Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Ezekiel 21 / Basic English

1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
2. Son of man, let your face be turned to Jerusalem, let your words be dropped in the direction of her holy place, and be a prophet against the land of Israel;
3. And say to the land of Israel, These are the words of the Lord: See, I am against you, and I will take my sword out of its cover, cutting off from you the upright and the evil.
4. Because I am going to have the upright and the evil cut off from you, for this cause my sword will go out from its cover against all flesh from the south to the north:
5. And all flesh will see that I the Lord have taken my sword out of its cover: and it will never go back.
6. Make sounds of grief, son of man; with body bent and a bitter heart make sounds of grief before their eyes.
7. And when they say to you, Why are you making sounds of grief? then say, Because of the news, for it is coming: and every heart will become soft, and all hands will be feeble, and every spirit will be burning low, and all knees will be turned to water: see, it is coming and it will be done, says the Lord.
8. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
9. Son of man, say as a prophet, These are the words of the Lord: Say, A sword, a sword which has been made sharp and polished:
10. It has been made sharp to give death; it is polished so that it may be like a thunder-flame: ...
11. And I have given it to the polisher so that it may be taken in the hand: he has made the sword sharp, he has had it polished, to put it into the hand of him who gives death.
12. Give loud cries and make sounds of grief, O son of man: for it has come on my people, it has come on all the rulers of Israel: fear of the sword has come on my people: for this cause give signs of grief.
13. ...
14. So then, son of man, be a prophet, and put your hands together with a loud sound, and give two blows with the sword, and even three; it is the sword of those who are wounded, even the sword of the wounded; the great sword which goes round about them.
15. In order that hearts may become soft, and the number of those who are falling may be increased, I have sent death by the sword against all their doors: you are made like a flame, you are polished for death.
16. Be pointed to the right, to the left, wherever your edge is ordered.
17. And I will put my hands together with a loud sound, and I will let my wrath have rest: I the Lord have said it.
18. And the word of the Lord came to me again, saying,
19. And you, son of man, have two ways marked out, so that the sword of the king of Babylon may come; let the two of them come out of one land: and let there be a pillar at the top of the road:
20. Put a pillar at the top of the road for the sword to come to Rabbah in the land of the children of Ammon, and to Judah and to Jerusalem in the middle of her.
21. For the king of Babylon took his place at the parting of the ways, at the top of the two roads, to make use of secret arts: shaking the arrows this way and that, he put questions to the images of his gods, he took note of the inner parts of dead beasts.
22. At his right hand was the fate of Jerusalem, to give orders for destruction, to send up the war-cry, to put engines of war against the doors, lifting up earthworks, building walls.
23. And this answer given by secret arts will seem false to those who have given their oaths and have let them be broken: but he will keep the memory of evil-doing so that they may be taken.
24. For this cause the Lord has said: Because you have made your evil-doing come to mind by the uncovering of your wrongdoing, causing your sins to be seen in all your evil-doings; because you have come to mind, you will be taken in them.
25. And you, O evil one, wounded to death, O ruler of Israel, whose day has come in the time of the last punishment;
26. This is what the Lord has said: Take away the holy head-dress, take off the crown: this will not be again: let that which is low be lifted up, and that which is high be made low.
27. I will let it be overturned, overturned, overturned: this will not be again till he comes whose right it is; and I will give it to him.
28. And you, son of man, say as a prophet, This is what the Lord has said about the children of Ammon and about their shame: Say, A sword, even a sword let loose, polished for death, to make it shining so that it may be like a flame:
29. Your vision is to no purpose, your use of secret arts gives a false answer, to put it on the necks of evil-doers who are wounded to death, whose day has come, in the time of the last punishment.
30. Go back into your cover. In the place where you were made, in the land from which you were taken, I will be your judge.
31. And I will let loose my burning passion on you, breathing out on you the fire of my wrath: and I will give you up into the hands of men like beasts, trained to destruction.
32. You will be food for the fire; your blood will be drained out in the land; there will be no more memory of you: for I the Lord have said it.

Ezekiel 22 / Basic English

1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
2. And you, son of man, will you be a judge, will you be a judge of the town of blood? then make clear to her all her disgusting ways.
3. And you are to say, This is what the Lord has said: A town causing blood to be drained out in her streets so that her time may come, and making images in her to make her unclean!
4. You are responsible for the blood drained out by you, and you are unclean through the images which you have made; and you have made your day come near, and the time of your judging has come; for this cause I have made you a name of shame to the nations and a cause of laughing to all countries.
5. Those who are near and those who are far from you will make sport of you; your name is unclean, you are full of sounds of fear.
6. See, the rulers of Israel, every one in his family, have been causing death in you.
7. In you they have had no respect for father and mother; in you they have been cruel to the man from a strange land; in you they have done wrong to the child without a father and to the widow.
8. You have made little of my holy things, and have made my Sabbaths unclean.
9. In you there are men who say evil of others, causing death; in you they have taken the flesh with the blood for food; in your streets they have put evil designs into effect.
10. In you they have let the shame of their fathers be seen; in you they have done wrong to a woman at the time when she was unclean.
11. And in you one man has done what was disgusting with his neighbour's wife; and another has made his daughter-in-law unclean; and another has done wrong to his sister, his father's daughter.
12. In you they have taken rewards as the price of blood; you have taken interest and great profits, and you have taken away your neighbours' goods by force, and have not kept me in mind, says the Lord.
13. See, then, I have made my hands come together in wrath against your taking of goods by force and against the blood which has been flowing in you.
14. Will your heart be high or your hands strong in the days when I take you in hand? I the Lord have said it and will do it.
15. And I will send you in flight among the nations and wandering among the countries; and I will completely take away out of you everything which is unclean.
16. And you will be made low before the eyes of the nations; and it will be clear to you that I am the Lord.
17. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
18. Son of man, the children of Israel have become like the poorest sort of waste metal to me: they are all silver and brass and tin and iron and lead mixed with waste.
19. For this cause the Lord has said: Because you have all become waste metal, see, I will get you together inside Jerusalem.
20. As they put silver and brass and iron and lead and tin together inside the oven, heating up the fire on it to make it soft; so will I get you together in my wrath and in my passion, and, heating the fire with my breath, will make you soft.
21. Yes, I will take you, breathing on you the fire of my wrath, and you will become soft in it.
22. As silver becomes soft in the oven, so you will become soft in it; and you will be certain that I the Lord have let loose my passion on you.
23. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
24. Son of man, say to her, You are a land on which no rain or thunderstorm has come in the day of wrath.
25. Her rulers in her are like a loud-voiced lion violently taking his food; they have made a meal of souls; they have taken wealth and valued property; they have made great the number of widows in her.
26. Her priests have been acting violently against my law; they have made my holy things unclean: they have made no division between what is holy and what is common, and they have not made it clear that the unclean is different from the clean, and their eyes have been shut to my Sabbaths, and I am not honoured among them.
27. Her rulers in her are like wolves violently taking their food; putting men to death and causing the destruction of souls, so that they may get their profit.
28. And her prophets have been using whitewash, seeing foolish visions and making false use of secret arts, saying, This is what the Lord has said, when the Lord has said nothing.
29. The people of the land have been acting cruelly, taking men's goods by force; they have been hard on the poor and those in need, and have done wrong to the man from a strange land.
30. And I was looking for a man among them who would make up the wall and take his station in the broken place before me for the land, so that I might not send destruction on it: but there was no one.
31. And I let loose my passion on them, and have put an end to them in the fire of my wrath: I have made the punishment of their ways come on their heads, says the Lord.

Hebrews 4 / Basic English

1. Let us then, though we still have God's word that we may come into his rest, go in fear that some of you may be unable to do so.
2. And, truly, the good news came to us, even as it did to them; but the hearing of the word did them no good, because they were not united in faith with the true hearers.
3. For those of us who have belief come into his rest; even as he has said, As I said in my oath when I was angry, They may not come into my rest: though the works were done from the time of the making of the world.
4. For in one place he has said of the seventh day, And God had rest from all his works on the seventh day;
5. And in the same place he says again, They will not come into my rest.
6. So that as it is clear that some have to go in, and that the first hearers of the good news were not able to go in because they went against God's orders,
7. After a long time, again naming a certain day, he says in David, Today (as he had said before), Today if you will let his voice come to your ears, be not hard of heart,
8. For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have said anything about another day.
9. So that there is still a Sabbath-keeping for the people of God.
10. For the man who comes into his rest has had rest from his works, as God did from his.
11. Because of this, let us have a strong desire to come into that rest, and let no one go after the example of those who went against God's orders.
12. For the word of God is living and full of power, and is sharper than any two-edged sword, cutting through and making a division even of the soul and the spirit, the bones and the muscles, and quick to see the thoughts and purposes of the heart.
13. And there is nothing made which is not completely clear to him; there is nothing covered, but all things are open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
14. Having then a great high priest, who has made his way through the heavens, even Jesus the Son of God, let us be strong in our faith.
15. For we have not a high priest who is not able to be touched by the feelings of our feeble flesh; but we have one who has been tested in all points as we ourselves are tested, but without sin.
16. Then let us come near to the seat of grace without fear, so that mercy may be given to us, and we may get grace for our help in time of need.