Bible in Basic English

LEVITICUS, 23
Festivals

    23:1 And the Lord said to Moses, 2 Say to the children of Israel, These are the fixed feasts of the Lord, which you will keep for holy meetings : these are my feasts. 3 On six days work may be done; but the seventh day is a special day of rest, a time for worship ; you may do no sort of work : it is a Sabbath to the Lord wherever you may be living.
    23:4 These are the fixed feasts of the Lord, the holy days of worship which you will keep at their regular times. 5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at nightfall, is the Lord's Passover ; 6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread ; for seven days let your food be unleavened bread. 7 On the first day you will have a holy meeting; you may do no sort of field-work. 8 And every day for seven days you will give a burned offering to the Lord ; and on the seventh day there will be a holy meeting; you may do no field-work.
    23:9 And the Lord said to Moses, 10 Say to the children of Israel, When you have come to the land which I will give you, and have got in the grain from its fields, take some of the first-fruits of the grain to the priest ; 11 And let the grain be waved before the Lord, so that you may be pleasing to him; on the day after the Sabbath let it be waved by the priest. 12 And on the day of the waving of the grain, you are to give a male lamb of the first year, without any mark, for a burned offering to the Lord. 13 And let the meal offering with it be two tenth parts of an ephah of the best meal mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord for a sweet smell; and the drink offering with it is to be of wine, the fourth part of a hin. 14 And you may take no bread or dry grain or new grain for food till the very day on which you have given the offering for your God : this is a rule for ever through all your generations wherever you are living.
    23:15 And let seven full weeks be numbered from the day after the Sabbath, the day when you give the grain for the wave offering ; 16 Let fifty days be numbered, to the day after the seventh Sabbath ; then you are to give a new meal offering to the Lord. 17 Take from your houses two cakes of bread, made of a fifth part of an ephah of the best meal, cooked with leaven, to be waved for first-fruits to the Lord. 18 And with the bread, take seven lambs of the first year, without any marks, and one ox and two male sheep, to be a burned offering to the Lord, with their meal offering and their drink offerings, an offering of a sweet smell made by fire to the Lord. 19 And you are to give one male goat for a sin-offering and two male lambs of the first year for peace-offerings. 20 And these will be waved by the priest, with the bread of the first-fruits, for a wave offering to the Lord, with the two lambs : they will be holy to the Lord for the priest. 21 And on the same day, let it be given out that there will be a holy meeting for you : you may do no field-work on that day : it is a rule for ever through all your generations wherever you are living.
    23:22 And when you get in the grain from your land, do not let all the grain at the edges of the field be cut, and do not take up the grain which has been dropped in the field ; let that be for the poor, and for the man from another country : I am the Lord your God.
    23:23 And the Lord said to Moses, 24 Say to the children of Israel, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, let there be a special day of rest for you, a day of memory, marked by the blowing of horns, a meeting for worship. 25 Do no field-work and give to the Lord an offering made by fire.
    23:26 And the Lord said to Moses, 27 The tenth day of this seventh month is the day for the taking away of sin ; let it be a holy day of worship ; you are to keep from pleasure, and give to the Lord an offering made by fire. 28 And on that day you may do no sort of work, for it is a day of taking away sin, to make you clean before the Lord your God. 29 For any person, whoever he may be, who takes his pleasure on that day will be cut off from his people. 30 And if any person, whoever he may be, on that day does any sort of work, I will send destruction on him from among his people. 31 You may not do any sort of work : this is an order for ever through all your generations wherever you may be living. 32 Let this be a Sabbath of special rest to you, and keep yourselves from all pleasure ; on the ninth day of the month at nightfall from evening to evening, let this Sabbath be kept.
    23:33 And the Lord said to Moses, 34 Say to the children of Israel, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month let the feast of tents be kept to the Lord for seven days. 35 On the first day there will be a holy meeting: do no field-work. 36 Every day for seven days give an offering made by fire to the Lord ; and on the eighth day there is to be a holy meeting, when you are to give an offering made by fire to the Lord ; this is a special holy day : you may do no field-work on that day.
    23:37 These are the fixed feasts of the Lord, to be kept by you as holy days of worship, for making an offering by fire to the Lord; a burned offering, a meal offering, an offering of beasts, and drink offerings; every one on its special day ; 38 In addition to the Sabbaths of the Lord, and in addition to the things you give and the oaths you make and the free offerings to the Lord. 39 But on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have got in all the fruits of the land, you will keep the feast of the Lord for seven days : the first day will be a Sabbath, and the eighth day the same. 40 On the first day, take the fruit of fair trees, branches of palm-trees, and branches of thick trees and trees from the riverside, and be glad before the Lord for seven days. 41 And let this feast be kept before the Lord for seven days in the year : it is a rule for ever from generation to generation ; in the seventh month let it be kept. 42 For seven days you will be living in tents ; all those who are Israelites by birth are to make tents their living-places : 43 So that future generations may keep in mind how I gave the children of Israel tents as their living-places when I took them out of the land of Egypt : I am the Lord your God.
    23:44 And Moses made clear to the children of Israel the orders about the fixed feasts of the Lord.

LEVITICUS, 24
Rules for the tabernacle

    24:1 And the Lord said to Moses, 2 Give orders to the children of Israel to give you clean olive oil for the light, so that a light may be burning at all times, 3 Outside the veil of the ark in the Tent of meeting ; let Aaron see that it is burning from evening till morning at all times before the Lord : it is a rule for ever through all your generations. 4 Let Aaron put the lights in order on the support before the Lord at all times.
    24:5 And take the best meal and make twelve cakes of it, a fifth part of an ephah in every cake. 6 And put them in two lines, six in a line, on the holy table before the Lord. 7 And on the lines of cakes put clean sweet-smelling spices, for a sign on the bread, an offering made by fire to the Lord. 8 Every Sabbath day regularly, the priest is to put it in order before the Lord : it is offered for the children of Israel, an agreement made for ever. 9 And it will be for Aaron and his sons ; they are to take it for food in a holy place : it is the most holy of all the offerings made by fire to the Lord, a rule for ever.
    24:10 And a son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel and had a fight with a man of Israel by the tents ; 11 And the son of the Israelite woman said evil against the holy Name, with curses; and they took him to Moses. His mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. 12 And they kept him shut up, till a decision might be given by the mouth of the Lord.
    24:13 And the Lord said to Moses, 14 Take the curser outside the tent-circle ; and let all in whose hearing the words were said put their hands on his head, and let him be stoned by all the people. 15 And say to the children of Israel, As for any man cursing God, his sin will be on his head. 16 And he who says evil against the name of the Lord will certainly be put to death ; he will be stoned by all the people ; the man who is not of your nation and one who is an Israelite by birth, whoever says evil against the holy Name is to be put to death. 17 And anyone who takes another's life is certainly to be put to death. 18 And anyone wounding a beast and causing its death, will have to make payment for it : a life for a life. 19 And if a man does damage to his neighbour, as he has done, so let it be done to him ; 20 Wound for wound, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever damage he has done, so let it be done to him. 21 He who puts a beast to death will have to make payment for it ; he who puts a man to death will himself be put to death. 22 You are to have the same law for a man of another nation living among you as for an Israelite ; for I am the Lord your God. 23 And Moses said these words to the children of Israel, and they took the man who had been cursing outside the tent-circle and had him stoned. The children of Israel did as the Lord gave orders to Moses.

LEVITICUS, 25
Blasphemy

    25:1 And the Lord said to Moses on Mount Sinai, 2 Say to the children of Israel, When you come into the land which I will give you, let the land keep a Sabbath to the Lord. 3 For six years put seed into your land, and for six years give care to your vines and get in the produce of them ; 4 But let the seventh year be a Sabbath of rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord; do not put seed into your land or have your vines cut. 5 That which comes to growth of itself may not be cut, and the grapes of your uncared-for vines may not be taken off ; let it be a year of rest for the land. 6 And the Sabbath of the land will give food for you and your man-servant and your woman-servant and those working for payment, and for those of another country who are living among you; 7 And for your cattle and the beasts on the land ; all the natural increase of the land will be for food.
    25:8 And let seven Sabbaths of years be numbered to you, seven times seven years; even the days of seven Sabbaths of years, that is forty-nine years ; 9 Then let the loud horn be sounded far and wide on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of taking away sin let the horn be sounded through all your land. 10 And let this fiftieth year be kept holy, and say publicly that everyone in the land is free from debt: it is the Jubilee, and every man may go back to his heritage and to his family. 11 Let this fiftieth year be the Jubilee: no seed may be planted, and that which comes to growth of itself may not be cut, and the grapes may not be taken from the uncared-for vines. 12 For it is the Jubilee, and it is holy to you ; your food will be the natural increase of the field.
    25:13 In this year of Jubilee, let every man go back to his heritage. 14 And in the business of trading goods for money, do no wrong to one another. 15 Let your exchange of goods with your neighbours have relation to the number of years after the year of Jubilee, and the number of times the earth has given her produce. 16 If the number of years is great, the price will be increased, and if the number of years is small, the price will be less, for it is the produce of a certain number of years which the man is giving you. 17 And do no wrong, one to another, but let the fear of your God be before you; for I am the Lord your God.
    25:18 So keep my rules and my decisions and do them, and you will be safe in your land. 19 And the land will give her fruit, and you will have food in full measure and be safe in the land. 20 And if you say, Where will our food come from in the seventh year, when we may not put in seed, or get in the increase 21 Then I will send my blessing on you in the sixth year, and the land will give fruit enough for three years. 22 And in the eighth year you will put in your seed, and get your food from the old stores, till the fruit of the ninth year is ready. 23 No exchange of land may be for ever, for the land is mine, and you are as my guests, living with me for a time. 24 Wherever there is property in land, the owner is to have the right of getting it back.
    25:25 If your brother becomes poor, and has to give up some of his land for money, his nearest relation may come and get back that which his brother has given up. 26 And if he has no one to get it back for him, and later he himself gets wealth and has enough money to get it back ; 27 Then let him take into account the years from the time when he gave it up, and make up the loss for the rest of the years to him who took it, and so get back his property. 28 But if he is not able to get it back for himself, then it will be kept by him who gave a price for it, till the year of Jubilee ; and in that year it will go back to its first owner and he will have his property again.
    25:29 And if a man gives his house in a walled town for money, he has the right to get it back for the space of a full year after he has given it up. 30 And if he does not get it back by the end of the year, then the house in the town will become the property of him who gave the money for it, and of his children for ever ; it will not go from him in the year of Jubilee. 31 But houses in small unwalled towns will be the same as property in the country; they may be got back, and they will go back to their owners in the year of Jubilee. 32 But the houses in the towns of the Levites may be got back by the Levites at any time. 33 And if a Levite does not give money to get back his property, his house in the town which was exchanged for money will come back to him in the year of Jubilee. For the houses of the towns of the Levites are their property among the children of Israel. 34 But the land on the outskirts of their towns may not be exchanged for money, for it is their property for ever.
    25:35 And if your brother becomes poor and is not able to make a living, then you are to keep him with you, helping him as you would a man from another country who is living among you. 36 Take no interest from him, in money or in goods, but have the fear of your God before you, and let your brother make a living among you. 37 Do not take interest on the money which you let him have or on the food which you give him. 38 I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, that I might be your God.
    25:39 And if your brother becomes poor and gives himself to you for money, do not make use of him like a servant who is your property ; 40 But let him be with you as a servant working for payment, till the year of Jubilee ; 41 Then he will go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his family and to the property of his fathers. 42 For they are my servants whom I took out from the land of Egypt ; they may not become the property of another. 43 Do not be a hard master to him, but have the fear of God before you. 44 But you may get servants as property from among the nations round about ; from them you may take men-servants and women-servants. 45 And in addition, you may get, for money, servants from among the children of other nations who are living with you, and from their families which have come to birth in your land; and these will be your property. 46 And they will be your children's heritage after you, to keep as their property ; they will be your servants for ever ; but you may not be hard masters to your countrymen, the children of Israel.
    25:47 And if one from another nation living among you gets wealth, and your countryman, at his side, becomes poor and gives himself for money to the man from another nation or to one of his family ; 48 After he has given himself he has the right to be made free, for a price, by one of his brothers, 49 Or his father's brother, or the son of his father's brother, or any near relation; or if he gets money, he may make himself free. 50 And let the years be numbered from the time when he gave himself to his owner till the year of Jubilee, and the price given for him will be in relation to the number of years, on the scale of the payment of a servant. 51 If there is still a long time, he will give back, on account of it, a part of the price which was given for him. 52 And if there is only a short time, he will take account of it with his master, and in relation to the number of years he will give back the price of making him free. 53 And he will be with him as a servant working for payment year by year; his master is not to be cruel to him before your eyes. 54 And if he is not made free in this way, he will go out in the year of Jubilee, he and his children with him. 55 For the children of Israel are servants to me ; they are my servants whom I took out of the land of Egypt : I am the Lord your God.

LEVITICUS, 26
Laws: blessing and curse

    26:1 Do not make images of false gods, or put up an image cut in stone or a pillar or any pictured stone in your land, to give worship to it ; for I am the Lord your God. 2 Keep my Sabbaths and give honour to my holy place : I am the Lord.
    26:3 If you are guided by my rules, and keep my laws and do them, 4 Then I will give you rain at the right time, and the land will give her increase and the trees of the field will give their fruit ; 5 And the crushing of the grain will overtake the cutting of the grapes, and the cutting of the grapes will overtake the planting of the seed, and there will be bread in full measure, and you will be living in your land safely. 6 And I will give you peace in the land, and you will take your rest and no one will give you cause for fear; and I will put an end to all evil beasts in the land, and no sword of war will go through your land. 7 And you will put to flight those who are against you, and they will be put to death by your swords. 8 Then five of you will put to flight a hundred, and a hundred of you will put to flight ten thousand, and all who are against you will be put to death by your swords. 9 And I will have pleasure in you and make you fertile and greater in number; and I will keep my agreement with you. 10 And old stores long kept will be your food, and you will take out the old because of the new; 11 And I will put my holy House among you, and my soul will not be turned away from you in disgust. 12 And I will be present among you and will be your God and you will be my people. 13 I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt so that you might not be servants to them ; by me the cords of your yoke were broken and I made you go upright. 14 But if you do not give ear to me, and do not keep all these my laws ; 15 And if you go against my rules and if you have hate in your souls for my decisions and you do not do all my orders, but go against my agreement ; 16 This will I do to you : I will put fear in your hearts, even wasting disease and burning pain, drying up the eyes and making the soul feeble, and you will get no profit from your seed, for your haters will take it for food. 17 And my face will be turned from you, and you will be broken before those who are against you, and your haters will become your rulers, and you will go in flight when no man comes after you. 18 And if, even after these things, you will not give ear to me, then I will send you punishment seven times more for your sins. 19 And the pride of your strength will be broken, and I will make your heaven as iron and your earth as brass; 20 And your strength will be used up without profit; for your land will not give her increase and the trees of the field will not give their fruit.
    26:21 And if you still go against me and will not give ear to me, I will put seven times more punishments on you because of your sins. 22 I will let loose the beasts of the field among you, and they will take away your children and send destruction on your cattle, so that your numbers will become small and your roads become waste.
    26:23 And if by these things you will not be turned to me, but still go against me; 24 Then I will go against you, and I will give you punishment, I myself, seven times for all your sins. 25 And I will send a sword on you to give effect to the punishment of my agreement ; and when you come together into your towns I will send disease among you and you will be given up into the hands of your haters. 26 When I take away your bread of life, ten women will be cooking bread in one oven, and your bread will be measured out by weight ; you will have food but never enough.
    26:27 And if, after all this, you do not give ear to me, but go against me still, 28 Then my wrath will be burning against you, and I will give you punishment, I myself, seven times for your sins. 29 Then you will take the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters for food ; 30 And I will send destruction on your high places, overturning your perfume altars, and will put your dead bodies on your broken images, and my soul will be turned from you in disgust. 31 And I will make your towns waste and send destruction on your holy places ; I will take no pleasure in the smell of your sweet perfumes ; 32 And I will make your land a waste, a wonder to your haters living in it. 33 And I will send you out in all directions among the nations, and my sword will be uncovered against you, and your land will be without any living thing, and your towns will be made waste.
    26:34 Then will the land take pleasure in its Sabbaths while it is waste and you are living in the land of your haters; then will the land have rest. 35 All the days while it is waste will the land have rest, such rest as it never had in your Sabbaths, when you were living in it. 36 And as for the rest of you, I will make their hearts feeble in the land of their haters, and the sound of a leaf moved by the wind will send them in flight, and they will go in flight as from the sword, falling down when no one comes after them; 37 Falling on one another, as before the sword, when no one comes after them; you will give way before your haters. 38 And death will overtake you among strange nations, and the land of your haters will be your destruction. 39 And those of you who are still living will be wasting away in their sins in the land of your haters; in the sins of their fathers they will be wasting away.
    26:40 And they will have grief for their sins and for the sins of their fathers, when their hearts were untrue to me, and they went against me; 41 So that I went against them and sent them away into the land of their haters: if then the pride of their hearts is broken and they take the punishment of their sins, 42 Then I will keep in mind the agreement which I made with Jacob and with Isaac and with Abraham, and I will keep in mind the land. 43 And the land, while she is without them, will keep her Sabbaths; and they will undergo the punishment of their sins, because they were turned away from my decisions and in their souls was hate for my laws. 44 But for all that, when they are in the land of their haters I will not let them go, or be turned away from them, or give them up completely ; my agreement with them will not be broken, for I am the Lord their God. 45 And because of them I will keep in mind the agreement which I made with their fathers, whom I took out of the land of Egypt before the eyes of the nations, to be their God : I am the Lord.
    46 These are the rules, decisions, and laws, which the Lord made between himself and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai, by the hand of Moses.

LEVITICUS, 27
Redemption of gifts

    27:1 And the Lord said to Moses, 2 Say to the children of Israel, If a man makes a special oath, you will give your decision as to the value of the persons for the Lord. 3 And you will put the value of a male from twenty years to sixty years old at fifty shekels of silver, by the scale of the holy place. 4 And if it is a female, the value will be thirty shekels. 5 And if the person is from five to twenty years old, the value will be twenty shekels for a male, and ten for a female. 6 And if the person is from one month to five years old, then the value for a male will be five shekels of silver, and for a female three shekels. 7 And for sixty years old and over, for a male the value will be fifteen shekels, and for a female, ten. 8 But if he is poorer than the value which you have put on him, then let him be taken to the priest, and the priest will put a value on him, such as it is possible for him to give.
    27:9 And if it is a beast of which men make offerings to the Lord, whatever any man gives of such to the Lord will be holy. 10 It may not be changed in any way, a good given for a bad, or a bad for a good; if one beast is changed for another, the two will be holy. 11 And if it is any unclean beast, of which offerings are not made to the Lord, then let him take the beast before the priest; 12 And let the priest put a value on it, if it is good or bad ; whatever value the priest puts on it, so will it be. 13 But if he has a desire to get it back for himself, let him give a fifth more than your value.
    27:14 And if a man has given his house as holy to the Lord, then the priest will put a value on it, if it is good or bad ; as the priest gives decision so will the value be fixed. 15 And if the owner has a desire to get back his house, let him give a fifth more than your value, and it will be his.
    27:16 And if a man gives to the Lord part of the field which is his property, then let your value be in relation to the seed which is planted in it ; a measure of barley grain will be valued at fifty shekels of silver. 17 If he gives his field from the year of Jubilee, the value will be fixed by your decision. 18 But if he gives his field after the year of Jubilee, the amount of the money will be worked out by the priest in relation to the number of years till the coming year of Jubilee, and the necessary amount will be taken off your value. 19 And if the man who has given the field has a desire to get it back, let him give a fifth more than the price at which it was valued and it will be his. 20 But if he has no desire to get it back, or if he has given it for a price to another man, it may not be got back again. 21 But the field, when it becomes free at the year of Jubilee, will be holy to the Lord, as a field given under oath: it will be the property of the priest. 22 And if a man gives to the Lord a field which he has got for money from another, which is not part of his heritage ; 23 Then the value fixed by you up to the year of Jubilee will be worked out for him by the priest, and in that day he will give the amount of your value as holy to the Lord. 24 In the year of Jubilee the field will go back to him from whom he got it, that is, to him whose heritage it was. 25 And let all your values be based on the shekel of the holy place, that is, twenty gerahs to the shekel.
    27:26 But a man may not give by oath to the Lord the first-fruits of cattle which are offered to the Lord : if it is an ox or a sheep it is the Lord's. 27 And if it is an unclean beast, then the owner of it may give money to get it back, in agreement with the value fixed by you, by giving a fifth more ; or if it is not taken back, let it be given for money in agreement with your valuing.
    27:28 But nothing which a man has given completely to the Lord, out of all his property, of man or beast, or of the land which is his heritage, may be given away or got back in exchange for money ; anything completely given is most holy to the Lord. 29 Any man given completely to the Lord may not be got back : he is certainly to be put to death.
    27:30 And every tenth part of the land, of the seed planted, or of the fruit of trees, is holy to the Lord. 31 And if a man has a desire to get back any of the tenth part which he has given, let him give a fifth more. 32 And a tenth part of the herd and of the flock, whatever goes under the rod of the valuer, will be holy to the Lord. 33 He may not make search to see if it is good or bad, or make any changes in it ; and if he makes exchange of it for another, the two will be holy ; he will not get them back again. 34 These are the orders which the Lord gave to Moses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai.

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