Daily reading in version Bible In Basic English - English
If ever you have among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams and he gives you a sign or a wonder,
And the sign or the wonder takes place, and he says to you, Let us go after other gods, which are strange to you, and give them worship
Then give no attention to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God is testing you, to see if all the love of your heart and soul is given to him.
But keep on in the ways of the Lord your God, fearing him and keeping his orders and hearing his voice, worshipping him and being true to him.
And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams is to be put to death for his words were said with the purpose of turning you away from the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt and made you free from the prison-house and of forcing you out of the way in which the Lord your God has given you orders to go. So you are to put away the evil from among you.
If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife of your heart, or the friend who is as dear to you as your life, working on you secretly says to you, Let us go and give worship to other gods, strange to you and to your fathers
Gods of the peoples round about you, near or far, from one end of the earth to the other
Do not be guided by him or give attention to him have no pity on him or mercy, and give him no cover
But put him to death without question let your hand be the first stretched out against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people.
Let him be stoned with stones till he is dead because it was his purpose to make you false to the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house.
And all Israel, hearing of it, will be full of fear, and no one will again do such evil as this among you.
And if word comes to you, in one of the towns which the Lord your God is giving you for your resting-place,
That good-for-nothing persons have gone out from among you, turning the people of their town from the right way and saying, Let us go and give worship to other gods, of whom you have no knowledge
Then let a full search be made, and let questions be put with care and if it is true and certain that such a disgusting thing has been done among you
Then take up arms against the people of that town and give it up to the curse, with all its cattle and everything in it.
And take all the goods into the middle of its open space, burning the town and all its property with fire as an offering to the Lord your God it is to be a waste for ever there is to be no more building there.
Keep not a thing of what is cursed for yourselves: so the Lord may be turned away from the heat of his wrath, and have mercy on you, and give you increase as he said in his oath to your fathers:
So long as you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and keep all his orders which I give you today, and do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.
You are the children of the Lord your God: you are not to make cuts on your bodies or take off the hair on your brows in honour of the dead
For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has taken you to be his special people out of all the nations on the face of the earth.
No disgusting thing may be your food.
These are the beasts which you may have for food: the ox, the sheep, and the goat
The hart, the gazelle, and the roe, the mountain goat and the pygarg and the antelope and the mountain sheep.
Any beast which has a division in the horn of its foot and whose food comes back into its mouth to be crushed again, may be used for food.
But even among these, there are some which may not be used for food: such as the camel, the hare, and the coney, which are unclean to you, because, though their food comes back, the horn of their feet is not parted in two.
And the pig is unclean to you, because though it has a division in the horn of its foot, its food does not come back their flesh may not be used for food or their dead bodies touched by you.
And of the things living in the waters, you may take all those who have wings for swimming with and skins formed of thin plates.
But any which have no skin-plates or wings for swimming, you may not take they are unclean for you.
All clean birds may be used for food.
But these birds you may not take: the eagle and the gier-eagle and the ospray
The falcon and the kite, and birds of that sort
Every raven, and all birds of that sort
And the ostrich and the night-hawk and the sea-hawk and birds of that sort
The little owl and the great owl and the water-hen
And the pelican and the vulture and the cormorant
The stork and the heron and birds of that sort, and the hoopoe and the bat.
Every winged thing which goes flat on the earth is unclean to you and may not be used as food.
But all clean birds you may take.
You may not have as food anything which has come to a natural death the man from another country who is living with you may take it for food, or you may get a price for it from one of another nation for you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The young goat is not to be cooked in its mother's milk.
Put on one side a tenth of all the increase of your seed, produced year by year.
And make a feast before the Lord your God, in the place which is to be marked out, where his name will be for ever, of the tenth part of your grain and your wine and your oil, and the first births of your herds and your flocks so that you may have the fear of the Lord your God in your hearts at all times.
And if the way is so long that you are not able to take these things to the place marked out by the Lord your God for his name, when he has given you his blessing, because it is far away from you
Then let these things be exchanged for money, and, taking the money in your hand, go to the place marked out by the Lord your God for himself
And with the money get whatever you have a desire for, oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your soul's desire may be: and make a feast there before the Lord your God, and be glad, you and all your house
And give a thought to the Levite who is living among you, for he has no part or heritage in the land.
At the end of every three years take a tenth part of all your increase for that year, and put it in store inside your walls:
And the Levite, because he has no part or heritage in the land, and the man from a strange country, and the child who has no father, and the widow, who are living among you, will come and take food and have enough and so the blessing of the Lord your God will be on you in everything you do.
At the end of every seven years there is to be a general forgiveness of debt.
This is how it is to be done: every creditor is to give up his right to whatever he has let his neighbour have he is not to make his neighbour, his countryman, give it back because a general forgiveness has been ordered by the Lord.
A man of another nation may be forced to make payment of his debt, but if your brother has anything of yours, let it go
But there will be no poor among you for the Lord will certainly give you his blessing in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage
If only you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and take care to keep all these orders which I give you today.
For the Lord your God will give you his blessing as he has said: you will let other nations have the use of your money, but you will not make use of theirs you will be rulers over a number of nations, but they will not be your rulers.
If in any of your towns in the land which the Lord your God is giving you, there is a poor man, one of your countrymen, do not let your heart be hard or your hand shut to him
But let your hand be open to give him the use of whatever he is in need of.
And see that there is no evil thought in your heart, moving you to say to yourself, The seventh year, the year of forgiveness is near and so looking coldly on your poor countryman you give him nothing and he will make an outcry to the Lord against you, and it will be judged as sin in you.
But it is right for you to give to him, without grief of heart: for because of this, the blessing of the Lord your God will be on all your work and on everything to which you put your hand.
For there will never be a time when there are no poor in the land and so I give orders to you, Let your hand be open to your countrymen, to those who are poor and in need in your land.
If one of your countrymen, a Hebrew man or woman, becomes your servant for a price and does work for you six years, in the seventh year let him go free.
And when you make him free, do not let him go away with nothing in his hands:
But give him freely from your flock and from your grain and your wine: in the measure of the wealth which the Lord your God has given you, you are to give to him.
And keep in mind that you yourself were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God made you free: so I give you this order today.
But if he says to you, I have no desire to go away from you because you and your family are dear to him and he is happy with you
Then take a sharp-pointed instrument, driving it through his ear into the door, and he will be your servant for ever. And you may do the same for your servant-girl.
Let it not seem hard to you that you have to send him away free for he has been working for you for six years, which is twice the regular time for a servant: and the blessing of the Lord your God will be on you in everything you do.
All the first males to come to birth in your herd and your flock are to be holy to the Lord your God: the first birth of your ox is not to be used for work, the wool of your first lamb is not to be cut.
But year by year you and all your house are to take a meal of it before the Lord, in the place of his selection.
But if it has any mark on it, if it is blind or has damaged legs, or if there is anything wrong with it, it may not be offered to the Lord your God.
It may be used for food in your houses: the unclean and the clean may take of it, as of the gazelle and the roe.
Only do not take its blood for food, but let it be drained out on the earth like water.
And when we came to Jerusalem, the brothers were pleased to see us.
And on the day after, Paul went with us to James, and all the rulers of the church were present.
And when he had said how glad he was to see them, he gave them a detailed account of the things which God had done through his work among the Gentiles.
And hearing it, they gave praise to God and they said to him, You see, brother, what thousands there are among the Jews, who have the faith and they all have a great respect for the law:
And they have had news of you, how you have been teaching all the Jews among the Gentiles to give up the law of Moses, and not to give circumcision to their children, and not to keep the old rules.
What then is the position? They will certainly get news that you have come.
Do this, then, which we say to you: We have four men who have taken an oath
Go with these, and make yourself clean with them, and make the necessary payments for them, so that they may be free from their oath: and everyone will see that the statements made about you are not true, but that you put yourself under rule, and keep the law.
But as to the Gentiles who have the faith, we sent a letter, giving our decision that they were to keep themselves from offerings made to false gods, and from blood, and from the flesh of animals put to death in ways against the law, and from the evil desires of the body.
Then Paul took the men, and on the day after, making himself clean with them, he went into the Temple, giving out the statement that the days necessary for making them clean were complete, till the offering was made for every one of them.
And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the Temple, got the people together and put their hands on him,
Crying out, Men of Israel, come to our help: this is the man who is teaching all men everywhere against the people and the law and this place: and in addition, he has taken Greeks into the Temple, and made this holy place unclean.
For they had seen him before in the town with Trophimus of Ephesus, and had the idea that Paul had taken him with him into the Temple.
And all the town was moved, and the people came running together and put their hands on Paul, pulling him out of the Temple: and then the doors were shut.
And while they were attempting to put him to death, news came to the chief captain of the band that all Jerusalem was out of control.
And straight away he took some armed men and went quickly down to them: and the Jews, seeing them, gave no more blows to Paul.
Then the chief captain came near and took him, and gave orders for him to be put in chains, questioning them as to who he was and what he had done.
And some said one thing and some another, among the people: and as he was not able to get a knowledge of the facts because of the noise, he gave orders for Paul to be taken into the army building.
And when he came on to the steps, he was lifted up by the armed men, because of the force of the people
For a great mass of people came after them, crying out, Away with him!