Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Ezekiel 39 / Basic English

1. And you, son of man, be a prophet against Gog, and say, These are the words of the Lord: See, I am against you, O Gog, ruler of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal:
2. And turning you round, I will be your guide, and make you come up from the inmost parts of the north; I will make you come on to the mountains of Israel:
3. And with a blow I will send your bow out of your left hand and your arrows falling from your right hand.
4. On the mountains of Israel you will come down, you and all your forces and the peoples who are with you: I will give you to cruel birds of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be their food.
5. You will come down in the open field: for I have said it, says the Lord.
6. And I will send a fire on Magog, and on those who are living in the sea-lands without fear: and they will be certain that I am the Lord.
7. And I will make clear my holy name among my people Israel; I will no longer let my holy name be made unclean: and the nations will be certain that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.
8. See, it is coming and it will be done, says the Lord; this is the day of which I have given word.
9. And those who are living in the towns of Israel will go out and make fires of the instruments of war, burning the body-covers and the breastplates, the bows and the arrows and the sticks and the spears, and for seven years they will make fires of them:
10. And they will take no wood out of the field or have any cut down in the woods; for they will make their fires of the instruments of war: and they will take by force the property of those who took their property, and go off with the goods of those who took their goods, says the Lord.
11. And it will come about in those days, that I will give to Gog a last resting-place there in Israel, in the valley of Abarim on the east of the sea: and those who go through will be stopped: and there Gog and all his people will be put to rest, and the place will be named, The valley of Hamon-gog.
12. And the children of Israel will be seven months putting them in the earth, so as to make the land clean.
13. And all the people of the land will put them in the earth; and it will be to their honour in the day when I let my glory be seen, says the Lord.
14. And they will put on one side men to do no other work but to go through the land and put in the earth the rest of those who are still on the face of the land, to make it clean: after seven months are ended they are to make a search.
15. And while they go through the land, if anyone sees a man's bone, he is to put up a sign by the place till those who are doing the work have put it in the earth in the valley of Hamon-gog.
16. And there they will put all the army of Gog in the earth. So they will make the land clean.
17. And you, son of man, this is what the Lord has said: Say to the birds of every sort and to all the beasts of the field, Get together and come; come together on every side to the offering which I am putting to death for you, a great offering on the mountains of Israel, so that you may have flesh for your food and blood for your drink.
18. The flesh of the men of war will be your food, and your drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of sheep and lambs, of he-goats, of oxen, all of them fat beasts of Bashan.
19. You will go on feasting on the fat till you are full, and drinking the blood till you are overcome with it, of my offering which I have put to death for you.
20. At my table you will have food in full measure, horses and war-carriages, great men and all the men of war, says the Lord.
21. And I will put my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see my punishments which I have put into effect, and my hand which I have put on them.
22. So the children of Israel will be certain that I am the Lord their God, from that day and for the future.
23. And it will be clear to the nations that the children of Israel were taken away prisoners for their evil-doing; because they did wrong against me, and my face was covered from them: so I gave them up into the hands of their attackers, and they all came to their end by the sword.
24. In the measure of their unclean ways and their sins, so I did to them; and I kept my face covered from them.
25. For this cause the Lord has said, Now I will let the fate of Jacob be changed, and I will have mercy on all the children of Israel, and will take care of the honour of my holy name.
26. And they will be conscious of their shame and of all the wrong which they have done against me, when they are living in their land with no sense of danger and with no one to be a cause of fear to them;
27. When I have taken them back from among the peoples and got them together out of the lands of their haters, and have made myself holy in them before the eyes of a great number of nations.
28. And they will be certain that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them away as prisoners among the nations, and have taken them together back to their land; and I have not let one of them be there any longer.
29. And my face will no longer be covered from them: for I have sent the out-flowing of my spirit on the children of Israel, says the Lord.

Ezekiel 40 / Basic English

1. In the twenty-fifth year after we had been taken away prisoners, in the first month of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the town was taken, on the very same day, the hand of the Lord was on me, and he took me there.
2. In the visions of God he took me into the land of Israel, and put me down on a very high mountain, on which there was, as it seemed, a building like a town opposite me.
3. He took me there, and I saw a man, looking like brass, with a linen cord in his hand and a measuring rod: and he was stationed in the doorway.
4. And the man said to me, Son of man, see with your eyes and give hearing with your ears, and take to heart everything I am going to let you see; for in order that I might let you see them, you have come here: and give an account of all you see to the children of Israel.
5. And there was a wall on the outside of the house all round, and in the man's hand there was a measuring rod six cubits long by a cubit and a hand's measure: so he took the measure of the building from side to side, one rod; and from base to top, one rod.
6. Then he came to the doorway looking to the east, and went up by its steps; and he took the measure of the doorstep, one rod wide.
7. And the watchmen's rooms were one rod long and one rod wide; and the space between the rooms was five cubits; the doorstep of the doorway, by the covered way of the doorway inside, was one rod.
8. And he took the measure of the covered way of the doorway inside,
9. Eight cubits; and its uprights, two cubits; the covered way of the doorway was inside.
10. And the rooms of the doorway on the east were three on this side and three on that; all three were of the same size; and the uprights on this side and on that were of the same size.
11. And he took the measure of the opening of the doorway, ten cubits wide; and the way down the doorway was thirteen cubits;
12. And the space in front of the rooms, a cubit on this side and a cubit on that side; and the rooms six cubits on this side and six cubits on that.
13. And he took the measure of the doorway from the back of one room to the back of the other, twenty-five cubits across, from door to door.
14. And he took the measure of the covered way, twenty cubits; and opening from the covered way of the doorway was the open square round about.
15. And from before the opening of the doorway to before the inner covered way of the doorway was fifty cubits.
16. And the rooms and their uprights had sloping windows inside the doorway all round, and in the same way the covered way had windows all round on the inside: and on every upright there were palm-trees.
17. Then he took me into the outer square, and there were rooms and a stone floor made for the open square all round: there were thirty rooms on the stone floor.
18. And the stone floor was by the side of the doorways, and was as wide as the doorways were long, even the lower floor.
19. Then he took the measure of the square across, from before the lower doorway inside to before the inner doorway outside, one hundred cubits. And he took me in the direction of the north,
20. And there was a doorway to the outer square, looking to the north; and he took the measure of it to see how wide and how long it was.
21. And it had three rooms on this side of it and three on that; its uprights and its covered ways were the same size as those of the first doorway: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.
22. And its windows, and the windows of its covered ways, and its palm-trees, were the same as those of the doorway looking to the east; and there were seven steps up to it; and the covered way went inside.
23. And there was a doorway to the inner square opposite the doorway on the north, like the doorway on the east; and he took the measure from doorway to doorway, a hundred cubits.
24. And he took me to the south, and I saw a doorway looking to the south: and he took the measure of its rooms and its uprights and its covered ways by these measures.
25. And there were windows in it and in the covered way all round, like the other windows: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.
26. And there were seven steps up to it, and its covered way went inside: and it had palm-trees, one on this side and one on that, on its uprights.
27. And there was a doorway to the inner square looking to the south: he took the measure from doorway to doorway to the south, a hundred cubits.
28. Then he took me to the inner square by the south doorway: and he took the measure of the south doorway by these measures;
29. And the rooms in it and the uprights and the covered ways, by these measures:
30. And there were windows in it and in the covered way all round: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.
31. The covered way was on the side nearest the outer square; and there were palm-trees on the uprights: and there were eight steps going up to it.
32. And he took me into the inner square facing the east: and he took the measure of the doorway by these measures;
33. And of the rooms in it and its uprights and its covered ways, by these measures: and there were windows in it and in the covered way round about: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.
34. And the covered way was on the side nearest the outer square; there were palm-trees on the uprights, on this side and on that: and there were eight steps going up to it.
35. And he took me to the north doorway: and he took the measure of it by these measures;
36. Its rooms, its uprights, and its covered way had the same measures, and its covered way had windows all round: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.
37. Its uprights were on the side nearest to the outer square; there were palm-trees on the uprights, on this side and on that: and there were eight steps going up to it.
38. And there was a room with a door in the covered way of the doorway, where the burned offering was washed.
39. And in the covered way of the doorway there were two tables on this side and two tables on that side, on which the burned offering and the sin-offering and the offering for error were put to death:
40. On the outer side, to the north, as one goes up to the opening of the doorway, were two tables.
41. There were four tables on one side and four tables on the other, by the side of the doorway; eight tables, on which they put to death the beasts for the offerings.
42. And there were four tables for the burned offering, made of cut stone, one and a half cubits long, one and a half cubits wide and a cubit high, where the instruments were placed which were used for putting to death the burned offering and the beasts for the offerings.
43. And they had edges all round as wide as a man's hand: and on the tables was the flesh of the offerings.
44. And he took me into the inner square, and there were two rooms in the inner square, one at the side of the north doorway, facing south; and one at the side of the south doorway, facing north.
45. And he said to me, This room, facing south, is for the priests who have the care of the house.
46. And the room facing north is for the priests who have the care of the altar: these are the sons of Zadok, who, from among the sons of Levi, come near to the Lord to do the work of his house.
47. And he took the measure of the open square, a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide, being square; and the altar was in front of the house.
48. Then he took me to the covered way before the house, and took the measure of its uprights, five cubits on one side and five cubits on the other: and the doorway was fourteen cubits wide; and the side-walls of the doorway were three cubits on one side and three cubits on the other.
49. The covered way was twenty cubits long and twelve cubits wide, and they went up to it by ten steps; and there were pillars by the uprights, one on one side and one on the other.

James 1 / Basic English

1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, sends words of love to the twelve tribes of the Jews living in all parts of the earth.
2. Let it be all joy to you, my brothers, when you undergo tests of every sort;
3. Because you have the knowledge that the testing of your faith gives you the power of going on in hope;
4. But let this power have its full effect, so that you may be made complete, needing nothing.
5. But if any man among you is without wisdom, let him make his request to God, who gives freely to all without an unkind word, and it will be given to him.
6. Let him make his request in faith, doubting nothing; for he who has doubt in his heart is like the waves of the sea, which are troubled by the driving of the wind.
7. Let it not seem to such a man that he will get anything from the Lord;
8. For there is a division in his mind, and he is uncertain in all his ways.
9. But let the brother of low position be glad that he is lifted up;
10. But the man of wealth, that he is made low; because like the flower of the grass he will come to his end.
11. For when the sun comes up with its burning heat, the grass gets dry and the grace of its form is gone with the falling flower; so the man of wealth comes to nothing in his ways.
12. There is a blessing on the man who undergoes testing; because, if he has God's approval, he will be given the crown of life, which the Lord has said he will give to those who have love for him.
13. Let no man say when he is tested, I am tested by God; for it is not possible for God to be tested by evil, and he himself puts no man to such a test:
14. But every man is tested when he is turned out of the right way by the attraction of his desire.
15. Then when its time comes, desire gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is of full growth, gives birth to death.
16. Do not be turned from the right way, dear brothers.
17. Every good and true thing is given to us from heaven, coming from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change or any shade made by turning.
18. Of his purpose he gave us being, by his true word, so that we might be, in a sense, the first-fruits of all the things which he had made.
19. You have knowledge of this, dear brothers. But let every man be quick in hearing, slow in words, slow to get angry;
20. For the righteousness of God does not come about by the wrath of man.
21. For this reason, putting away all dirty behaviour and the overweight of evil, take into your souls without pride the word which, being planted there, is able to give you salvation.
22. But be doers of the word, and not only hearers of it, blinding yourselves with false ideas.
23. Because if any man is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a glass;
24. For after looking at himself he goes away, and in a short time he has no memory of what he was like.
25. But he who goes on looking into the true law which makes him free, being not a hearer without memory but a doer putting it into effect, this man will have a blessing on his acts.
26. If a man seems to have religion and has no control over his tongue but lets himself be tricked by what is false, this man's religion is of no value.
27. The religion which is holy and free from evil in the eyes of our God and Father is this: to take care of children who have no fathers and of widows who are in trouble, and to keep oneself untouched by the world.