Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

1 Samuel (1 Kings) 12 / Basic English

1. And Samuel said to all Israel, You see that I have given ear to everything you said to me, and have made a king over you.
2. And now, see, the king is before you: and I am old and grey-headed, and my sons are with you: I have been living before your eyes from my early days till now.
3. Here I am: give witness against me before the Lord and before the man on whom he has put the holy oil: whose ox or ass have I taken? to whom have I been untrue? who has been crushed down by me? from whose hand have I taken a price for the blinding of my eyes? I will give it all back to you.
4. And they said, You have never been untrue to us or cruel to us; you have taken nothing from any man.
5. Then he said, The Lord is witness against you, and the man on whom he has put the holy oil is witness this day that you have seen no wrong in me. And they said, He is witness.
6. And Samuel said to the people, The Lord is witness, who gave authority to Moses and Aaron, and who took your fathers up out of the land of Egypt.
7. Keep your places now, while I take up the argument with you before the Lord, and give you the story of the righteousness of the Lord, which he has made clear by his acts to you and to your fathers.
8. When Jacob and his sons had come into Egypt, and were crushed by the Egyptians, the prayers of your fathers came up to the Lord, and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who took your fathers out of Egypt, and he put them into this place.
9. But they were false to the Lord their God, and he gave them up into the hands of Sisera, captain of the army of Jabin, king of Hazor, and into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the king of Moab, who made war against them.
10. Then crying out to the Lord, they said, We have done evil, because we have been turned away from the Lord, worshipping the Baals and the Astartes: but now, make us safe from those who are against us and we will be your servants.
11. So the Lord sent Jerubbaal and Barak and Jephthah and Samuel and took you out of the power of those who were fighting against you on every side, and made you safe.
12. And when you saw that Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, was coming against you, you said to me, No more of this; we will have a king for our ruler: when the Lord your God was your king.
13. Here, then, is the king marked out by you: the Lord has put a king over you.
14. If in the fear of the Lord you are his servants, hearing his voice and not going against the orders of the Lord, but being true to the Lord your God, you and the king ruling over you, then all will be well:
15. But if you do not give ear to the voice of the Lord, but go against his orders, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and against your king for your destruction, as it was against your fathers.
16. Now keep where you are and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes.
17. Is it not now the time of the grain cutting? My cry will go up to the Lord and he will send thunder and rain: so that you may see and be conscious of your great sin which you have done in the eyes of the Lord in desiring a king for yourselves.
18. So Samuel made prayer to the Lord; and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people were in fear of the Lord and of Samuel.
19. And all the people said to Samuel, Make prayer for us to the Lord your God so that death may not overtake us: for in addition to all our sins we have done this evil, in desiring a king.
20. Then Samuel said to the people, Have no fear: truly you have done evil, but do not be turned away from the Lord; be his servants with all your heart;
21. And do not go from the right way turning to those false gods in which there is no profit and no salvation, for they are false.
22. For the Lord will not give his people up, because of the honour of his name; for it was the Lord's pleasure to make of you a people for himself.
23. And as for me, never will I go against the orders of the Lord by giving up my prayers for you: but I will go on teaching you the good and right way.
24. Only go in the fear of the Lord, and be his true servants with all your heart, keeping in mind what great things he has done for you.
25. But if you still do evil, destruction will overtake you and your king.

1 Samuel (1 Kings) 13 / Basic English

1. ***
2. And Saul took for himself three thousand men of Israel, of whom he kept two thousand with him in Michmash and in the mountain of Beth-el, and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah in the land of Benjamin: the rest of the people he sent back to their tents.
3. And Jonathan made an attack on the armed force of the Philistines stationed at Gibeah; and news was given to the Philistines that the Hebrews were turned against them. And Saul had a horn sounded through all the land,
4. And all Israel had the news that Saul had made an attack on the Philistines, and that Israel was bitterly hated by the Philistines. And the people came together after Saul to Gilgal.
5. And the Philistines came together to make war on Israel, three thousand war-carriages and six thousand horsemen and an army of people like the sands of the sea in number: they came up and took up their position in Michmash, to the east of Beth-aven.
6. When the men of Israel saw the danger they were in, (for the people were troubled,) they took cover in cracks in the hillsides and in the woods and in rocks and holes and hollows.
7. And a great number of the people had gone over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead; but Saul was still in Gilgal, and all the people went after him shaking in fear.
8. And he went on waiting there for seven days, the time fixed by Samuel: but Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were starting to go away from him.
9. Then Saul said, Come here and give me the burned offering and the peace-offerings. And he made a burned offering to the Lord.
10. And when the burned offering was ended, Samuel came; and Saul went out to see him and to give him a blessing.
11. And Samuel said, What have you done? And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were going away from me, and you had not come at the time which had been fixed, and the Philistines had come together at Michmash;
12. I said, Now the Philistines will come down on me at Gilgal, and I have made no prayer for help to the Lord: and so, forcing myself to do it, I made a burned offering.
13. And Samuel said to Saul, You have done a foolish thing: you have not kept the rules which the Lord your God gave you; it was the purpose of the Lord to make your authority over Israel safe for ever.
14. But now, your authority will not go on: the Lord, searching for a man who is pleasing to him in every way, has given him the place of ruler over his people, because you have not done what the Lord gave you orders to do.
15. Then Samuel went up from Gilgal and the rest of the people went up after Saul against the men of war, and they came from Gilgal to Gibeah in the land of Benjamin: and Saul took the number of the people who were with him, about six hundred men.
16. And Saul, with Jonathan his son and the people who were with them, was waiting in Geba in the land of Benjamin: but the tents of the Philistines were in Michmash.
17. And three bands of men came out from the Philistines to make an attack; one band went by the road which goes to Ophrah, into the land of Shual:
18. And another went in the direction of Beth-horon: and another went by the hill looking down on the valley of Zeboiim, in the direction of the waste land.
19. Now there was no iron-worker in all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, For fear the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears:
20. But all the Israelites had to go to the Philistines to get their ploughs and blades and axes and hooks made sharp;
21. For they had instruments for putting an edge on their ploughs and blades and forks and axes, and for putting iron points on their ox-driving rods.
22. So on the day of the fight at Michmash, not a sword or a spear was to be seen in the hands of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan: only Saul and his son Jonathan had them.
23. And the armed force of the Philistines went out to the narrow way of Michmash.

Psalms 116 / Basic English

1. I have given my love to the Lord, because he has given ear to the voice of my cry and my prayer.
2. He has let my request come before him, and I will make my prayer to him all my days.
3. The nets of death were round me, and the pains of the underworld had me in their grip; I was full of trouble and sorrow.
4. Then I made my prayer to the Lord, saying, O Lord, take my soul out of trouble.
5. The Lord is full of grace and righteousness; truly, he is a God of mercy.
6. The Lord keeps the simple; I was made low, and he was my saviour.
7. Come back to your rest, O my soul; for the Lord has given you your reward.
8. You have taken my soul from the power of death, keeping my eyes from weeping, and my feet from falling.
9. I will go before the Lord in the land of the living.
10. I still had faith, though I said, I am in great trouble;
11. Though I said in my fear, All men are false.
12. What may I give to the Lord for all the good things which he has done for me?
13. I will take the cup of salvation, and give praise to the name of the Lord.
14. I will make the offering of my oath to the Lord, even before all his people.
15. Dear in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints.
16. O Lord, truly I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of her who is your servant; by you have my cords been broken.
17. I will give an offering of praise to you, and make my prayer in the name of the Lord.
18. I will make the offerings of my oath, even before all his people;
19. In the Lord's house, even in Jerusalem. Praise be to the Lord.