Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Genesis 25 / Basic English

1. And Abraham took another wife named Keturah.
2. She became the mother of Zimran and Jokshan and Medan and Midian and Ishbak and Shuah.
3. And Jokshan became the father of Sheba and Dedan. And from Dedan came the Asshurim and Letushim and Leummim.
4. And from Midian came Ephah and Epher and Hanoch and Abida and Eldaah. All these were the offspring of Keturah.
5. Now Abraham gave all his property to Isaac;
6. But to the sons of his other women he gave offerings, and sent them away, while he was still living, into the east country.
7. Now the years of Abraham's life were a hundred and seventy-five.
8. And Abraham came to his death, an old man, full of years; and he was put to rest with his people.
9. And Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, put him to rest in the hollow rock of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite, near Mamre;
10. The same field which Abraham got from the children of Heth: there Abraham was put to rest with Sarah, his wife.
11. Now after the death of Abraham, the blessing of God was with Isaac, his son.
12. Now these are the generations of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, whose mother was Hagar the Egyptian, the servant of Sarah:
13. These are the names of the sons of Ishmael by their generations: Ishmael's first son was Nebaioth; then Kedar and Adbeel and Mibsam
14. And Mishma and Dumah and Massa,
15. Hadad and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah:
16. These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names in their towns and their tent-circles; twelve chiefs with their peoples.
17. And the years of Ishmael's life were a hundred and thirty-seven: and he came to his end, and was put to rest with his people.
18. And their country was from Havilah to Shur which is east of Egypt: they took their place to the east of all their brothers.
19. Now these are the generations of Abraham's son Isaac:
20. Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramaean of Paddan-aram, and the sister of Laban the Aramaean, to be his wife.
21. Isaac made prayer to the Lord for his wife because she had no children; and the Lord gave ear to his prayer, and Rebekah became with child.
22. And the children were fighting together inside her, and she said, If it is to be so, why am I like this? So she went to put her question to the Lord.
23. And the Lord said to her, Two nations are in your body, and two peoples will come to birth from you: the one will be stronger than the other, and the older will be the servant of the younger.
24. And when the time came for her to give birth, there were two children in her body.
25. And the first came out red from head to foot like a robe of hair, and they gave him the name of Esau.
26. And after him, his brother came out, gripping Esau's foot; and he was named Jacob: Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them.
27. And the boys came to full growth; and Esau became a man of the open country, an expert bowman; but Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.
28. Now Isaac's love was for Esau, because Esau's meat was greatly to his taste: but Rebekah had more love for Jacob.
29. And one day Jacob was cooking some soup when Esau came in from the fields in great need of food;
30. And Esau said to Jacob, Give me a full meal of that red soup, for I am overcome with need for food: for this reason he was named Edom.
31. And Jacob said, First of all give me your birthright.
32. And Esau said, Truly, I am at the point of death: what profit is the birthright to me?
33. And Jacob said, First of all give me your oath; and he gave him his oath, handing over his birthright to Jacob.
34. Then Jacob gave him bread and soup; and he took food and drink and went away, caring little for his birthright.

Genesis 26 / Basic English

1. Then came a time of great need in the land, like that which had been before in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar.
2. And the Lord came to him in a vision and said, Do not go down to Egypt; keep in the land of which I will give you knowledge:
3. Keep in this land, and I will be with you and give you my blessing; for to you and to your seed will I give all these lands, giving effect to the oath which I made to your father Abraham;
4. I will make your seed like the stars of heaven in number, and will give them all these lands, and your seed will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth;
5. Because Abraham gave ear to my voice and kept my words, my rules, my orders, and my laws.
6. So Isaac went on living in Gerar;
7. And when he was questioned by the men of the place about his wife, he said, She is my sister; fearing to say, She is my wife; for, he said, the men of the place may put me to death on account of Rebekah; because she is very beautiful.
8. And when he had been there for some time, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looking through a window, saw Isaac playing with Rebekah his wife.
9. And he said to Isaac, It is clear that she is your wife: why then did you say, She is my sister? And Isaac said, For fear that I might be put to death because of her.
10. Then Abimelech said, What have you done to us? one of the people might well have had connection with your wife, and the sin would have been ours.
11. And Abimelech gave orders to his people that anyone touching Isaac or his wife was to be put to death.
12. Now Isaac, planting seed in that land, got in the same year fruit a hundred times as much, for the blessing of the Lord was on him.
13. And his wealth became very great, increasing more and more;
14. For he had great wealth of flocks and herds and great numbers of servants; so that the Philistines were full of envy.
15. Now all the water-holes, which his father's servants had made in the days of Abraham, had been stopped up with earth by the Philistines.
16. And Abimelech said to Isaac, Go away from us, for you are stronger than we are.
17. So Isaac went away from there, and put up his tents in the valley of Gerar, making his living-place there.
18. And he made again the water-holes which had been made in the days of Abraham his father, and which had been stopped up by the Philistines; and he gave them the names which his father had given them.
19. Now Isaac's servants made holes in the valley, and came to a spring of flowing water.
20. But the herdmen of Gerar had a fight with Isaac's herdmen, for they said, The spring is ours: so he gave the spring the name of Esek, because there was a fight about it.
21. Then they made another water-hole, and there was a fight about that, so he gave it the name of Sitnah.
22. Then he went away from there, and made another water-hole, about which there was no fighting: so he gave it the name of Rehoboth, for he said, Now the Lord has made room for us, and we will have fruit in this land.
23. And from there he went on to Beer-sheba.
24. That night the Lord came to him in a vision, and said, I am the God of your father Abraham: have no fear for I am with you, blessing you, and your seed will be increased because of my servant Abraham.
25. Then he made an altar there, and gave worship to the name of the Lord, and he put up his tents there, and there his servants made a water-hole.
26. And Abimelech had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his friend and Phicol, the captain of his army.
27. And Isaac said to them, Why have you come to me, seeing that in your hate for me you sent me away from you?
28. And they said, We saw clearly that the Lord was with you: so we said, Let there be an oath between us and you, and let us make an agreement with you;
29. That you will do us no damage, even as we put no hand on you, and did you nothing but good, and sent you away in peace: and now the blessing of the Lord is on you.
30. Then he made a feast for them, and they all had food and drink.
31. And early in the morning they took an oath one to the other: then Isaac sent them away and they went on their way in peace.
32. And that day Isaac's servants came to him and gave him word of the water-hole which they had made, and said to him, We have come to water.
33. And he gave it the name of Shibah: so the name of that town is Beer-sheba to this day.
34. And when Esau was forty years old, he took as his wives Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite:
35. And Isaac and Rebekah had grief of mind because of them.

Matthew 14 / Basic English

1. At that time news of Jesus came to Herod the king;
2. And he said to his servants, This is John the Baptist; he has come back from the dead, and so these powers are working in him.
3. For Herod had taken John and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife.
4. Because John had said to him, It is not right for you to have her.
5. And he would have put him to death, but for his fear of the people, because in their eyes John was a prophet.
6. But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias was dancing before them, and Herod was pleased with her.
7. So he gave her his word with an oath to let her have whatever she might make request for.
8. And she, at her mother's suggestion, said, Give me here on a plate the head of John the Baptist.
9. And the king was sad; but because of his oaths and because of his guests, he gave the order for it to be given to her;
10. And he sent and had John's head cut off in the prison.
11. And his head was put on a plate and given to the girl; and she took it to her mother.
12. And his disciples came, and took up his body and put it in the earth; and they went and gave Jesus news of what had taken place.
13. Now when it came to the ears of Jesus, he went away from there in a boat, to a waste place by himself: and the people hearing of it, went after him on foot from the towns.
14. And he came out and saw a great number of people and he had pity on them, and made well those of them who were ill.
15. And when evening had come, the disciples came to him, saying, This place is waste land, and the time is now past; send the people away so that they may go into the towns and get themselves food.
16. But Jesus said to them, There is no need for them to go away; give them food yourselves.
17. And they say to him, We have here but five cakes of bread and two fishes.
18. And he said, Give them to me.
19. And he gave orders for the people to be seated on the grass; and he took the five cakes of bread and the two fishes and, looking up to heaven, he said words of blessing, and made division of the food, and gave it to the disciples, and the disciples gave it to the people.
20. And they all took of the food and had enough: and they took up twelve baskets full of broken bits which were not used.
21. And those who had food were about five thousand men, in addition to women and children.
22. And straight away he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, till he had sent the people away.
23. And after he had sent the people away, he went up into the mountain by himself for prayer: and when evening was come, he was there by himself.
24. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, and was troubled by the waves: for the wind was against them.
25. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.
26. And when they saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they gave cries of fear.
27. But straight away Jesus said to them, Take heart; it is I, have no fear.
28. And Peter, answering, said to him, Lord, if it is you, give me the order to come to you on the water.
29. And he said, Come. And Peter got out of the boat, and walking on the water, went to Jesus.
30. But when he saw the wind he was in fear and, starting to go down, he gave a cry, saying, Help, Lord.
31. And straight away Jesus put out his hand and took a grip of him, and said to him, O man of little faith, why were you in doubt?
32. And when they had got into the boat, the wind went down.
33. And those who were in the boat gave him worship, saying, Truly you are the Son of God.
34. And when they had gone across, they came to land at Gennesaret.
35. And when the men of that place had news of him, they sent into all the country round about, and took to him all who were ill,
36. With the request that they might only put their hands on the edge of his robe: and all those who did so were made well.