. In the chest there was also Aaron’s walking stick that budded to prove that he was God’s true priest. In the chest were also the stone tablets on which God had written the Ten Commandments. 5 On top of the chest were figures of winged creatures that symbolized God’s glory. Their wings overshadowed the chest’s lid where the high priest sprinkled the blood ◄to atone for/to forgive► those who had sinned. I do not need to write about these things in detail now.