That is, because of the general principle laid down in v. 22.

 Gr. hupodeigmata (see on ch. 8:5). The wilderness tabernacle and its furnishings were representations of heavenly realities, foreshadowing the work that our great High Priest would do for sins.

 Gr. katharizō, “to cleanse” (see on v. 14).

 That is, the things mentioned in vs. 18-22.

The word “things” is supplied. The Greek has merely a plural article with the plural adjective. However, the neuter gender indicates that “things” is appropriately supplied. The author is contrasting heavenly things with the various earthly items he has mentioned. The term is very general and may refer to anything connected with the heavenly service of Christ. The emphasis of the passage is not upon the act of cleansing, but upon the need for cleansing by a better sacrifice, namely, by the blood of Christ.

 There has been much discussion among commentators as to why anything in heaven, which is a place of purity, should require cleansing, and what it is that was purified by the blood of Christ. Some assert that it is quite impossible to understand the author’s meaning. Others make suggestions, such as that the cleansing consisted of the appeasing of the wrath of God. This view must be rejected, for it reveals a misunderstanding of the nature of God, and of the atonement (see on Rom. 5:10).

 Perhaps the difficulty arises from trying to press the author’s comparison too far. His main point is clear: he is showing that Christ’s sacrifice was vastly superior to that of the animal sacrifices. The blood of calves and of goats cleansed “things” (Heb. 9:22) relating to the earthly tabernacle, the sanctuary of the old covenant (v. 1). Christ’s blood was related to the service in the “true tabernacle” (ch. 8:2), the sanctuary of the new covenant (ch. 9:11, 15). The former provided ceremonial purity, the latter, moral (see on vs. 13, 14).

 Christ has appeared “in the presence of God for us” (v. 24). “He ever liveth to make intercession” for us (ch. 7:25). The reason we need someone to appear in the presence of God for us and to intercede for us is that we have sinned. Christ “appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (ch. 9:26). Now he is ministering the benefits of His atonement in the sinner’s behalf. As a result of this the sinner’s conscience is purged (v. 14). The word here translated “purge” is katharizō, which in v. 23 is translated “purified.” Compare with 1 John 1:9, where katharizō is translated “cleanse.” Thus Jesus as minister of the true tabernacle, appearing in the presence of God for us, and interceding for us, is carrying on a work of cleansing, a cleansing that has to do with the sins of repentant men.

 However, Christ also performs a special work of cleansing the heavenly sanctuary, which answers to the service performed by the high priest in the earthly sanctuary on the Day of Atonement (see on Lev. 16). Of this special work of Christ, the prophet Daniel speaks: “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed [katharizō, LXX]” (Dan. 8:14).When the year-day principle is applied to this his time period its termination is A.D. 1844 (see on Dan. 8:14). By that time the earthly temple, a pattern of the things in the heavens, had long since disappeared. The reference (Dan. 8:14) must therefore be to the sanctuary of the new covenant, “the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man” (Heb. 8:2). See on Dan. 8:14.

The plural is here used for the single sacrifice of Christ, probably because the one sacrifice took the place of the multitude of sacrifices under the old system.