“Let us go to Him outside the camp”
And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate, to sanctify the people by His own blood. Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore. (Hebrews 13:12–13 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A geographic footnote turned into an exhortation.
The cultural key
On the Day of Atonement, the sin offering's blood entered the sanctuary but the carcass was carried outside the camp and burned there (Leviticus 16:27): holiest blood, most unclean disposal ground. Jesus was crucified outside Jerusalem's wall, matching the sin offering's geography exactly. The letter's audience, Jewish believers under pressure to retreat into the synagogue's safe, legal shelter, is told where their altar now stands: not inside the sacred precincts but out at the disposal ground.
Recovered meaning
The place of expulsion turned out to be the place of atonement, so expulsion is now an address, not an exile: go out to him, and carry the shame as regalia. For readers weighing a quiet return to respectability, this is the letter's whole appeal in one sentence.