Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Ezekiel 47 / Basic English

1. And he took me back to the door of the house; and I saw that waters were flowing out from under the doorstep of the house on the east, for the house was facing east: and the waters came down from under, from the right side of the house, on the south side of the altar.
2. And he took me out by the north doorway, and made me go round to the outside of the doorway looking to the east; and I saw waters running slowly out on the south side.
3. And the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, and after measuring a thousand cubits, he made me go through the waters, which came over my feet.
4. And again, measuring a thousand cubits, he made me go through the waters which came up to my knees. Again, measuring a thousand, he made me go through the waters up to the middle of my body.
5. Again, after his measuring a thousand, it became a river which it was not possible to go through: for the waters had become deep enough for swimming, a river it was not possible to go through.
6. And he said to me, Son of man, have you seen this? Then he took me to the river's edge.
7. And he took me back, and I saw at the edge of the river a very great number of trees on this side and on that.
8. And he said to me, These waters are flowing out to the east part of the land and down into the Arabah; and they will go to the sea, and the waters will be made sweet.
9. And it will come about that every living and moving thing, wherever their streams come, will have life; and there will be very much fish because these waters have come there and have been made sweet: and everything wherever the river comes will have life.
10. And fishermen will take up their places by it: from En-gedi as far as En-eglaim will be a place for the stretching out of nets; the fish will be of every sort, like the fish of the Great Sea, a very great number.
11. The wet places and the pools will not be made sweet; they will be given up to salt.
12. And by the edge of the river, on this side and on that, will come up every tree used for food, whose leaves will ever be green and its fruit will not come to an end: it will have new fruit every month, because its waters come out from the holy place: the fruit will be for food and the leaf will make well those who are ill.
13. This is what the Lord has said: These are the limits by which you will take up your heritage in the land among the twelve tribes of Israel: Joseph is to have two parts.
14. And you are to make an equal division of it; as I gave my oath to your fathers to give it to you: for this land is to be your heritage.
15. And this is to be the limit of the land: on the north side, from the Great Sea, in the direction of Hethlon, as far as the way into Hamath;
16. To Zedad, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the limit of Damascus and the limit of Hazar-hatticon, which is on the limit of Hauran.
17. And this is the limit from the sea in the direction of Hazar-enon; and the limit of Damascus is to the north, and on the north is the limit of Hamath. This is the north side.
18. And the east side will be from Hazar-enon, which is between Hauran and Damascus; and between Gilead and the land of Israel the Jordan will be the limit, to the east sea, to Tamar. This is the east side.
19. And the south side to the south will be from Tamar as far as the waters of Meribath-kadesh, to the stream of Egypt, to the Great Sea. This is the south side, on the south.
20. And the west side will be the Great Sea, from the limit on the south to a point opposite the way into Hamath. This is the west side.
21. You will make a division of the land among you, tribe by tribe.
22. And you are to make a distribution of it, by the decision of the Lord, for a heritage to you and to the men from other lands who are living among you and who have children in your land: they will be the same to you as if they were Israelites by birth, they will have their heritage with you among the tribes of Israel.
23. In whatever tribe the man from a strange land is living, there you are to give him his heritage, says the Lord.

Ezekiel 48 / Basic English

1. Now these are the names of the tribes: from the north end, from the west on the way of Hethlon to the way into Hamath, in the direction of Hazar-enon, with the limit of Damascus to the north, by Hamath; and on the limit from the east side to the west side: Dan, one part.
2. And on the limit of Dan, from the east side to the west side: Asher, one part.
3. And on the limit of Asher, from the east side to the west side: Naphtali, one part.
4. And on the limit of Naphtali, from the east side to the west side: Manasseh, one part.
5. And on the limit of Manasseh, from the east side to the west side: Ephraim, one part.
6. And on the limit of Ephraim, from the east side to the west side: Reuben, one part.
7. And on the limit of Reuben, from the east side to the west side: Judah, one part.
8. And on the limit of Judah, from the east side to the west side, will be the offering which you are to make, twenty-five thousand wide, and as long as one of the parts, from the east side to the west side: and the holy place will be in the middle of it.
9. The offering you will give to the Lord is to be twenty-five thousand long and twenty-five thousand wide.
10. And for these, that is the priests, the holy offering is to be twenty-five thousand long to the north, ten thousand wide to the west, ten thousand wide to the east and twenty-five thousand long to the south; and the holy place of the Lord will be in the middle of it.
11. For the priests who have been made holy, those of the sons of Zadok who kept the orders I gave them, who did not go out of the right way when the children of Israel went from the way, as the Levites did,
12. Even for them will be the offering from the offering of the land, a thing most holy, on the limit of the land given to the Levites.
13. And the Levites are to have a part of the land equal to the limit of the priests', twenty-five thousand long and ten thousand wide, all of it together to be twenty-five thousand long and twenty thousand wide.
14. And they are not to let any of it go for a price, or give it in exchange; and the part of the land given to the Lord is not to go into other hands: for it is holy to the Lord.
15. And the other five thousand, measured from side to side, in front of the twenty-five thousand, is to be for common use, for the town, for living in and for a free space: and the town will be in the middle of it.
16. And these will be its measures: the north side, four thousand five hundred, and the south side, four thousand five hundred, and on the east side, four thousand five hundred, and on the west side, four thousand five hundred.
17. And the town will have a free space on the north of two hundred and fifty, on the south of two hundred and fifty, on the east of two hundred and fifty, and on the west of two hundred and fifty.
18. And the rest, in measure as long as the holy offering, will be ten thousand to the east and ten thousand to the west: and its produce will be for food for the workers of the town.
19. It will be farmed by workers of the town from all the tribes of Israel.
20. The size of the offering all together is to be twenty-five thousand by twenty-five thousand: you are to make the holy offering a square, together with the property of the town.
21. And the rest is to be for the prince, on this side and on that side of the holy offering and of the property of the town, in front of the twenty-five thousand to the east, as far as the east limit, and to the west, in front of the twenty-five thousand, as far as the west limit, and of the same measure as those parts; it will be the property of the prince: and the holy offering and holy place of the house will be in the middle of it.
22. And the property of the Levites and the property of the town will be in the middle of the prince's property; between the limit of Judah's part and the limit of Benjamin's part will be for the prince.
23. And as for the rest of the tribes: from the east side to the west side: Benjamin, one part.
24. And on the limit of Benjamin, from the east side to the west side: Simeon, one part.
25. And on the limit of Simeon, from the east side to the west side: Issachar, one part.
26. And on the limit of Issachar, from the east side to the west side: Zebulun, one part.
27. And on the limit of Zebulun, from the east side to the west side: Gad one part.
28. And on the limit of Gad, on the south side and to the south of it, the limit will be from Tamar to the waters of Meribath-kadesh, to the stream, to the Great Sea.
29. This is the land of which distribution is to be made by the decision of the Lord, among the tribes of Israel for their heritage, and these are their heritages, says the Lord.
30. And these are the outskirts of the town: on the north side, four thousand five hundred by measure;
31. And the doors of the town are to be named by the names of the tribes of Israel; three doors on the north, one for Reuben, one for Judah, one for Levi;
32. And at the east side, four thousand five hundred by measure, and three doors, one for Joseph, one for Benjamin, one for Dan;
33. And at the south side, four thousand five hundred by measure, and three doors, one for Simeon, one for Issachar, one for Zebulun;
34. At the west side, four thousand five hundred by measure, with their three doors, one for Gad, one for Asher, one for Naphtali.
35. It is to be eighteen thousand all round: and the name of the town from that day will be, The Lord is there.

James 5 / Basic English

1. Come now, you men of wealth, give yourselves to weeping and crying because of the bitter troubles which are coming to you.
2. Your wealth is unclean and insects have made holes in your clothing.
3. Your gold and your silver are wasted and their waste will be a witness against you, burning into your flesh. You have put by your store in the last days.
4. See, the money which you falsely kept back from the workers cutting the grass in your field, is crying out against you; and the cries of those who took in your grain have come to the ears of the Lord of armies.
5. You have been living delicately on earth and have taken your pleasure; you have made your hearts fat for a day of destruction.
6. You have given your decision against the upright man and have put him to death. He puts up no fight against you.
7. Go on waiting calmly, my brothers, till the coming of the Lord, like the farmer waiting for the good fruit of the earth till the early and late rains have come.
8. Be as calm in your waiting; let your hearts be strong: because the coming of the Lord is near.
9. Say no hard things against one another, brothers, so that you will not be judged; see, the judge is waiting at the doors.
10. Take as an example of pain nobly undergone and of strength in trouble, the prophets who gave to men the words of the Lord.
11. We say that those men who have gone through pain are happy: you have the story of Job and the troubles through which he went and have seen that the Lord was full of pity and mercy in the end.
12. But most of all, my brothers, do not take oaths, not by the heaven, or by the earth, or by any other thing: but let your Yes be Yes, and your No be No: so that you may not be judged.
13. Is anyone among you in trouble? let him say prayers. Is anyone glad? let him make a song of praise.
14. Is anyone among you ill? let him send for the rulers of the church; and let them say prayers over him, putting oil on him in the name of the Lord.
15. And by the prayer of faith the man who is ill will be made well, and he will be lifted up by the Lord, and for any sin which he has done he will have forgiveness.
16. So then, make a statement of your sins to one another, and say prayers for one another so that you may be made well. The prayer of a good man is full of power in its working.
17. Elijah was a man of flesh and blood as we are, and he made a strong prayer that there might be no rain; and there was no rain on the earth for three years and six months.
18. And he made another prayer, and the heaven sent down rain and the earth gave her fruit.
19. My brothers, if one of you has gone out of the way of the true faith and another has made him see his error,
20. Be certain that he through whom a sinner has been turned from the error of his way, keeps a soul from death and is the cause of forgiveness for sins without number.