Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Joshua 16 / Basic English

1. And the limit of the land marked out for the children of Joseph went out from Jordan at Jericho, at the waters of Jericho on the east, in the waste land, going up from Jericho through the hill-country to Beth-el;
2. And it goes out from Beth-el to Luz, and on as far as the limit of the Archites to Ataroth;
3. And it goes down to the west to the limit of the Japhletites, to the limit of Beth-horon the lower, as far as Gezer; ending at the sea.
4. And the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their heritage.
5. And the limit of the land of the children of Ephraim by their families was marked out in this way: the limit of their heritage to the east was Ataroth-addar, to Beth-horon the higher;
6. The line goes out to the west at Michmethath on the north; then turning to the east to Taanath-shiloh, going past it on the east of Janoah;
7. And from Janoah down to Ataroth, and to Naarah, and touching Jericho, it goes on to Jordan.
8. From Tappuah the line goes on to the west to the river of Kanah; ending at the sea. This is the heritage of the children of Ephraim by their families;
9. Together with the towns marked out for the children of Ephraim in the heritage of Manasseh, all the towns with their unwalled places.
10. And the Canaanites who were living in Gezer were not forced out; but the Canaanites have been living among Ephraim, to this day, as servants, doing forced work.

Joshua 17 / Basic English

1. And this was the part marked out for the tribe of Manasseh, because he was the oldest son of Joseph. As for Machir, the oldest son of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, because he was a man of war he had Gilead and Bashan.
2. And as for the rest of the children of Manasseh, their heritage was given to them by families; for the children of Abiezer, and for the children of Helek, and for the children of Asriel, and for the children of Shechem, and for the children of Hepher, and for the children of Shemida: these were the male children of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, by their families.
3. But Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but only daughters; and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.
4. And they came before Eleazar the priest, and Joshua, the son of Nun, and before the chiefs, saying, The Lord gave orders to Moses to give us a heritage among our brothers: so in agreement with the orders of the Lord he gave them a heritage among their father's brothers.
5. And ten parts were given to Manasseh, in addition to the land of Gilead and Bashan, which is on the other side of Jordan;
6. Because the daughters of Manasseh had a heritage among his sons, and the land of Gilead was the property of the other sons of Manasseh.
7. And the limit of Manasseh's land was from Asher to Michmethath, which is before Shechem; the line goes on to the right hand, to the people of En-tappuah.
8. The land of Tappuah was the property of Manasseh; but Tappuah on the edge of Manasseh was the property of the children of Ephraim.
9. And the limit goes down to the stream Kanah, to the south of the stream: these towns were Ephraim's among the towns of Manasseh; Manasseh's limit was on the north side of the stream, ending at the sea:
10. To the south it is Ephraim's, and to the north it is Manasseh's, and the sea is his limit; and they are touching Asher on the north, and Issachar on the east.
11. In Issachar and Asher, Manasseh had Beth-shean and its daughter-towns, and Ibleam and its daughter-towns, and the people of Dor and its daughter-towns, and the people of En-dor and its daughter-towns, and the people of Taanach and its daughter-towns, and the people of Megiddo and its daughter-towns, that is, the three hills.
12. But the children of Manasseh were not able to make the people of those towns go out; but the Canaanites would go on living in that land.
13. And when the children of Israel had become strong, they put the Canaanites to forced work, in place of driving them out.
14. Then the children of Joseph said to Joshua, Why have you given me only one part and one stretch of land for my heritage? For through the blessing given to me by the Lord up to now, I am a great people.
15. Then Joshua said to them, If you are such a great people, go up into the woodlands, clearing a place there for yourselves in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim, if the hill-country of Ephraim is not wide enough for you.
16. And the children of Joseph said, The hill-country is not enough for us: and all the Canaanites living in the valley have iron war-carriages, those in Beth-shean and its towns as well as those in the valley of Jezreel.
17. Then Joshua said to the children of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, You are a great people, and have great power: you are not to have one property only,
18. For the hill-country of Gilead will be yours ... the woodland and cut down ... its outskirts will be yours ... get the Canaanites out, for they have iron war-carriages ... strong.

Joshua 18 / Basic English

1. And all the meeting of the children of Israel came together at Shiloh and put up the Tent of meeting there: and the land was crushed before them.
2. But there were still seven tribes among the children of Israel who had not taken up their heritage.
3. Then Joshua said to the children of Israel, Why are you so slow to go in and take up your heritage in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?
4. Take from among you three men from every tribe; and I will send them to go through the land and make a record of it for distribution as their heritage; then let them come back to me.
5. And let them make division of it into seven parts: let Judah keep inside his limit on the south, and let the children of Joseph keep inside their limit on the north.
6. And you are to have the land marked out in seven parts, and come back to me with the record; and I will make the distribution for you here by the decision of the Lord our God.
7. For the Levites have no part among you; to be the Lord's priests is their heritage; and Gad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh have had their heritage on the east side of Jordan, given to them by Moses, the servant of the Lord.
8. So the men got up and went; and Joshua gave orders to those who went, to make a record of the land, saying, Go up and down through the land, and make a record of it and come back here to me, and I will make the distribution for you here by the decision of the Lord in Shiloh.
9. So the men went, travelling through the land, and made a record of it by towns in seven parts in a book, and came back to Joshua to the tent-circle at Shiloh.
10. And Joshua made the distribution for them in Shiloh by the decision of the Lord, marking out the land for the children of Israel by their divisions.
11. And the first heritage came out for the tribe of Benjamin by their families: and the limit of their heritage went between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph.
12. And their limit on the north was from the Jordan, and the line goes up to the side of Jericho on the north and through the hill-country to the west, ending at the waste land of Beth-aven.
13. And from there the line goes south to Luz, to the side of Luz (which is Beth-el), then down to Ataroth-addar, by the mountain to the south of Beth-horon the lower.
14. And the limit is marked as coming round to the south on the west side from the mountain which is south of Beth-horon, and ending at Kiriath-baal (which is Kiriath-jearim), a town of the children of Judah: this is the west part.
15. And the south part is from the farthest point of Kiriath-jearim, and the line goes out to the west to the fountain of the waters of Nephtoah:
16. And the line goes down to the farthest part of the mountain facing the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is on the north of the valley of Rephaim: from there it goes down to the valley of Hinnom, to the side of the Jebusite on the south as far as En-rogel;
17. And it goes to En-shemesh and on to Geliloth, opposite the way up to Adummim, and it goes down to the stone of Bohan, the son of Reuben;
18. And it goes on to the side facing the Arabah to the north, and down to the Arabah;
19. And on to the north side of Beth-hoglah, ending at the north inlet of the Salt Sea at the south end of Jordan; this is their limit on the south.
20. And the limit of the east part is the Jordan. This is the heritage of the children of Benjamin, marked out for their families by these limits on all sides.
21. And the towns of the children of Benjamin, given to them in the order of their families, are Jericho and Beth-hoglah and Emek-kezziz
22. And Beth-arabah and Zemaraim and Beth-el
23. And Avvim and Parah and Ophrah
24. And Chephar-Ammoni and Ophni and Geba; twelve towns with their unwalled places;
25. Gibeon and Ramah and Beeroth
26. And Mizpeh and Chephirah and Mozah
27. And Rekem and Irpeel and Taralah
28. And Zela, Eleph and the Jebusite (which is Jerusalem), Gibeath and Kiriath; fourteen towns with their unwalled places. This is the heritage of the children of Benjamin by their families.

Luke 12 / Basic English

1. At that time, when thousands of the people had come together, in such numbers that they were crushing one another, he said first to his disciples, Have nothing to do with the leaven of the Pharisees, which is deceit.
2. But nothing is covered up, which will not come to light, or secret, which will not be made clear.
3. So, whatever you have said in the dark, will come to men's hearing in the light, and what you have said secretly inside the house, will be made public from the house-tops.
4. And I say to you, my friends, Have no fear of those who may put the body to death, and are able to do no more than that.
5. But I will make clear to you of whom you are to be in fear: of him who after death has power to send you to hell; yes, truly I say, Have fear of him.
6. Are not five sparrows given in exchange for two farthings? and God has every one of them in mind.
7. But even the hairs of your head are numbered. Have no fear: you are of more value than a flock of sparrows.
8. And I say to you that to everyone who gives witness to me before men, the Son of man will give witness before the angels of God.
9. But if anyone says before men that he has no knowledge of me, I will say that I have no knowledge of him before the angels of God.
10. And if anyone says a word against the Son of man, he will have forgiveness: but for him who says evil words against the Holy Spirit, there will be no forgiveness.
11. And when they take you before the Synagogues and the authorities and the rulers, take no thought about what answers you will give, or what you will say:
12. For the Holy Spirit will make clear to you in that very hour what to say.
13. And one of the people said to him, Master, give an order to my brother to make division of the heritage with me.
14. But he said, Man, who made me a judge or a maker of decisions for you?
15. And he said to them, Take care to keep yourselves free from the desire for property; for a man's life is not made up of the number of things which he has.
16. And he said to them, in a story, The land of a certain man of great wealth was very fertile:
17. And he said to himself, What is to be done? for I have no place in which to put all my fruit.
18. And he said, This I will do: I will take down my store-houses and make greater ones, and there I will put all my grain and my goods.
19. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have a great amount of goods in store, enough for a number of years; be at rest, take food and wine and be happy.
20. But God said to him, You foolish one, tonight I will take your soul from you, and who then will be the owner of all the things which you have got together?
21. So that is what comes to the man who gets wealth for himself, and has not wealth in the eyes of God.
22. And he said to his disciples, For this reason I say to you, Take no thought for your life, about what food you will take, or for your body, how it may be clothed.
23. Is not life more than food, and the body than its clothing?
24. Give thought to the ravens; they do not put seeds into the earth, or get together grain; they have no store-houses or buildings; and God gives them their food: of how much greater value are you than the birds!
25. And which of you by taking thought is able to make himself any taller?
26. If, then, you are not able to do even that which is least, why are you troubled about the rest?
27. Give thought to the flowers: they do no work, they make no thread; and still I say to you, Even Solomon, in all his glory, was not clothed like one of these.
28. But if God gives such clothing to the grass in the field, which today is living, and tomorrow will be burned in the oven, how much more will he give clothing to you, O men of little faith?
29. And do not give overmuch thought to your food and drink, and let not your mind be full of doubts.
30. For the nations of the world go in search of all these things: but your Father has knowledge that you have need of them.
31. But let your chief care be for his kingdom, and these other things will be given to you in addition.
32. Have no fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
33. Give what property you have in exchange for money, and give the money to the poor; make for yourselves money-bags which will not get old, wealth stored up in heaven which will be yours for ever, where thieves will not come nor worms put it to destruction.
34. For where your wealth is, there will your heart be.
35. Be ready, dressed as for a journey, with your lights burning.
36. And be like men who are looking for their lord, when he comes back from the bride-feast; so that when he comes to the door, it will be open to him quickly.
37. Happy are those servants who are watching when the lord comes; truly I say to you, he will make himself their servant and, placing them at the table, he will come out and give them food.
38. And if he comes in the second division of the night or in the third, and they are watching for him, happy are those servants.
39. But be certain of this, that if the master of the house had had knowledge of the time when the thief was coming, he would have been watching, and would not have let his house be broken into.
40. So be ready: for the Son of man is coming at a time when you are not looking for him.
41. And Peter said to him, Lord, are these words said to us only, or to all men?
42. And the Lord said, Who then is the wise and responsible servant whom his lord will put in control of his family, to give them their food at the right time?
43. Happy is that servant who, when his lord comes, is doing so.
44. Truly I say to you, he will put him in control of all his goods.
45. But if that servant says to himself, My lord is a long time coming; and goes about giving blows to the men-servants and the women-servants, feasting and taking overmuch wine;
46. The lord of that servant will come at a time when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not ready for him, and he will have him cut in two and will give him his part in the fate of those who have no faith;
47. And the servant who had knowledge of his lord's desires and was not ready for him and did not do as he was ordered, will be given a great number of blows;
48. But he who, without knowledge, did things for which punishment is given, will get only a small number of blows. The man to whom much is given, will have to give much; if much is given into his care, of him more will be requested.
49. I came to send a fire on the earth, and it may even now have been lighted.
50. But there is a baptism which I have to undergo; and how am I kept back till it is complete!
51. Is it your opinion that I have come to give peace on earth? I say to you, No, but division:
52. For from this time, a family of five in one house will be on opposite sides, three against two and two against three.
53. They will be at war, the father against his son, and the son against his father; mother against daughter, and daughter against mother; mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.
54. Then he said to the people, When you see a cloud coming up in the west, straight away you say, There will be rain; and so it is.
55. And when you see a south wind blowing, you say, There will be heat; and so it is.
56. O false ones! the face of the earth and the heaven is clear to you; how is it that the signs of these times are not as clear to you?
57. And why are you, in your hearts, unable to be judges of what is right?
58. For if anyone has a cause at law against you, and you are going with him before the ruler, make an attempt, on the way, to come to an agreement with him, for if you do not, he may take you before the judge and the judge will give you up to the police, and they will put you in prison.
59. I say to you, You will not come out of it till you have made payment to the very last farthing.