Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

2 Samuel (2 Kings) 20 / Basic English

1. Now by chance there was present a good-for-nothing person named Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he, sounding the horn, said, We have no part in David, or any interest in the son of Jesse: let every man go to his tent, O Israel.
2. So all the men of Israel, turning away from David, went after Sheba, the son of Bichri: but the men of Judah were true to their king, going with him from Jordan as far as Jerusalem.
3. And David came to his house at Jerusalem: and the king took the ten women to whom he had given the care of the house, and had them shut up, and gave them the necessaries of life, but did not go near them. So they were shut up till the day of their death, living as widows.
4. Then the king said to Amasa, Get all the men of Judah together, and in three days be here yourself.
5. So Amasa went to get all the men of Judah together, but he took longer than the time David had given him.
6. And David said to Abishai, Sheba, the son of Bichri, will do us more damage than Absalom did; so take some of your lord's servants and go after him, before he makes himself safe in the walled towns, and gets away before our eyes.
7. So there went after Abishai, Joab and the Cherethites and the Pelethites and all the fighting-men; they went out of Jerusalem to overtake Sheba, the son of Bichri.
8. When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa came face to face with them. Now Joab had on his war-dress, and round him a band from which his sword was hanging in its cover; and while he was walking, it came out, falling to the earth.
9. And Joab said to Amasa, Is it well, my brother? And with his right hand he took him by the hair of his chin to give him a kiss.
10. But Amasa did not see danger from the sword which was now in Joab's left hand, and Joab put it through his stomach so that his inside came out on to the earth, and he did not give him another blow. So Joab and his brother Abishai went on after Sheba, the son of Bichri.
11. And one of Joab's young men, taking his place at Amasa's side, said, Whoever is for Joab and for David, let him go after Joab!
12. And Amasa was stretched out in a pool of blood in the middle of the highway. And when the man saw that all the people were stopping, he took Amasa out of the highway and put him in a field, with a cloth over him, when he saw that everyone who went by came to a stop.
13. When he had been taken off the road, all the people went on after Joab in search of Sheba, the son of Bichri.
14. And Sheba went through all the tribes of Israel, to Abel of Beth-maacah; and all the Bichrites came together and went in after him.
15. And Joab and his men got him shut up in Abel of Beth-maacah, and put up an earthwork against the town: and all Joab's men did their best to get the wall broken down.
16. Then a wise woman got up on the wall, and crying out from the town, said, Give ear, give ear; say now to Joab, Come near, so that I may have talk with you.
17. And he came near, and the woman said, Are you Joab? And he said in answer, I am. Then she said, Give ear to your servant's words. And he said, I am giving ear.
18. Then she said, In the old days, there was a saying, Let them put the question in Abel and in Dan, saying, Has what was ordered by men of good faith in Israel ever come to an end?
19. Your purpose is the destruction of a mother-town in Israel: why would you put an end to the heritage of the Lord?
20. And Joab, answering her, said, Far, far be it from me to be a cause of death or destruction;
21. Not so: but a man of the hill-country of Ephraim, Sheba, son of Bichri, by name, has taken up arms against the king, against David: give up this man only, and I will go away from the town. And the woman said to Joab, His head will be dropped over the wall to you.
22. Then the woman in her wisdom had talk with all the town. And they had Sheba's head cut off and sent out to Joab. And he had the horn sounded, and sent them all away from the town, every man to his tent. And Joab went back to Jerusalem to the king.
23. Now Joab was over all the army; and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was at the head of the Cherethites and the Pelethites;
24. And Adoram was overseer of the forced work; and Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was the recorder;
25. And Sheva was the scribe, and Zadok and Abiathar were priests;
26. And in addition, Ira the Jairite was a priest to David.

2 Samuel (2 Kings) 21 / Basic English

1. In the days of David they were short of food for three years, year after year; and David went before the Lord for directions. And the Lord said, On Saul and on his family there is blood, because he put the Gibeonites to death.
2. Then the king sent for the Gibeonites; (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but were the last of the Amorites, to whom the children of Israel had given an oath; but Saul, in his passion for the children of Israel and Judah, had made an attempt on their lives:)
3. So David said to the Gibeonites, What may I do for you? how am I to make up to you for your wrongs, so that you may give a blessing to the heritage of the Lord?
4. And the Gibeonites said to him, It is not a question of silver and gold between us and Saul or his family; and it is not in our power to put to death any man in Israel. And he said, Say, then, what am I to do for you?
5. And they said to the king, As for the man by whom we were wasted, and who made designs against us to have us completely cut off from the land of Israel,
6. Let seven men of his family be given up to us and we will put an end to them by hanging them before the Lord in Gibeon, on the hill of the Lord. And the king said, I will give them.
7. But the king did not give up Mephibosheth, the son of Saul's son Jonathan, because of the Lord's oath made between David and Jonathan, the son of Saul.
8. But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Saul to whom Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, had given birth; and the five sons of Saul's daughter Merab, whose father was Adriel, the son of Barzillai the Meholathite:
9. And he gave them up to the Gibeonites, and they put them to death, hanging them on the mountain before the Lord; all seven came to their end together in the first days of the grain-cutting, at the start of the cutting of the barley.
10. And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took haircloth, placing it on the rock as a bed for herself, from the start of the grain-cutting till rain came down on them from heaven; and she did not let the birds of the air come near them by day, or the beasts of the field by night.
11. And news was given to David of what Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, one of Saul's wives, had done.
12. And David went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had taken them away secretly from the public place of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had put them, hanging up the bodies there on the day when they put Saul to death in Gilboa:
13. And he took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from that place; and they got together the bones of those who had been put to death by hanging.
14. And they put them with the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the resting-place of Kish, his father, in Zela in the country of Benjamin; they did all the king had given them orders to do. And after that, God gave ear to their prayers for the land.
15. And the Philistines went to war again with Israel; and David went down with his people, and while they were at Gob they had a fight with the Philistines:
16. And there came against David one of the offspring of the Rephaim, whose spear was three hundred shekels of brass in weight, and having a new sword, he made an attempt to put David to death.
17. But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, came to his help, and, turning on the Philistine, gave him his death-blow. Then David's men took an oath, and said, Never again are you to go out with us to the fight, so that you may not put out the light of Israel.
18. Now after this there was war with the Philistines again at Gob, and Sibbecai the Hushathite put to death Saph, one of the offspring of the Rephaim.
19. And again there was war with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan, the son of Jair the Beth-lehemite, put to death Goliath the Gittite, the stem of whose spear was like a cloth-worker's rod.
20. And again there was war at Gath, where there was a very tall man, who had twenty-four fingers and toes, six fingers on his hands and six toes on his feet; he was one of the offspring of the Rephaim.
21. And when he was purposing to put shame on Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shimei, David's brother, put him to death.
22. These four were of the offspring of the Rephaim in Gath; and they came to their end by the hands of David and his servants.

John 2 / Basic English

1. On the third day two people were going to be married at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there:
2. And Jesus with his disciples came as guests.
3. When they had not enough wine, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine.
4. Jesus said to her, Woman, this is not your business; my time is still to come.
5. His mother said to the servants, Whatever he says to you, do it.
6. Now six pots of stone, every one taking two or three firkins of water, were placed there for the purpose of washing, as is the way of the Jews.
7. Jesus said to the servants, Make the pots full of water. And they made them full to the top.
8. Then he said to them, Now take some, and give it to the master of the feast. So they took it to him.
9. After tasting the water which had now become wine, the master of the feast (having no idea where it came from, though it was clear to the servants who took the water out) sent for the newly-married man,
10. And said to him, Every man first puts out his best wine and when all have had enough he puts out what is not so good; but you have kept the good wine till now.
11. This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and let his glory be seen openly; and his disciples put their faith in him.
12. After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples, and they were there not more than two or three days.
13. The time of the Passover of the Jews was near and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14. And there in the Temple he saw men trading in oxen and sheep and doves, and he saw the changers of money in their seats:
15. And he made a whip of small cords and put them all out of the Temple, with the sheep and the oxen, sending in all directions the small money of the changers and overturning their tables;
16. And to those who were trading in doves he said, Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a market.
17. And it came to the minds of the disciples that the Writings say, I am on fire with passion for your house.
18. Then the Jews put this question to him: What sign of authority have you to give us, seeing that you do these things?
19. And Jesus said to them, Send destruction on this Temple and I will put it up again in three days.
20. The Jews said, The building of this Temple took forty-six years; and you will put it up in three days!
21. But his words were about that holy building which was his body.
22. So when he had come back again from the dead, the memory of these words came back to the disciples, and they had faith in the holy Writings and in the word which Jesus had said.
23. Now while he was in Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover, a great number of people came to have faith in his name, after seeing the signs which he did.
24. But Jesus did not have faith in them, because he had knowledge of them all.
25. He had no need for any witness about man; for he himself had knowledge of what was in man.