Old/New Testament
The Festival of Trumpets
29 On the first day of the seventh month, all the people must come together for a holy meeting. You must not work at your jobs. It is a day for you to make music with your trumpets. 2 And you must offer a burnt offering to the Lord. You must give one young bull and one male sheep. Also offer seven lambs that are one year old. The animals must not have anything wrong with them. The smell of the smoke from these sacrifices will cause the Lord to be happy. 3 Offer to me the proper grain offering with each animal. Mix together 3 kilograms of the best flour with olive oil. Offer it to me with the young bull. Offer 2 kilograms of flour with oil with the male sheep. 4 Offer 1 kilogram of flour with each lamb. 5 Also offer one male goat as a sin offering, so that I will forgive the people's sins. 6 Offer these sacrifices as well as the burnt offering, grain offerings and drink offerings that you give each month and each day. The smell of the smoke from these sacrifices will cause the Lord to be happy.
The Day of Atonement
7 On the tenth day of the seventh month, you must come together for a holy meeting. During that day, you must make yourselves humble. And you must not do any work. 8 You must offer a burnt offering to the Lord. The smell of the smoke will make the Lord happy. Offer one young bull, one male sheep and seven male lambs that are one year old. The animals must not have anything wrong with them. 9 Offer to me the proper grain offering with each animal. Mix together 3 kilograms of the best flour with olive oil. Offer it to me with the young bull. Offer 2 kilograms of flour with oil with the male sheep. 10 Offer 1 kilogram of flour with oil with each lamb. 11 Also offer one male goat as a sin offering. Give these gifts as well as the burnt offering, the grain offerings and the drink offerings that you give each day and each month.
The Festival of Huts
12 On the 15th day of the seventh month, you must come together for a holy meeting. You must not work at your jobs. You must have a feast to the Lord for seven days. 13 Give an offering by fire as a smell to make the Lord happy. Give a burnt offering of 13 young bulls, two male sheep and 14 lambs that are one year old. The animals must not have anything wrong with them. 14 With each of the 13 bulls give a grain offering. Mix together 3 kilograms of the best flour with olive oil. Offer it to me with each bull. With each male sheep, offer 2 kilograms of flour with oil. 15 Offer one kilogram of flour that you have mixed with oil with each male lamb. 16 Include one male goat as a sin offering. Sacrifice it with the regular burnt offering with the proper grain offering and the drink offering.
17 On the second day, give 12 young bulls, two male sheep and 14 lambs that are one year old. The animals must not have anything wrong with them. 18 With the bulls, male sheep and lambs, give the proper grain offerings and drink offerings for each animal. 19 Include one male goat as a sin offering. Sacrifice it with the regular burnt offering with the proper grain offering and their drink offerings.
20 On the third day, give 11 bulls, two male sheep and 14 male lambs that are a year old. The animals must not have anything wrong with them. 21 With the bulls, male sheep and lambs, give the proper grain offerings and drink offerings for each animal. 22 Include one male goat as a sin offering. Sacrifice it with the regular burnt offering with the proper grain offering and the drink offering.
23 On the fourth day give ten bulls, two male sheep and 14 male lambs that are a year old. The animals must not have anything wrong with them. 24 With the bulls, male sheep and lambs, give the proper grain offerings and drink offerings for each animal. 25 Include one male goat as a sin offering. Sacrifice it with the regular burnt offering with the proper grain offering and the drink offering.
26 On the fifth day give nine bulls, two male sheep and 14 male lambs that are a year old. The animals must not have anything wrong with them. 27 With the bulls, male sheep and lambs, give the proper grain offerings and drink offerings for each animal. 28 Include one male goat as a sin offering. Sacrifice it with the regular burnt offering with the proper grain offering and the drink offering.
29 On the sixth day give eight bulls, two male sheep and 14 male lambs that are a year old. The animals must not have anything wrong with them. 30 With the bulls, male sheep and lambs, give the proper grain offerings and drink offerings for each animal. 31 Include one male goat as a sin offering. Sacrifice it with the regular burnt offering with the proper grain offering and the drink offering.
32 On the seventh day give seven bulls, two male sheep and 14 male lambs that are a year old. The animals must not have anything wrong with them. 33 With the bulls, male sheep and lambs, give the proper grain offerings and drink offerings for each animal. 34 Include one male goat as a sin offering. Sacrifice it with the regular burnt offering with the proper grain offering and the drink offering.
35 On the eighth day, all the people must come together for a holy meeting. You must not work at your jobs. 36 Give an offering by fire as a smell to make the Lord happy. Give a burnt offering of one bull, one male sheep and seven male lambs that are a year old. The animals must not have anything wrong with them. 37 With the bull, the male sheep and the lambs, give the proper grain offerings and drink offerings for each animal. 38 Include one male goat as a sin offering. Sacrifice it with the regular burnt offering with the proper grain offering and the drink offering.
39 You must offer those gifts to the Lord at the times of the feasts. You must do that even if you have given your usual burnt offering, grain offerings, drink offerings or friendship offerings. And you must do it even if you have given other offerings. You might have given those other offerings because you wanted to give them. Or you might have given them because you had promised to give them.” ’
40 Moses told the Israelites everything that the Lord had said to him.
Rules about promises
30 Moses said to the leaders of the Israelite tribes: ‘The Lord commands this: 2 If a man promises to the Lord that he will do something, he must do everything that he has promised.
3 A young woman who still lives in her father's house might make a promise to the Lord. 4 If her father hears about her promise and he does not say anything, she must do everything that she has promised. 5 But her father may refuse to let her do it. Then she does not have to do what she promised to do. The Lord will understand why she does not do it.
6 But a young woman like that might make a promise to God and then marry a husband. She might have promised something when she had not thought carefully about it. 7 After she marries, if her husband hears about it but he does not stop her, she must do what she promised. 8 But her husband may say that he refuses to let her do it. He must say that on the day when he first hears about it. Then the woman does not have to do what she promised to do. The Lord will forgive her.
9 If a woman no longer has a husband, she must do whatever she has promised to the Lord. Maybe she is a widow, or she has become separate from her husband.
10 A woman who is living with her husband may make a promise to the Lord. 11 If her husband hears about it but he does not say anything, she must do everything that she has promised. 12 But her husband may say clearly that she must not do it. Then she must obey him. The Lord will understand why she does not do it.
13 The husband may let his wife do what she promised to do, or he may refuse. 14 If the husband does not say anything for many days about the promise, the woman must do what she promised. 15 The husband may wait for many days after he hears about his wife's promise. If he then refuses to let her do what she promised, he will be guilty. God will punish him instead of his wife.’
16 Those are the rules that the Lord gave to Moses. They say what must happen when husbands, wives or young women who still live at home make a promise to the Lord.
War against the Midianites
31 The Lord said to Moses, 2 ‘You must punish the Midianites because they caused the Israelites to worship idols. After you have done that, you will die.’
3 Moses said to the people, ‘Choose some men to go and fight against the Midianites. Give them weapons to punish the Midianites as the Lord wants. 4 Choose 1,000 men from each Israelite tribe to go and fight.’
5 They did that. There were 12,000 men ready with weapons to fight the battle. 6 Moses sent those men out to fight. There were 1,000 men from each tribe. Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, went with them. Phinehas took with him the special things from God's Holy Tent. He also took the trumpets to make sounds for the battle.
7 They attacked the Midianites as the Lord had told them. They killed all the men. 8 That included the five kings of Midian: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba. They also killed Balaam, the son of Beor, with a sword.
9 Israel's men took hold of the women and children of Midian. They took their animals and everything that was valuable. 10 They burned all their towns and their camps. 11 They took for themselves the people, the animals and everything that was valuable. 12 They took all the prisoners and the things that they had taken to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest. They brought them to the camp of the Israelites. That was on the flat ground in Moab beside the Jordan River. Jericho was on the other side of the river.
13 Moses, Eleazar and the leaders of the Israelites went to meet them outside the camp. 14 Moses was angry with the leaders and the officers of the army who had come back from the battle against the Midianites.
15 Moses said to them, ‘Why have you let all the women live? 16 You should not have done that. These women caused the Israelites to turn against the Lord. They did what Balaam said to them at Peor. As a result, a bad disease killed many of the Lord's people. 17 Because of that, kill all the boys, and kill every woman who has had sex with a man. 18 But as for the girls who have not had sex with a man, you may keep them for yourselves.’
19 Moses said, ‘Any soldier who has killed someone, or who has touched a dead body is unclean. He must stay outside the camp for seven days. On the third day and on the seventh day, you must wash yourselves to become clean. You must do the same thing to your Midianite prisoners. 20 You must also make these things clean: any clothes or anything made from leather, wool or wood.’
21 Eleazar the priest said to the soldiers, ‘This is the rule that the Lord told Moses: 22 You must put all the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, and other metals in a fire. 23 Put in the fire anything that the fire will not destroy. The fire will make those things clean. But you must also wash them with water. As for anything that the fire would destroy, wash them with water to make them clean. 24 On the seventh day, you must wash your clothes. After that you will be clean again. Then you can come into the camp.’
They shared the things that they had taken
25 The Lord said to Moses, 26 ‘You and Eleazar the priest, and the leaders of the family clans must count all the people and animals that you took in the battle. 27 Give one half of all those things to the soldiers who went to fight the war against the Midianites. Give the other half to the rest of the people. 28 From the half which belongs to the soldiers, keep one part out of every 500. Do that with the Midianite prisoners, the cows, the donkeys and the sheep. Those parts will be for the Lord. 29 Give those to Eleazar the priest. He will offer them to the Lord. 30 From the half that belongs to the people, keep one part out of every 50. Do that with the Midianite prisoners, the cows, the donkeys and the sheep. Those parts will be for the Levites who take care of the Lord's special tent.’
31 Moses and Eleazar did as the Lord said.
32 The soldiers had brought from the battle: 675,000 sheep, 33 72,000 cows, 34 61,000 donkeys 35 and 32,000 young women who had not had sex with a man.
36 The soldiers' half included 337,500 sheep. 37 So there were 675 sheep for the Lord. 38 The soldiers' half also included 36,000 cows. So there were 72 cows for the Lord. 39 The soldiers' half also included 30,500 donkeys. So there were 61 donkeys for the Lord. 40 The soldiers' half also included 16,000 people. So there were 32 people for the Lord.
41 Moses gave the part that was for the Lord to Eleazar, the priest. He would offer these to the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
42 Moses made the half for the Israelite people separate from the half that was for the soldiers. 43 The people's half included 337,500 sheep, 44 36,000 cows, 45 30,500 donkeys 46 and 16,000 people. 47 From the Israelites' half, Moses took one part out of every 50. He gave those to the Levites who took care of the Lord's special tent. That was what the Lord had commanded Moses to do.
48 Then the leaders and the officers of the army went to Moses. 49 They said to him: ‘We have counted the soldiers who went to fight against the Midianites. They have all come back safely. 50 So we have brought a gift to offer to the Lord. We have brought gold rings, ear-rings, necklaces and other gold things that people wear. They are gifts to remove our sins so that the Lord will forgive us.’
51 Moses and Eleazar took all the gold things that the soldiers' officers and leaders brought to them. 52 They weighed all the gold that was offered to the Lord. The weight was 16,750 shekels. 53 The soldiers had also taken gold things from the enemy for themselves. 54 Moses and Eleazar took the gold gifts from the soldiers' officers and leaders into the Tent of Meeting. It would help the Israelites to remember how the Lord had helped them.
Three disciples see how great Jesus is
9 Jesus then said to them, ‘I tell you this: Some people who are standing here will see God begin to rule in his kingdom with great power. They will see that before they die.’
2 Six days after that, Jesus asked Peter, James and John to go with him. Jesus led them up a high mountain, where they were alone together. Peter, James and John saw Jesus change in front of them. 3 His clothes became very white; they were shining. They were a brighter white than anyone on earth could wash them. 4 Then Elijah and Moses appeared in front of the three disciples. Elijah and Moses were talking with Jesus.[a][b]
5 So Peter said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, it is good that we are here. Please let us build three huts. One hut will be for you. One hut will be for Moses. And one hut will be for Elijah.’ 6 Peter did not really know what to say. That was because the three disciples were very afraid.[c]
7 Then a cloud appeared and it covered them all. A voice spoke from the cloud and it said, ‘This is my Son, and I love him. Listen to him.’
8 At that moment, the three disciples looked around. They saw that nobody else was there now. Only Jesus was there with them.
9 While they were walking down the mountain, Jesus said to the three disciples, ‘You must not tell anyone now about the things that you have just seen. One day the Son of Man will become alive again after his death. Then you can tell people about these things.’ 10 The three disciples kept these words secret. But they talked together about the words, ‘become alive again after his death’. They asked each other, ‘What does this mean?’
11 Then the three disciples asked Jesus, ‘Why do the teachers of God's Law say that God's prophet Elijah must return first, before the Messiah comes?’
12 Jesus said to them, ‘Elijah does come first. He makes everything ready. But what is written in the Bible about the Son of Man? It says that people will cause him to suffer a lot. They will think that he is nothing.[d] 13 But I tell you that Elijah has already come.[e] People did to him everything that they wanted to do. The Bible already showed that those things would happen to him.’
Jesus helps a boy who has a bad spirit
14 They reached the place where the other disciples were. They saw that there was a large crowd there with them. Some teachers of God's Law were arguing with the disciples. 15 The people in the crowd saw Jesus and immediately they were very surprised. They ran to say ‘hello’ to Jesus.
16 Jesus asked his disciples, ‘What are you arguing about with the teachers of God's Law?’
17 A man in the crowd answered. He said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, I brought my son to you. He is not able to speak because he has a bad spirit. 18 When the bad spirit takes hold of him, it throws him to the ground. Water comes out of his mouth and he bites his teeth together. Then his body stops moving. I asked your disciples to send the spirit out of him. But they were not able to do it.’
19 Jesus replied, ‘You people today still do not believe in God. I have been with you for a long time and still you do not believe. It is difficult for me to be patient with you. Bring the boy to me.’
20 So the people brought the boy to Jesus. When the bad spirit saw Jesus, it immediately caused the boy's body to shake strongly. The boy fell onto the ground and he rolled about. Water was coming from his mouth.
21 Jesus asked the boy's father, ‘How long has he been like this?’
‘He has been like this since he was a small boy,’ the father replied. 22 ‘Often the spirit has caused him to fall into the fire or into water. It is trying to kill him. Please be kind to us. If you can do anything, help us!’
23 Jesus said to the father, ‘You should not say, “If you can do anything.” Everything is possible for those people who believe.’
24 Immediately, the boy's father shouted, ‘Oh! I believe! Help me to believe more!’
25 Jesus saw that the crowd of people was quickly becoming bigger. So he told the bad spirit to stop. Jesus said to it, ‘Spirit, I am telling you that you must leave this boy. He cannot hear or speak because of you. I tell you to come out of him! You must never go into him again.’
26 The spirit screamed. It caused the boy's body to shake many times. Then it came out of him. The boy seemed to be dead, so many people said, ‘He is dead.’ 27 But Jesus held the boy's hand and he helped the boy to stand up.
28 Jesus went into a house and the disciples were alone with him. Then they asked him, ‘Why could we not cause the bad spirit to leave the boy?’
29 Jesus said to them, ‘You must pray. This kind of spirit will not leave a person unless you pray.’
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.