Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Deuteronomy 31 / Basic English

1. So Moses said all these things to Israel.
2. Then he said to them, I am now a hundred and twenty years old; I am no longer able to go out and come in: and the Lord has said to me, You are not to go over Jordan.
3. The Lord your God, he will go over before you; he will send destruction on all those nations, and you will take their land as your heritage: and Joshua will go over at your head as the Lord has said.
4. The Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, whom he put to destruction.
5. The Lord will give them up into your hands, and you are to do to them as I have given you orders.
6. Be strong and take heart, and have no fear of them: for it is the Lord your God who is going with you; he will not take away his help from you.
7. Then Moses sent for Joshua, and before the eyes of all Israel said to him, Be strong and take heart: for you are to go with this people into the land which the Lord, by his oath to their fathers, has given them; by your help they will take it for their heritage.
8. It is the Lord who goes before you; he will be with you, he will not take away his help from you or give you up: so have no fear.
9. Then Moses put all this law in writing, and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who take up the ark of the Lord's agreement, and to all the responsible men of Israel.
10. And Moses said to them, At the end of every seven years, at the time fixed for the ending of debts, at the feast of tents,
11. When all Israel has come before the Lord your God in the place named by him, let a reading be given of this law in the hearing of all Israel.
12. Make all the people come together, men and women and children, and anyone from another country who is with you, so that hearing they may become wise in the fear of the Lord your God, and take care to do all the words of this law;
13. And so that your children, to whom it is new, may give ear and be trained in the fear of the Lord your God, while you are living in the land which you are going over Jordan to take for your heritage.
14. At that time the Lord said to Moses, The day of your death is near: send for Joshua, and come to the Tent of meeting so that I may give him his orders. So Moses and Joshua went to the Tent of meeting.
15. And the Lord was seen in the Tent in a pillar of cloud resting by the door of the Tent.
16. And the Lord said to Moses, Now you are going to rest with your fathers; and this people will be false to me, uniting themselves to the strange gods of the land where they are going; they will be turned away from me and will not keep the agreement I have made with them.
17. In that day my wrath will be moved against them, and I will be turned away from them, veiling my face from them, and destruction will overtake them, and unnumbered evils and troubles will come on them; so that in that day they will say, Have not these evils come on us because our God is not with us?
18. Truly, my face will be turned away from them in that day, because of all the evil they have done in going after other gods.
19. Make then this song for yourselves, teaching it to the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, so that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.
20. For when I have taken them into the land named in my oath to their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, and they have made themselves full of food and are fat, then they will be turned to other gods and will give them worship, no longer honouring me or keeping my agreement.
21. Then when evils and troubles without number have overtaken them, this song will be a witness to them, for the words of it will be clear in the memories of their children: for I see the thoughts which are moving in their hearts even now, before I have taken them into the land of my oath.
22. So that same day Moses made this song, teaching it to the children of Israel.
23. Then he gave orders to Joshua, the son of Nun, saying to him, Be strong and take heart: for you are to go at the head of the children of Israel into the land which I made an oath to give them; and I will be with you.
24. Now after writing all the words of this law in a book till the record of them was complete,
25. Moses said to the Levites who were responsible for taking up the ark of the Lord's agreement,
26. Take this book of the law and put it by the ark of the Lord's agreement, so that it may be a witness against you.
27. For I have knowledge of your hard and uncontrolled hearts: even now, while I am still living, you will not be ruled by the Lord; how much less after my death?
28. Get together before me all those who are in authority in your tribes, and your overseers, so that I may say these things in their hearing, and make heaven and earth my witnesses against them.
29. For I am certain that after my death you will give yourselves up to sin, wandering from the way which I have given you; and evil will overtake you in the end, because you will do evil in the eyes of the Lord, moving him to wrath by the work of your hands.
30. Then in the hearing of all the meeting of Israel, Moses said the words of this song, to the end.

Deuteronomy 32 / Basic English

1. Give ear, O heavens, to my voice; let the earth take note of the words of my mouth:
2. My teaching is dropping like rain, coming down like dew on the fields; like rain on the young grass and showers on the garden plants:
3. For I will give honour to the name of the Lord: let our God be named great.
4. He is the Rock, complete is his work; for all his ways are righteousness: a God without evil who keeps faith, true and upright is he.
5. They have become false, they are not his children, the mark of sin is on them; they are an evil and hard-hearted generation.
6. Is this your answer to the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is he not your father who has given you life? He has made you and given you your place.
7. Keep in mind the days of the past, give thought to the years of generations gone by: go to your father and he will make it clear to you, to the old men and they will give you the story.
8. When the Most High gave the nations their heritage, separating into groups the children of men, he had the limits of the peoples marked out, keeping in mind the number of the children of Israel.
9. For the Lord's wealth is his people; Jacob is the land of his heritage.
10. He came to him in the waste land, in the unpeopled waste of sand: putting his arms round him and caring for him, he kept him as the light of his eye.
11. As an eagle, teaching her young to make their flight, with her wings outstretched over them, takes them up on her strong feathers:
12. So the Lord only was his guide, no other god was with him.
13. He put him on the high places of the earth, his food was the increase of the field; honey he gave him out of the rock and oil out of the hard rock;
14. Butter from his cows and milk from his sheep, with fat of lambs and sheep of Bashan, and goats, and the heart of the grain; and for your drink, wine from the blood of the grape.
15. But Jeshurun became fat and would not be controlled: you have become fat, you are thick and full of food: then he was untrue to the God who made him, giving no honour to the Rock of his salvation.
16. The honour which was his they gave to strange gods; by their disgusting ways he was moved to wrath.
17. They made offerings to evil spirits which were not God, to gods who were strange to them, which had newly come up, not feared by your fathers.
18. You have no thought for the Rock, your father, you have no memory of the God who gave you birth.
19. And the Lord saw with disgust the evil-doing of his sons and daughters.
20. And he said, My face will be veiled from them, I will see what their end will be: for they are an uncontrolled generation, children in whom is no faith.
21. They have given my honour to that which is not God, moving me to wrath with their false worship: I will give their honour to those who are not a people, moving them to wrath by a foolish nation,
22. For my wrath is a flaming fire, burning to the deep parts of the underworld, burning up the earth with her increase, and firing the deep roots of the mountains.
23. I will send a rain of troubles on them, my arrows will be showered on them.
24. They will be wasted from need of food, and overcome by burning heat and bitter destruction; and the teeth of beasts I will send on them, with the poison of the worms of the dust.
25. Outside they will be cut off by the sword, and in the inner rooms by fear; death will take the young man and the virgin, the baby at the breast and the grey-haired man.
26. I said I would send them wandering far away, I would make all memory of them go from the minds of men:
27. But for the fear that their haters, uplifted in their pride, might say, Our hand is strong, the Lord has not done all this.
28. For they are a nation without wisdom; there is no sense in them.
29. If only they were wise, if only this was clear to them, and they would give thought to their future!
30. How would it be possible for one to overcome a thousand, and two to send ten thousand in flight, if their rock had not let them go, if the Lord had not given them up?
31. For their rock is not like our Rock, even our haters themselves being judges.
32. For their vine is the vine of Sodom, from the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are the grapes of evil, and the berries are bitter:
33. Their wine is the poison of dragons, the cruel poison of snakes.
34. Is not this among my secrets, kept safe in my store-house?
35. Punishment is mine and reward, at the time of the slipping of their feet: for the day of their downfall is near, sudden will be their fate.
36. For the Lord will be judge of his people, he will have pity for his servants; when he sees that their power is gone, there is no one, shut up or free.
37. And he will say, Where are their gods, the rock in which they put their faith?
38. Who took the fat of their offerings, and the wine of their drink offering? Let them now come to your help, let them be your salvation.
39. See now, I myself am he; there is no other god but me: giver of death and life, wounding and making well: and no one has power to make you free from my hand.
40. For lifting up my hand to heaven I say, By my unending life,
41. If I make sharp my shining sword, and my hand is outstretched for judging, I will give punishment to those who are against me, and their right reward to my haters.
42. I will make my arrows red with blood, my sword will be feasting on flesh, with the blood of the dead and the prisoners, of the long-haired heads of my haters.
43. Be glad, O you his people, over the nations; for he will take payment for the blood of his servants, and will give punishment to his haters, and take away the sin of his land, for his people.
44. So Moses said all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Hoshea, the son of Nun.
45. And after saying all this to the people,
46. Moses said to them, Let the words which I have said to you today go deep into your hearts, and give orders to your children to do every word of this law.
47. And this is no small thing for you, but it is your life, and through this you may make your days long in the land which you are going over Jordan to take for your heritage.
48. That same day the Lord said to Moses,
49. Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo in the land of Moab opposite Jericho; there you may see the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel for their heritage:
50. And let death come to you on the mountain where you are going, and be put to rest with your people; as death came to Aaron, your brother, on Mount Hor, where he was put to rest with his people:
51. Because of your sin against me before the children of Israel at the waters of Meribath Kadesh in the waste land of Zin; because you did not keep my name holy among the children of Israel.
52. So you will see the land before you, but you will not go into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.

Luke 2 / Basic English

1. Now it came about in those days that an order went out from Caesar Augustus that there was to be a numbering of all the world.
2. This was the first numbering, which was made when Quirinius was ruler of Syria.
3. And all men went to be numbered, everyone to his town.
4. And Joseph went up from Galilee, out of the town of Nazareth, into Judaea, to Beth-lehem, the town of David, because he was of the house and family of David,
5. To be put on the list with Mary, his future wife, who was about to become a mother.
6. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.
7. And she had her first son; and folding him in linen, she put him to rest in the place where the cattle had their food, because there was no room for them in the house.
8. And in the same country there were keepers of sheep in the fields, watching over their flock by night.
9. And an angel of the Lord came to them, and the glory of the Lord was shining round about them: and fear came on them.
10. And the angel said, Have no fear; for truly, I give you good news of great joy which will be for all the people:
11. For on this day, in the town of David, a Saviour has come to birth, who is Christ the Lord.
12. And this is the sign to you: you will see a young child folded in linen, in the place where the cattle have their food.
13. And suddenly there was with the angel a great band of spirits from heaven, giving praise to God, and saying,
14. Glory to God in the highest, and on the earth peace among men with whom he is well pleased.
15. And when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the keepers of the sheep said to one another, Let us go now to Beth-lehem, and see this thing which has come about, which the Lord has made clear to us.
16. And they came quickly, and saw Mary and Joseph, and the child in the place where the cattle had their food.
17. And when they saw it, they gave them an account of the things which had been said to them about the child.
18. And all those to whose ears it came were full of wonder at the things said by the keepers of the sheep.
19. But Mary kept all these words in her heart, and gave much thought to them.
20. Then the keepers of the sheep went back, giving glory and praise to God for all the things which had come to their ears and which they had seen, as it had been said to them.
21. And when, after eight days, the time came for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name which the angel had given to him before his birth.
22. And when the necessary days for making them clean by the law of Moses had come to an end, they took him to Jerusalem to give him to the Lord
23. (As it says in the law of the Lord, Every mother's first male child is to be holy to the Lord),
24. And to make an offering, as it is ordered in the law of the Lord, of two doves or other young birds.
25. And there was then in Jerusalem a man whose name was Simeon; and he was an upright man, fearing God and waiting for the comfort of Israel: and the Holy Spirit was on him.
26. And he had knowledge, through the Holy Spirit, that he would not see death till he had seen the Lord's Christ.
27. And full of the Spirit he came into the Temple; and when the father and mother came in with the child Jesus, to do with him what was ordered by the law,
28. Then he took him in his arms and gave praise to God and said,
29. Now you are letting your servant go in peace, O Lord, as you have said;
30. For my eyes have seen your salvation,
31. Which you have made ready before the face of all nations;
32. A light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.
33. And his father and mother were full of wonder at the things which were said about him.
34. And Simeon gave them his blessing and said to Mary, his mother, See, this child will be the cause of the downfall and the lifting up of great numbers of people in Israel, and he will be a sign against which hard words will be said;
35. (And a sword will go through your heart;) so that the secret thoughts of men may come to light.
36. And there was one, Anna, a woman prophet, the daughter of Phanuel, of the family of Asher (she was very old, and after seven years of married life
37. She had been a widow for eighty-four years); she was in the Temple at all times, worshipping with prayers and going without food, night and day.
38. And coming up at that time, she gave praise to God, talking of him to all those who were waiting for the freeing of Jerusalem.
39. And when they had done all the things which were ordered by the law of the Lord, they went back to Galilee, to Nazareth, the town where they were living.
40. And the child became tall and strong and full of wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.
41. And every year his father and mother went to Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover.
42. And when he was twelve years old, they went up, as their way was, to the feast;
43. And when the days of the feast came to an end and they were going back, the boy Jesus was still in Jerusalem, but they had no knowledge of it:
44. And in the belief that he was with some of their number, they went a day's journey; and after looking for him among their relations and friends,
45. And seeing that he was not there, they went back to Jerusalem, to make search for him.
46. And after three days they came across him in the Temple, seated among the wise men, giving ear to their words and putting questions to them.
47. And all to whose ears it came were full of wonder at his knowledge and the answers which he gave.
48. And when they saw him they were surprised, and his mother said to him, Son, why have you done this to us? see, your father and I have been looking for you with sorrow.
49. And he said to them, Why were you looking for me? was it not clear to you that my right place was in my Father's house?
50. And his words seemed strange to them.
51. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth; and did as he was ordered: and his mother kept all these words in her heart.
52. And Jesus was increasing in wisdom and in years, and in grace before God and men.