Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Ezekiel 41 / Basic English

1. And he took me to the Temple, and took the measure of the uprights, six cubits wide on one side and six cubits wide on the other.
2. And the door-opening was ten cubits wide; and the side walls of the door-opening were five cubits on one side and five cubits on the other: and it was forty cubits long and twenty cubits wide.
3. And he went inside and took the measure of the uprights of the door-opening, two cubits: and the door-opening, six cubits; and the side-walls of the door-opening were seven cubits on one side and seven cubits on the other.
4. And by his measure it was twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide in front of the Temple: and he said to me, This is the most holy place.
5. Then he took the measure of the wall of the house, which was six cubits; and of the side-rooms round the house, which were four cubits wide.
6. And the side-rooms, room over room, were three times thirty; there were inlets in the wall of the house for the side-rooms round about, for supports in the wall of the house.
7. The side-rooms became wider as they went higher up the house, by the amount of the space let into the wall up round about the house, because of the inlets in the house; and one went up from the lowest floor by steps to the middle, and from the middle to the upper floor.
8. And I saw that the house had a stone floor all round; the bases of the side-rooms were a full rod of six great cubits high.
9. The wall supporting the side-rooms on the outside was five cubits thick: and there was a free space of five cubits between the side-rooms of the house.
10. And between the rooms was a space twenty cubits wide all round the house.
11. And the free space had doors opening from the side-rooms, one door on the north and one door on the south: and the free space was five cubits wide all round.
12. And the building which was in front of the separate place at the side to the west was seventy cubits wide; the wall of the building was five cubits thick all round and ninety cubits long.
13. And he took the measure of the house; it was a hundred cubits long; and the separate place and the building with its walls was a hundred cubits long;
14. And the east front of the house and of the separate place was a hundred cubits wide.
15. And he took the measure of the building in front of the separate place which was at the back of it, and the pillared walks on one side and on the other side; they were a hundred cubits long; and the Temple and the inner part and its outer covered way were covered in;
16. And the sloping windows and the covered ways round all three of them were of shakiph-wood all round from the level of the earth up to the windows;
17. And there was a roof over the doorway and as far as the inner house, and to the outside and on the wall all round, inside and outside.
18. And it had pictured forms of winged beings and palm-trees; a palm-tree between two winged ones, and every winged one had two faces;
19. So that there was the face of a man turned to the palm-tree on one side, and the face of a young lion on the other side: so it was made all round the house.
20. From earth level up to the windows there were winged ones and palm-trees pictured on the wall.
21. ...
22. The altar was made of wood, and was three cubits high and two cubits long; it had angles, and its base and sides were of wood; and he said to me, This is the table which is before the Lord.
23. The Temple had two doors.
24. And the holy place had two doors, and the doors had two turning leaves, two for one and two for the other.
25. And on them were pictured winged ones and palm-trees, as on the walls; and a ... of wood was on the front of the covered way outside.
26. And there were sloping windows and palm-trees on one side and on the other, on the sides of the covered way: and the side-rooms of the house and the ...

Ezekiel 42 / Basic English

1. And he took me out into the inner square in the direction of the north: and he took me into the rooms which were opposite the separate place and opposite the building to the north.
2. On the north side it was a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide,
3. Opposite the space of twenty cubits which was part of the inner square, and opposite the stone floor of the outer square. There were covered ways facing one another on the third floor.
4. And in front of the rooms was a walk, ten cubits wide and a hundred cubits long; and their doors were facing north.
5. And the higher rooms were shorter: for the covered ways took up more space from these than from the lower and middle rooms.
6. For they were on three floors, and they had no pillars like the pillars of the outer square; so the highest was narrower than the lowest and middle floors from the earth level.
7. And the wall which went outside by the side of the rooms, in the direction of the outer square in front of the rooms, was fifty cubits long.
8. For the rooms in the outer square were fifty cubits long: and in front of the Temple was a space of a hundred cubits.
9. And under these rooms was the way in from the east side, as one goes into them from the outer square at the head of the outer wall.
10. (And he took me) to the south, and in front of the separate place and in front of the building there were rooms.
11. And there was a walk in front of them like that by the rooms on the north; they were equally long and wide; and the ways out of them were the same in design and had the same sort of doors.
12. And under the rooms on the south was a door at the head of the outer wall in the direction of the east as one goes in.
13. And he said to me, The north rooms and the south rooms in front of the separate place are the holy rooms, where the priests who come near the Lord take the most holy things for their food: there the most holy things are placed, with the meal offering and the sin-offering and the offering for error; for the place is holy.
14. When the priests go in, they may not go out of the holy place into the outer square, and there they are to put the robes in which they do the work of the Lord's house, for they are holy: and they have to put on other clothing before they come near that which has to do with the people.
15. And when he had come to the end of measuring the inner house, he took me out to the doorway looking to the east, and took its measure all round.
16. He went round and took the measure of it on the east side with the measuring rod, five hundred, measured with the rod all round.
17. And he went round and took the measure of it on the north side with the measuring rod, five hundred, measured with the rod all round.
18. And he went round and took the measure of it on the south side with the measuring rod, five hundred, measured with the rod all round.
19. And he went round and took the measure of it on the west side with the measuring rod, five hundred, measured with the rod all round.
20. He took its measure on the four sides: and it had a wall all round, five hundred long and five hundred wide, separating what was holy from what was common.

James 2 / Basic English

1. My brothers, if you have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory, do not take a man's position into account.
2. For if a man comes into your Synagogue in fair clothing and with a gold ring, and a poor man comes in with dirty clothing,
3. And you do honour to the man in fair clothing and say, Come here and take this good place; and you say to the poor man, Take up your position there, or be seated at my feet;
4. Is there not a division in your minds? have you not become judges with evil thoughts?
5. Give ear, my dear brothers; are not those who are poor in the things of this world marked out by God to have faith as their wealth, and for their heritage the kingdom which he has said he will give to those who have love for him?
6. But you have put the poor man to shame. Are not the men of wealth rulers over you? do they not take you by force before their judges?
7. Do they not say evil of the holy name which was given to you?
8. But if you keep the greatest law of all, as it is given in the holy Writings, Have love for your neighbour as for yourself, you do well:
9. But if you take a man's position into account, you do evil, and are judged as evil-doers by the law.
10. For anyone who keeps all the law, but makes a slip in one point, is judged to have gone against it all.
11. For he who said, Do not be untrue in married life, is the same who said, Put no man to death. Now if you are not untrue in married life, but you put a man to death, the law is broken.
12. Let your words and your acts be those of men who are to be judged by the law which makes free.
13. For the man who has had no mercy will be judged without mercy, but mercy takes pride in overcoming judging.
14. What use is it, my brothers, for a man to say that he has faith, if he does nothing? will such a faith give him salvation?
15. If a brother or a sister is without clothing and in need of the day's food,
16. And one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warm and full of food; but you do not give them the things of which their bodies have need, what profit is there in this?
17. Even so faith without works is dead.
18. But a man may say, You have faith and I have works; let me see your faith without your works, and I will make my faith clear to you by my works.
19. You have the belief that God is one, and you do well: the evil spirits have the same belief, shaking with fear.
20. Do you not see, O foolish man, that faith without works is of no use?
21. Was not the righteousness of Abraham our father judged by his works, when he made an offering of Isaac his son on the altar?
22. You see that his faith was helping his works and was made complete by them;
23. And the holy Writings were put into effect which said, And Abraham had faith in God and it was put to his account as righteousness; and he was named the friend of God.
24. You see that a man's righteousness is judged by his works and not by his faith only.
25. And in the same way, was not the righteousness of Rahab, the loose woman, judged by her works, when she took into her house those who were sent and let them go out by another way?
26. For as the body without the spirit is dead even so faith without works is dead.