Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Judges 14 / Basic English

1. Now Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah, of the daughters of the Philistines;
2. And when he came back he said to his father and mother, I have seen a woman in Timnah, of the daughters of the Philistines: get her now for me for my wife.
3. Then his father and mother said to him, Is there no woman among the daughters of your relations or among all my people, that you have to go for your wife to the Philistines, who are without circumcision? But Samson said to his father, Get her for me, for she is pleasing to me.
4. Now his father and mother had no knowledge that this was the purpose of the Lord, who had the destruction of the Philistines in mind. Now the Philistines at that time were ruling over Israel.
5. Then Samson went down to Timnah (and his father and his mother,) and came to the vine-gardens of Timnah; and a young lion came rushing out at him.
6. And the spirit of the Lord came on him with power, and, unarmed as he was, pulling the lion in two as one might do to a young goat, he put him to death; (but he said nothing to his father and mother of what he had done.)
7. So he went down and had talk with the woman; and she was pleasing to Samson.
8. Then after a time he went back to take her; and turning from the road to see the dead body of the lion, he saw a mass of bees in the body of the lion, and honey there.
9. And he took the honey in his hand, and went on, tasting it on the way; and when he came to his father and mother he gave some to them; but did not say that he had taken the honey from the body of the lion.
10. Then Samson went down to the woman, and made a feast there, as was the way among young men.
11. And he took thirty friends, and they were with him.
12. And Samson said, Now I have a hard question for you: if you are able to give me the answer before the seven days of the feast are over, I will give you thirty linen robes and thirty changes of clothing;
13. But if you are not able to give me the answer, then you will have to give me thirty linen robes and thirty changes of clothing. And they said to him, Put your hard question and let us see what it is.
14. And he said, Out of the taker of food came food, and out of the strong came the sweet. And at the end of three days they were still not able to give the answer.
15. So on the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, Get from your husband the answer to his question by some trick or other, or we will have you and your father's house burned with fire; did you get us here to take all we have?
16. Then Samson's wife, weeping over him, said, Truly you have no love for me but only hate; you have put a hard question to the children of my people and have not given me the answer. And he said to her, See, I have not given the answer even to my father or my mother; am I to give it to you?
17. And all the seven days of the feast she went on weeping over him; and on the seventh day he gave her the answer, because she gave him no peace; and she sent word of it to the children of her people.
18. Then on the seventh day, before he went into the bride's room, the men of the town said to him, What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion? And he said to them, If you had not been ploughing with my cow you would not have got the answer to my question.
19. And the spirit of the Lord came rushing on him, and he went down to Ashkelon and, attacking thirty men there, took their clothing from them, and gave it to the men who had given the answer to his hard question. Then, full of wrath, he went back to his father's house.
20. But Samson's wife was given to the friend who had been his best man.

Judges 15 / Basic English

1. Now a short time after, at the time of the grain-cutting, Samson, taking with him a young goat, went to see his wife; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the bride's room. But her father would not let him go in.
2. And her father said, It seemed to me that you had only hate for her; so I gave her to your friend: but is not her younger sister fairer than she? so please take her in place of the other.
3. Then Samson said to them, This time I will give payment in full to the Philistines, for I am going to do them great evil.
4. So Samson went and got three hundred foxes and some sticks of fire-wood; and he put the foxes tail to tail with a stick between every two tails;
5. Then firing the sticks, he let the foxes loose among the uncut grain of the Philistines, and all the corded stems as well as the living grain and the vine-gardens and the olives went up in flames.
6. Then the Philistines said, Who has done this? And they said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his friend. So the Philistines came up and had her and her father's house burned.
7. And Samson said to them, If you go on like this, truly I will take my full payment from you; and that will be the end of it.
8. And he made an attack on them, driving them in uncontrolled flight, and causing great destruction; then he went away to his safe place in the crack of the rock at Etam.
9. Then the Philistines went and put up their tents in Judah, all round Lehi.
10. And the men of Judah said, Why have you come up against us? And they said, We have come up to take Samson, and to do to him as he has done to us.
11. Then three thousand of the men of Judah went down to the crack of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, Is it not clear to you that the Philistines are our rulers? What is this you have done to us? And he said to them, I only did to them as they did to me.
12. Then they said to him, We have come down to take you and give you up into the hands of the Philistines. And Samson said to them, Give me your oath that you will not make an attack on me yourselves.
13. And they said, No; we will take you and give you up into their hands, but truly we will not put you to death. So knotting two new cords round him they took him up from the rock.
14. And when he came to Lehi, the Philistines came out, meeting him with loud cries; then the spirit of the Lord came rushing on him, and the cords on his arms became like grass which has been burned with fire, and the bands came falling off his hands.
15. And taking up the mouth-bone of an ass newly dead, which he saw by chance on the earth, he put to death a thousand men with it.
16. And Samson said, With a red ass's mouth-bone I have made them red with blood, with a red ass's mouth-bone I have sent destruction on a thousand men.
17. And having said these words, he let the mouth-bone go out of his hand; so that place was named Ramath-lehi.
18. After this, he was in great need of water, and crying out to the Lord, he said, You have given this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and now need of water will be my death; and I will be given into the hands of this people who are without circumcision.
19. Then God made a crack in the hollow rock in Lehi and water came out of it; and after drinking, his spirit came back to him and he was strong again; so that place was named En-hakkore; it is in Lehi to this day.
20. And he was judge of Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years.

Luke 24 / Basic English

1. But on the first day of the week, at dawn, they came to the place where his body had been put, taking the spices which they had got ready.
2. And they saw that the stone had been rolled away.
3. And they went in, but the body of the Lord Jesus was not there.
4. And while they were in doubt about it, they saw two men in shining clothing by them:
5. And while their faces were bent down to the earth in fear, these said to them, Why are you looking for the living among the dead?
6. He is not here, he has come back to life: have in mind what he said to you when he was still in Galilee, saying,
7. The Son of man will be given up into the hands of evil-doers, and be put to death on the cross, and on the third day he will come back to life.
8. And his words came back into their minds,
9. And they went away from that place and gave an account of all these things to the eleven disciples and all the others.
10. Now they were Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James: and the other women with them said these things to the Apostles.
11. But these words seemed foolish to them, and they had no belief in them.
12. But Peter got up and went to the place where the body had been put, and looking in he saw nothing but the linen cloths, and he went to his house full of wonder at what had taken place.
13. And then, two of them, on that very day, were going to a little town named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem.
14. And they were talking together about all those things which had taken place.
15. And while they were talking and questioning together, Jesus himself came near and went with them.
16. But their eyes were not open that they might have knowledge of him.
17. And he said to them, What are you talking about together while you go?
18. Then stopping, and looking sadly at him, one of them, named Cleopas, said to him, Are you the only man living in Jerusalem who has not had news of the things which have taken place there at this time?
19. And he said to them, What things? And they said, The things to do with Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, great in his acts and his words, before God and all the people:
20. And how the chief priests and our rulers gave him up to be put to death on the cross.
21. But we were hoping that he would be the Saviour of Israel. In addition to all this he has now let three days go by from the time when these things took place;
22. And certain women among us gave us cause for wonder, for they went early to the place where his body had been put,
23. And it was not there; then they came saying that they had seen a vision of angels who said that he was living.
24. And some of those who were with us went to the place, and saw that it was as the women had said, but him they did not see.
25. And he said, O foolish men! how slow you are to give belief to what the prophets have said.
26. Was it not necessary for the Christ to go through these things, and to come into his glory?
27. And he made clear to them all the things in the Writings, from Moses and from all the prophets, which had to do with himself.
28. And they came near the town to which they were going, and he seemed as if he was going on;
29. But they kept him back, saying, Do not go, for evening is near, the day is almost gone. And he went in with them.
30. And when he was seated with them at table, he took the bread, and said words of blessing and, making division of it, he gave it to them.
31. And then their eyes were open, and they had knowledge of him, but he went from their view.
32. And they said to one another, Were not our hearts burning in us while he was talking to us on the way, making clear to us the holy Writings?
33. And that very hour they got up and went back to Jerusalem, where the eleven and the others had come together.
34. And they said to them, The Lord has truly come back to life again, and Simon has seen him.
35. And they gave an account of the things which had taken place on the way, and how, when he gave them bread, they had knowledge of him.
36. And while they were saying these things, he himself was among them, and said to them, Peace be with you!
37. But they were full of fear, being of the opinion that they were seeing a spirit.
38. And he said to them, Why are you troubled, and why are your hearts full of doubt?
39. See; my hands and my feet: it is I myself; put your hands on me and make certain; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have.
40. And when he had said this, he let them see his hands and his feet.
41. And because, for joy and wonder, they were still in doubt, he said to them, Have you any food here?
42. And they gave him a bit of cooked fish.
43. And before their eyes he took a meal.
44. And he said to them, These are the words which I said to you when I was still with you, how it was necessary for all the things which are in the writings of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms about me, to be put into effect.
45. Then he made the holy Writings clear to their minds.
46. And he said to them, So it is in the Writings that the Christ would undergo death, and come back to life again on the third day;
47. And that teaching about a change of heart and forgiveness of sins is to be given to Jerusalem first and to all nations in his name.
48. You are witnesses of these things.
49. And now I will send to you what my father has undertaken to give you, but do not go from the town, till the power from heaven comes to you.
50. And he took them out till they were near Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he gave them a blessing.
51. And while he was doing so, he went from them and was taken up into heaven.
52. And they gave him worship and went back to Jerusalem with great joy.
53. And they were in the Temple at all times, giving praise to God.