Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

1 Kings (3 Kings) 2 / Basic English

1. Now the time of David's death came near; and he gave orders to Solomon his son, saying,
2. I am going the way of all the earth: so be strong and be a man;
3. And keep the orders of the Lord your God, walking in his ways, keeping his laws and his orders and his rules and his words, as they are recorded in the law of Moses; so that you may do well in all you do and wherever you go,
4. So that the Lord may give effect to what he said of me, If your children give attention to their ways, living uprightly before me with all their heart and their soul, you will never be without a man to be king in Israel.
5. Now you have knowledge of what Joab, the son of Zeruiah, did to me, and to the two captains of the army of Israel, Abner, the son of Ner, and Amasa, the son of Jether, whom he put to death, taking payment for the blood of war in time of peace, and making the band of my clothing and the shoes on my feet red with the blood of one put to death without cause.
6. So be guided by your wisdom, and let not his white head go down to the underworld in peace.
7. But be good to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be guests at your table; for so they came to me when I went in flight from Absalom your brother.
8. Now you have with you Shimei, the son of Gera the Benjamite of Bahurim, who put a bitter curse on me on the day when I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to see me at Jordan, and I gave him my oath by the Lord, saying, I will not put you to death by the sword.
9. But do not let him be free from punishment, for you are a wise man; and it will be clear to you what you have to do with him; see that his white head goes down to the underworld in blood.
10. Then David went to rest with his fathers, and his body was put into the earth in the town of David.
11. David was king over Israel for forty years: for seven years he was king in Hebron and for thirty-three years in Jerusalem.
12. And Solomon took his place on the seat of David his father, and his kingdom was made safe and strong.
13. Then Adonijah, the son of Haggith, came to Bath-sheba, the mother of Solomon. And she said, Come you in peace? And he said, Yes, in peace.
14. Then he said, I have something to say to you. And she said, Say on.
15. And he said, You saw how the kingdom was mine, and all Israel had the idea that I would be their king; but now the kingdom is turned about, and has become my brother's, for it was given to him by the Lord.
16. Now I have one request to make to you, and do not say, No, to me. And she said to him, Say on.
17. Then he said, Will you go to Solomon the king (for he will not say, No, to you) and put before him my request that he will give me Abishag the Shunammite for a wife?
18. And Bath-sheba said, Good! I will make your request to the king.
19. So Bath-sheba went to King Solomon to have talk with him on Adonijah's account. And the king got up to come to her, and went down low to the earth before her; then he took his place on the king's seat and had a seat made ready for the king's mother and she took her place at his right hand.
20. Then she said, I have one small request to make to you; do not say, No, to me. And the king said, Say on, my mother, for I will not say, No, to you.
21. And she said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother for a wife.
22. Then King Solomon made answer and said to his mother, Why are you requesting me to give Abishag the Shunammite to Adonijah? Take the kingdom for him in addition, for he is my older brother, and Abiathar the priest and Joab, the son of Zeruiah, are on his side.
23. Then King Solomon took an oath by the Lord, saying, May God's punishment be on me if Adonijah does not give payment for these words with his life.
24. Now by the living Lord, who has given me my place on the seat of David my father, and made me one of a line of kings, as he gave me his word, truly Adonijah will be put to death this day.
25. And King Solomon sent Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and he made an attack on him and put him to death.
26. And to Abiathar the priest the king said, Go to Anathoth, to your fields; for death would be your right reward; but I will not put you to death now, because you took up the ark of the Lord God before David my father, and you were with him in all his troubles.
27. So Solomon let Abiathar be priest no longer, so that he might make the word of the Lord come true which he said about the sons of Eli in Shiloh.
28. And news of this came to Joab; for Joab had been one of Adonijah's supporters, though he had not been on Absalom's side. Then Joab went in flight to the Tent of the Lord, and put his hands on the horns of the altar.
29. And they said to King Solomon, Joab has gone in flight to the Tent of the Lord and is by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, make an attack on him.
30. And Benaiah came to the Tent of the Lord and said to him, The king says, Come out. And he said, No; but let death come to me here. And Benaiah went back to the king and gave him word of the answer which Joab had given.
31. And the king said, Do as he has said and make an attack on him there, and put his body into the earth; so that you may take away from me and from my family the blood of one put to death by Joab without cause.
32. And the Lord will send back his blood on his head, because of the attack he made on two men more upright and better than himself, putting them to the sword without my father's knowledge; even Abner, the son of Ner, captain of the army of Israel, and Amasa, the son of Jether, captain of the army of Judah.
33. So their blood will be on the head of Joab, and on the head of his seed for ever; but for David and his seed and his family and the seat of his kingdom, there will be peace for ever from the Lord.
34. So Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, went up, and falling on him, put him to death; and his body was put to rest in his house in the waste land.
35. And the king put Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, in his place over the army; and Zadok the priest he put in the place of Abiathar.
36. Then the king sent for Shimei, and said to him, Make a house for yourself in Jerusalem and keep there and go to no other place.
37. For be certain that on the day when you go out and go over the stream Kidron, death will overtake you: and your blood will be on your head.
38. And Shimei said to the king, Very well! as my lord the king has said, so will your servant do. And for a long time Shimei went on living in Jerusalem.
39. But after three years, two of the servants of Shimei went in flight to Achish, son of Maacah, king of Gath. And word was given to Shimei that his servants had gone to Gath.
40. Then Shimei got up, and making ready his ass, he went to Gath, to Achish, in search of his servants; and he sent and got them from Gath.
41. And news was given to Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had come back again.
42. Then the king sent for Shimei, and said to him, Did I not make you take an oath by the Lord, protesting to you and saying, Be certain that on the day when you go out from here, wherever you go, death will overtake you? and you said to me, Very well!
43. Why then have you not kept the oath of the Lord and the order which I gave you?
44. And the king said to Shimei, You have knowledge of all the evil which you did to David my father; and now the Lord has sent back your evil on yourself.
45. But a blessing will be on King Solomon, and the kingdom of David will keep its place before the Lord for ever.
46. So the king gave orders to Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada; and he went out and, falling on him, put him to death. And Solomon's authority over the kingdom was complete.

John 6 / Basic English

1. After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the sea of Galilee--that is, the sea of Tiberias.
2. And a great number of people went after him because they saw the signs which he did on those who were ill.
3. Then Jesus went up the mountain and was seated there with his disciples.
4. Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.
5. Lifting up his eyes, Jesus saw a great number of people coming to where he was, and he said to Philip, Where may we get bread for all these people?
6. This he said, testing him: for he had no doubt what he himself would do.
7. Philip made answer, Bread to the value of two hundred pence would not be enough even to give everyone a little.
8. One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to Jesus,
9. There is a boy here with five barley cakes and two fishes: but what is that among such a number?
10. Jesus said, Let the people be seated. Now there was much grass in that place. And those seated on the grass were about five thousand.
11. Then Jesus took the cakes and having given praise to God, he gave them to the people who were seated, and the fishes in the same way, as much as they had need of.
12. And when they had had enough, Jesus said to his disciples, Take up the broken bits which are over, so that nothing may be wasted.
13. So they took them up: twelve baskets full of broken bits of the five cakes which were over after the people had had enough.
14. And when the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, Truly, this is the prophet who is to come into the world.
15. Now when Jesus saw that the people were about to come and take him by force to make him a king, he went away again up the mountain by himself.
16. When evening came the disciples went down to the sea;
17. And they took a boat and went across the sea in the direction of Capernaum. By then it was dark and still Jesus had not come to them.
18. The sea was getting rough because of a strong wind which was blowing.
19. After they had gone three or four miles they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near to the boat; and they had great fear.
20. But he said to them, It is I, have no fear.
21. Then they readily took him into the boat: and straight away the boat was at the land to which they were going.
22. The day after, the people who were on the other side of the sea saw that only one small boat had been there, that Jesus had not gone in that boat with the disciples, but that the disciples had gone away by themselves.
23. Some other boats, however, came from Tiberias near to the place where they had taken the bread after the Lord had given praise.
24. So when the people saw that Jesus was not there, or his disciples, they got into those boats and went over to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
25. And when they came across him on the other side of the sea they said, Rabbi, when did you come here?
26. Jesus, answering them, said, Truly I say to you, You come after me, not because you saw signs, but because you were given the bread and had enough.
27. Let your work not be for the food which comes to an end, but for the food which goes on for eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you, for on him has God the Father put his mark.
28. Then they said to him, How may we do the works of God?
29. Jesus, answering, said to them, This is to do the work of God: to have faith in him whom God has sent.
30. So they said, What sign do you give us, so that we may see and have faith in you? What do you do?
31. Our fathers had the manna in the waste land, as the Writings say, He gave them bread from heaven.
32. Jesus then said to them, Truly I say to you, What Moses gave you was not the bread from heaven; it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.
33. The bread of God is the bread which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.
34. Ah, Lord, they said, give us that bread for ever!
35. And this was the answer of Jesus: I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never be in need of food, and he who has faith in me will never be in need of drink.
36. But it is as I said to you: you have seen me, and still you have no faith.
37. Whatever the Father gives to me will come to me; and I will not send away anyone who comes to me.
38. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my pleasure, but the pleasure of him who sent me.
39. And this is the pleasure of him who sent me, that I am not to let out of my hands anything which he has given me, but I am to give it new life on the last day.
40. This, I say, is my Father's pleasure, that everyone who sees the Son and has faith in him may have eternal life: and I will take him up on the last day.
41. Now the Jews said bitter things about Jesus because of his words, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
42. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we have seen? How is it then that he now says, I have come down from heaven?
43. Jesus made answer and said, Do not say things against me, one to another.
44. No man is able to come to me if the Father who sent me does not give him the desire to come: and I will take him up from the dead on the last day.
45. The writings of the prophets say, And they will all have teaching from God. Everyone whose ears have been open to the teaching of the Father comes to me.
46. Not that anyone has ever seen the Father; only he who is from God, he has seen the Father.
47. Truly I say to you, He who has faith in me has eternal life.
48. I am the bread of life.
49. Your fathers took the manna in the waste land--and they are dead.
50. The bread which comes from heaven is such bread that a man may take it for food and never see death.
51. I am the living bread which has come from heaven: if any man takes this bread for food he will have life for ever: and more than this, the bread which I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world.
52. Then the Jews had an angry discussion among themselves, saying, How is it possible for this man to give us his flesh for food?
53. Then Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, If you do not take the flesh of the Son of man for food, and if you do not take his blood for drink, you have no life in you.
54. He who takes my flesh for food and my blood for drink has eternal life: and I will take him up from the dead at the last day.
55. My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.
56. He who takes my flesh for food and my blood for drink is in me and I in him.
57. As the living Father has sent me, and I have life because of the Father, even so he who takes me for his food will have life because of me.
58. This is the bread which has come down from heaven. It is not like the food which your fathers had: they took of the manna, and are dead; but he who takes this bread for food will have life for ever.
59. Jesus said these things in the Synagogue while he was teaching at Capernaum.
60. Then, hearing this, a number of his disciples said, This is a hard saying; who is able to take in such teaching?
61. When Jesus became conscious that his disciples were protesting about what he said, he said to them, Does this give you trouble?
62. What then will you say if you see the Son of man going up to where he was before?
63. The spirit is the life giver; the flesh is of no value: the words which I have said to you are spirit and they are life.
64. But still some of you have no faith. For it was clear to Jesus from the first who they were who had no faith, and who it was who would be false to him.
65. And he said, This is why I said to you, No man is able to come to me if he is not given the power to do so by the Father.
66. Because of what he said, a number of the disciples went back and would no longer go with him.
67. So Jesus said to the twelve, Have you a desire to go away?
68. Then Simon Peter gave this answer: Lord, to whom are we to go? you have the words of eternal life;
69. And we have faith and are certain that you are the Holy One of God.
70. Then Jesus said, Did I not make a selection of you, the twelve, and one of you is a son of the Evil One?
71. He was talking of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. It was he who was to be false to Jesus--one of the twelve.