Leviticus 17-18
EasyEnglish Bible
The people must not eat blood
17 The Lord said to Moses, 2 ‘Tell this to Aaron and his sons and all the people. The Lord has given all these rules. 3 If a person sacrifices a bull, a sheep or a goat in the fields, that is a sin. Or if a person sacrifices it in the camp, that is a sin. 4 The animal is an offering to the Lord. The person should bring it to the door of the tabernacle. He should offer it to the Lord there. The person who offers a sacrifice anywhere else has sinned. He has sacrificed an animal in the wrong way. He must leave the camp. 5 This rule will stop the people giving sacrifices to the Lord in the fields. They must bring their gifts to the priest. They will be friendship offerings to the Lord. The priest will be at the door of the Tent of Meeting. 6 He must shake the blood of the animal on the Lord's altar. That altar is at the door of the Tent of Meeting. The priest must burn the fat. The smell of it while it is burning will give the Lord pleasure. 7 The people give sacrifices in the fields to worship idols that seem like goats. They must never do this again. This rule is for now and for all time.
8 If an Israelite gives a sacrifice or a burnt offering he must offer it at the Tent of Meeting's door. A foreigner may live among you. If he gives a sacrifice he must offer it at the Tent of Meeting's door. 9 If they did not offer it to the Lord at the Tent of Meeting's door, they are sinning. You must send them away from the camp.
10 An Israelite or a foreigner who lives among you must not eat blood. And they must not drink it. If somebody does, God will turn away from him. He will take that person away from his people. 11 The blood of an animal gives it life. You must put the blood on the altar. God has given the blood to you to atone for your sins. It makes your life right again, because of the blood. 12 For this reason, Israel's people must not eat blood. And the people who are travelling with them must not eat blood.[a]
13 A person may catch an animal or a bird that is clean to eat. If he does, he must pour its blood on the ground. He must cover the blood with some earth. 14 The animal's life is in its blood. That is why no Israelite should eat any animal's blood. You must send any person that eats blood away from your people.
15 An Israelite or a foreign person may find a dead animal. If he eats it, he must wash his clothes and his body. He will be unclean until evening. Then he will become clean. A person might find an animal or a bird that a wild animal has killed. He must wash his clothes and his body. He will be unclean until evening. 16 If that person does not wash his clothes and his body, it is his own mistake.’[b]
Rules about sex
18 The Lord said to Moses, 2 ‘Tell Israel's people that I am the Lord their God. 3 They were living in Egypt, but they must not do as the people in Egypt do. Now I am bringing them to live in Canaan. They must not live in the way that the people in Canaan live. They must not do the things that those people do. 4 They must obey my rules. I am the Lord their God. 5 If they obey my rules and my laws, they will continue to live safely. I am the Lord.
6 Tell them this:
A person must not have sex with anyone who belongs to his own family. I am the Lord.
7 Do not have sex with your mother. That would cause your father to be ashamed.
8 Do not have sex with any wife of your father. Your father would be ashamed.
9 Do not have sex with your sister. Do not have sex with a sister who is your mother's daughter or your father's daughter. It does not matter if she was born in your house or in another house. Do not have sex with any sister.
10 Do not have sex with any granddaughter. That would make you ashamed.
11 Do not have sex with the daughter of your father and his wife. She is your sister.
12 Do not have sex with your father's sister. She is his near relative.
13 Do not have sex with your mother's sister. She is her near relative.
14 Do not have sex with the wife of your father's brother. That would make your uncle ashamed. His wife is your aunt.
15 Do not have sex with your son's wife.
16 Do not have sex with your brother's wife. That would make your brother ashamed.
17 Do not have sex with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sex with her son's daughter or with her daughter's daughter. They are her near relatives. It would be an evil thing to do.
18 Do not marry your wife's sister as a second wife. If your wife is still alive, do not have sex with her sister.
19 Do not have sex with a woman at the time when she bleeds each month. She is unclean during that time.
20 Do not have sex with the wife of another man. You would become unclean.
21 Do not offer your child as a sacrifice to the false god, Molech. This would spoil God's honour. He is the Lord.
22 A man must not have sex with another man. That is an evil thing to do.
23 Do not have sex with an animal. That would make you unclean. A woman must not offer herself to an animal to have sex with it. She would be doing a disgusting thing.
24 Do not do any of these things. They would make you unclean. The people who live in Canaan do these things. It made them unclean. God will send those people out of their country. 25 Canaan is unclean because the people did these things. This is why God pushed the people out of that land. 26 But you and the foreigners with you must not do these wrong things. 27 The people in Canaan did these bad things and the land became unclean. 28 If you do these bad things, I will push you out of Canaan's land. I will send you away, like the people before you.
29 You must send away any person who does any of these bad things. 30 All the people must obey my rules. They must not do the bad things that the people in Canaan did. If they did them, my people would become unclean. I am the Lord your God.’
Titus 3
EasyEnglish Bible
Do what is right
3 Tell the believers there to respect the government and those who have authority. They must remember to obey their rulers. They must always be ready to help other people. 2 They must not say bad things about anyone. They must not quarrel with people. Instead, they should be kind and polite to everyone.
3 Before we believed in Christ, we ourselves were fools too. We did not obey God. We believed a false message. We wanted to do many kinds of bad things to make us happy. We could not stop doing them. Every day we did evil things. We were jealous of other people. People hated us, and we hated each other.
4 But then God, our Saviour, showed clearly that he is very kind. He showed that he loves all people. 5 God did not save us because of any good things that we ourselves had done. He saved us because he chose to forgive us. God has washed us so that we are clean inside. We have been born again, so that we live a new life. God's Holy Spirit has done this for us. 6 Jesus Christ died as a sacrifice to save us. So now God has poured his Holy Spirit into us, to fill us. 7 Because God is very kind, he has accepted us as right with himself. As a result, we know that we will receive the good things that God has prepared for us. We know that we will live with God for ever.
8 That message is certainly true. So you must teach people the things that I have said in this letter. Make sure that they understand them well. Then the people who have believed in God will be careful to do good things. Good things like that will help everyone.
9 But stay away from people who argue about silly things. They study long lists of their families' names from years ago. Refuse to quarrel with people like that. Refuse to argue about the rules in God's Law. All those kinds of things have no value and they do not help anyone. 10 If someone teaches a false message that causes trouble, warn him. If you warn him twice and he still does not stop, stay away from him. 11 You know that a person like that has chosen not to believe the true message. He knows that he is doing a bad thing, but he continues to do it.
Paul finishes his letter
12 I will send either Artemas or Tychicus to you.[a] After one of them has arrived, please come to meet me in Nicopolis. Come as quickly as you can. I have decided that I will stay in Nicopolis during the winter.[b]
13 Please help Zenas, the lawyer, and Apollos as much as you can.[c] Make sure that they have everything that they need for their journey. 14 Our Christian friends there must learn to do good things. They should supply things to people who need help. That will show that their lives are really useful.
15 Everyone who is here with me says ‘hello’ to you. Please say ‘hello’ on our behalf to the believers there who love us. I pray that God will continue to be very kind to all of you.
Footnotes
- 3:12 We do not know who Artemas was. Tychicus was a man who had travelled with Paul. See Acts 20:4; Ephesians 6:21-22; Colossians 4:7; 2 Timothy 4:12.
- 3:12 Nicopolis was a city on the west coast of the country that we call Greece.
- 3:13 The name ‘Apollos’ is also in Acts 18:24; 19:1, and in 1 Corinthians 1:12; 3:4; 16:12.
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