9:1–5 The “first covenant” was the Mosaic Covenant. The writer compared it first to the New Covenant that replaced it. The outer tabernacle (lit. dwelling place) was the holy place (v. 2), and the inner tabernacle was the holy of holies (v. 3). “The table and the sacred bread” (v. 2) is a hendiadys for “the table of sacred bread.” A hendiadys is a figure of speech in which a writer expresses a single complex idea by joining two substantives with “and” rather than by using an adjective and a substantive.
“According to the rabbis, the ark disappeared at the time of the early prophets (Mishnah, Yoma 5:2; Shekalim 6:1f.); and there was a tradition that Jeremiah hid it (2 Macc. 2:4ff.).”
The details can be found in Ex 25:31–39; 37:17–24 - candlestick;
The table of the shewbread - Ex 25:23–30; 37:10–16;
There were 12 breads twice 6 breads placed each Sabbath (Lev 24:5–8).
Exodus 26:33 speaks about only one curtain, but other sources speak about two Philo, Jospeh Flavius, Talmud;
According to Ex 30:6–8 - golden censor - was still in the Holy Place.
Ex 25:16 - speaks about the tables of the covenant, Ex 16:33 LXX speaks about the golden jar full of the Manna to be placed before the Lord. The tradition about the Aaron’s rod that budded is taken from Numbers 17:16–26.
9:6–10
He passed on to the “regulations of divine service” (v. 1) in the Old Covenant to show its inferiority further. The “outer tabernacle” is the holy place (v. 6), and “the second” is the holy of holies (v. 7). The high priest entered the holy of holies only once a year on the Day of Atonement to offer the special sacrifices for that day (Lev. 16:2). His offering then covered those sins of the people that they committed ignorantly as opposed to those they committed in deliberate apostasy (cf. Lev. 4:1–2; 5:17–19).
Some ignorance is culpable; sins of this kind do matter. In Israel the punishment for deliberate rebellion against the Mosaic Covenant was death. It is about this apostasy that the writer warned his audience. He also comforted them with the assurance that their High Priest would deal gently with the misguided who sin ignorantly (5:2).
The writer clarified that the Holy Spirit intended to communicate the fact that the Levitical system did not provide access for the ordinary believer. The “holy place” is God’s throne-room in heaven, and the “outer [lit. first] tabernacle” refers to the earthly tabernacle and its successors, namely, the temples in Israel (v. 8).
The Old Covenant system of worship did not meet the deepest need of God’s people, namely, intimate personal relationship with God. Its rites and ceremonies extended mainly to external matters until God would provide a better system at “a time of reformation” (v. 10).
This comparison helps us keep externals in their proper perspective as secondary to inward reality with God. Relationship with God purifies the conscience. It is possible to fulfill all the outward obligations of religion and still have a conscience that is not right with God (v. 9). This is one of the tragic inadequacies of religion that does not involve relationship with God.
“The necessity of a cleansed conscience is insisted upon throughout the letter [9:9, 14; 10:2, 22; 13:18]. A conscience stained with sin is the one effective barrier to man’s fellowship with God …”[281]
The Old Covenant sanctuary was inferior for five reasons. It was an earthly sanctuary (v. 1), it was a type of something greater (vv. 2–5), and it was inaccessible to the people (vv. 6–7). Furthermore it was only temporary (v. 8) and its ministry was external rather than internal (vv. 9–10).[284]