Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

2 Samuel (2 Kings) 23 / Basic English

1. Now these are the last words of David. David, the son of Jesse, says, the man who was lifted up on high, the man on whom the God of Jacob put the holy oil, the loved one of Israel's songs, says:
2. The spirit of the Lord had voice through me, his word was on my tongue.
3. The God of Israel said, the word of the Rock of Israel came to me: When an upright king is ruling over men, when he is ruling in the fear of God,
4. It is as the light of the morning, when the sun comes up, a morning without clouds; making young grass come to life from the earth.
5. For is not my house so with God? For he has made with me an eternal agreement, ordered in all things and certain: as for all my salvation and all my desire, will he not give it increase?
6. But the evil-doers, all of them, will be like thorns to be pushed away, because they may not be gripped in the hand:
7. But anyone touching them has to be armed with iron and the rod of a spear; and they will be burned with fire, every one of them.
8. These are the names of David's men of war: Ishbaal the Hachmonite, chief of the three; his axe was lifted up against eight hundred put to death at one time.
9. After him was Eleazar, the son of Dodai the Ahohite, one of the three great fighters, who was with David in Pas-dammim when the Philistines came together there for the fight; and when the men of Israel had gone in flight,
10. He was with David and went on fighting the Philistines till his hand became tired and stiff from gripping his sword: and that day the Lord gave a great salvation, and the people came back after him only to take the goods of the Philistines.
11. After him was Shammah, the son of Ela the Hararite. And the Philistines came together in Lehi, where there was a bit of land full of seed; and the people went in flight from the Philistines.
12. But he kept his place in the middle of the bit of land, and kept back their attack and overcame the Philistines: and the Lord gave a great salvation.
13. And three of the thirty went down at the start of the grain-cutting, and they came to David at the strong place of Adullam; and the band of Philistines had taken up their position in the valley of Rephaim.
14. And at that time David had taken cover in the strong place, and an armed force of the Philistines was in Beth-lehem.
15. And David, moved by a strong desire, said, If only someone would give me a drink of water from the water-hole of Beth-lehem, by the doorway into the town!
16. And the three men, forcing their way through the Philistine army, got water from the water-hole of Beth-lehem, by the doorway into the town, and took it back to David: but he would not take it, but, draining it out, made an offering of it to the Lord.
17. And he said, Far be it from me, O Lord, to do this; how may I take as my drink the life-blood of men who have put their lives in danger? So he would not take it. These things did the three great men of war.
18. And Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the thirty. He put to death three hundred with his spear, and he got for himself a name among the thirty.
19. Was he not the noblest of the thirty? so he was made their captain: but he was not equal to the first three.
20. And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, a fighting man of Kabzeel, had done great acts; he put to death the two sons of Ariel of Moab: he went down into a hole and put a lion to death in time of snow:
21. And he made an attack on an Egyptian, a tall man: and the Egyptian had a spear in his hand; but he went down to him with a stick, and pulling the spear out of the hands of the Egyptian, put him to death with that same spear.
22. These were the acts of Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, who had a great name among the thirty men of war.
23. He was honoured over the rest of the thirty, but he was not equal to the first three. And David put him over the fighting men who kept him safe.
24. Asahel, the brother of Joab, was one of the thirty; and Elhanan, the son of Dodai, of Beth-lehem,
25. Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite,
26. Helez the Paltite, Ira, the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite,
27. Abiezer the Anathothite, Sibbecai the Hushathite,
28. Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netophathite,
29. Heldai, the son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai, the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the children of Benjamin,
30. Benaiah the Pirathonite, Hiddai of the valleys of Gaash,
31. Abiel the Arbathite, Azmaveth of Bahurim,
32. Eliahba the Shaalbonite, Jashen the Gunite,
33. Jonathan, the son of Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam, the son of Sharar the Hararite,
34. Eliphelet, the son of Ahasbai the Maacathite, Eliam, the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite,
35. Hezrai the Carmelite, Paarai the Archite,
36. Igal, the son of Nathan of Zobah, Bani the Gadite,
37. Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite, who had the care of the arms of Joab, son of Zeruiah,
38. Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite,
39. Uriah the Hittite: thirty-seven in number.

2 Samuel (2 Kings) 24 / Basic English

1. Again the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and moving David against them, he said, Go, take the number of Israel and Judah.
2. And the king said to Joab and the captains of the army, who were with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan as far as Beer-sheba, and have all the people numbered, so that I may be certain of the number of the people.
3. And Joab said to the king, Whatever the number of the people, may the Lord make it a hundred times as much, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it: but why does my lord the king take pleasure in doing this thing?
4. But the king's order was stronger than Joab and the captains of the army. And Joab and the captains of the army went out from the king, to take the number of the children of Israel.
5. And they went over Jordan, and starting from Aroer, from the town which is in the middle of the valley, they went in the direction of the Gadites, and on to Jazer;
6. Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of the Hittites under Hermon; and they came to Dan, and from Dan they came round to Zidon,
7. And to the walled town of Tyre, and to all the towns of the Hivites and the Canaanites: and they went out to the South of Judah at Beer-sheba.
8. So after going through all the land in every direction, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
9. And Joab gave the king the number of all the people: there were in Israel eight hundred thousand fighting men able to take up arms; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand.
10. And after the people had been numbered, David's heart was troubled. And David said to the Lord, Great has been my sin in doing this; but now, O Lord, be pleased to take away the sin of your servant, for I have done very foolishly
11. And David got up in the morning; now the word of the Lord had come to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,
12. Go and say to David, The Lord says, Three things are offered to you: say which of them you will have, and I will do it to you.
13. So Gad came to David, and gave him word of this and said to him, Are there to be three years when there is not enough food in your land? or will you go in flight from your haters for three months, while they go after you? or will you have three days of violent disease in your land? take thought and say what answer I am to give to him who sent me.
14. And David said to Gad, This is a hard decision for me to make: let us come into the hands of the Lord, for great are his mercies: let me not come into the hands of men.
15. So David made selection of the disease; and the time was the days of the grain-cutting, when the disease came among the people, causing the death of seventy thousand men from Dan as far as Beer-sheba.
16. And when the hand of the angel was stretched out in the direction of Jerusalem, for its destruction, the Lord had regret for the evil, and said to the angel who was sending destruction on the people, It is enough; do no more. And the angel of the Lord was by the grain-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17. And when David saw the angel who was causing the destruction of the people, he said to the Lord, Truly, the sin is mine; I have done wrong: but these are only sheep; what have they done? let your hand be against me and against my family.
18. And that day Gad came to David and said to him, Go up, and put up an altar to the Lord on the grain-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
19. So David went up, as Gad had said and as the Lord had given orders.
20. And Araunah, looking out, saw the king and his servants coming to him: and Araunah went out, and went down on his face to the earth before the king.
21. And Araunah said, Why has my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To give you a price for your grain-floor, so that I may put up an altar to the Lord, and the disease may be stopped among the people.
22. And Araunah said to David, Let my lord the king take whatever seems right to him, and make an offering of it: see, here are the oxen for the burned offering, and the grain-cleaning instruments and the ox-yokes for wood:
23. All this does the servant of my lord the king give to the king. And Araunah said, May the Lord your God be pleased with your offering!
24. And the king said to Araunah, No, but I will give you a price for it; I will not give to the Lord my God burned offerings for which I have given nothing. So David got the grain-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
25. And there David put up an altar to the Lord, making burned offerings and peace-offerings. So the Lord gave ear to his prayer for the land, and the disease came to an end in Israel.

John 4 / Basic English

1. Now when it was clear to the Lord that word had come to the ears of the Pharisees that Jesus was making more disciples than John and was giving them baptism
2. (Though, in fact, it was his disciples who gave baptism, not Jesus himself),
3. He went out of Judaea into Galilee again.
4. And it was necessary for him to go through Samaria.
5. So he came to a town of Samaria which was named Sychar, near to the bit of land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph:
6. Now Jacob's fountain was there. Jesus, being tired after his journey, was resting by the fountain. It was about the sixth hour.
7. A woman of Samaria came to get water, and Jesus said to her, Give me some water.
8. For his disciples had gone to the town to get food.
9. The woman of Samaria said to him, Why do you, a Jew, make a request for water to me, a woman of Samaria? She said this because Jews have nothing to do with the people of Samaria.
10. In answer Jesus said, If you had knowledge of what God gives freely and who it is who says to you, Give me water, you would make your prayer to him, and he would give you living water.
11. The woman said to him, Sir, you have no vessel and the fountain is deep; from where will you get the living water?
12. Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the fountain and took the water of it himself, with his children and his cattle?
13. Jesus said to her, Everyone who takes this water will be in need of it again:
14. But whoever takes the water I give him will never be in need of drink again; for the water I give him will become in him a fountain of eternal life.
15. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be in need again of drink and will not have to come all this way for it.
16. Jesus said to her, Go, get your husband and come back here with him.
17. In answer, the woman said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have said rightly, I have no husband:
18. You have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband: that was truly said.
19. The woman said to him, Sir, I see that you are a prophet.
20. Our fathers gave worship on this mountain, but you Jews say that the right place for worship is in Jerusalem.
21. Jesus said to her, Woman, take my word for this; the time is coming when you will not give worship to the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem.
22. You give worship, but without knowledge of what you are worshipping: we give worship to what we have knowledge of: for salvation comes from the Jews.
23. But the time is coming, and is even now here, when the true worshippers will give worship to the Father in the true way of the spirit, for these are the worshippers desired by the Father.
24. God is Spirit: then let his worshippers give him worship in the true way of the spirit.
25. The woman said to him, I am certain that the Messiah, who is named Christ, is coming; when he comes he will make all things clear to us.
26. Jesus said to her, I, who am talking to you, am he.
27. At that point the disciples came back, and they were surprised to see him talking to a woman; but not one of them said to him, What is your purpose? or, Why are you talking to her?
28. Then the woman put down her water-pot and went into the town, and said to the people,
29. Come and see a man who has been talking to me of everything I ever did! Is it possible that this is the Christ?
30. So they went out of the town and came to him.
31. While this was taking place, the disciples were saying to Jesus, Master, take some food.
32. But he said to them, I have food of which you have no knowledge.
33. So the disciples said one to another, Did anyone give him food?
34. Jesus said, My food is to do the pleasure of him who sent me and to make his work complete.
35. You would say, Four months from now is the time of the grain-cutting. Take a look, I say to you, at the fields; they are even now white for cutting.
36. He who does the cutting now has his reward; he is getting together fruit for eternal life, so that he who did the planting and he who gets in the grain may have joy together.
37. In this the saying is a true one, One does the planting, and another gets in the grain.
38. I sent you to get in grain which you had no hand in planting: other men did that work, and you take the reward.
39. Now a number of the people of that town had faith in him because of the woman's witness: He has been talking to me of everything I ever did.
40. So when the people came to him they made request to him to be among them for a time, and he was there two days.
41. And a great number more of them came to have faith in him because of what he himself said.
42. And they said to the woman, Now we have faith, but not because of your story: we ourselves have given ear to his words, and we are certain that he is truly the Saviour of the world.
43. And after the two days he went on from there into Galilee.
44. For Jesus himself said that a prophet has no honour in the country of his birth.
45. So when he came into Galilee, the Galilaeans took him to their hearts because of the things which they had seen him do in Jerusalem at the feast--they themselves having been there at the feast.
46. So he came to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And there was a certain man of high position whose son was ill at Capernaum.
47. When it came to his ears that Jesus had come from Judaea into Galilee, he went to him and made a request that he would come down to his son, who was near to death, and make him well.
48. Then Jesus said to him, You will not have faith if you do not see signs and wonders.
49. The man said, Sir, come down before my boy is dead.
50. And Jesus said, Go in peace; your son is living. The man had faith in the word which Jesus said to him and went away.
51. And while he was going down, his servants came to him and said, Your boy is living.
52. So he put a question to them as to the hour when he became better; and they said to him, The disease went from him yesterday at the seventh hour.
53. It was clear then to the father that this was the very time at which Jesus said to him, Your son is living. And he had faith in Jesus, he and all his family.
54. Now this is the second sign which Jesus did after he had come out of Judaea into Galilee.