Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

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1 Kings (3 Kings) 3 / Basic English



1. Solomon became the son-in-law of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter as his wife, keeping her in the town of David, till the house he was building for himself, and the house of the Lord and the wall round Jerusalem, were complete.
2. But all this time the people were making their offerings in the high places, because no house had been put up to the name of the Lord till those days.
3. And Solomon, in his love for the Lord, kept the laws of David his father; but he made offerings and let them go up in smoke on the high places.
4. And the king went to Gibeon to make an offering there, because that was the chief high place: it was Solomon's way to make a thousand burned offerings on that altar.
5. In Gibeon, Solomon had a vision of the Lord in a dream by night; and God said to him, Say what I am to give you.
6. And Solomon said, Great was your mercy to David my father, as his life before you was true and upright and his heart was true to you; and you have kept for him this greatest mercy, a son to take his place this day.
7. And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in the place of David my father; and I am only a young boy, with no knowledge of how to go out or come in.
8. And your servant has round him the people of your selection, a people so great that they may not be numbered, and no account of them may be given.
9. Give your servant, then, a wise heart for judging your people, able to see what is good and what evil; for who is able to be the judge of this great people?
10. Now these words and Solomon's request were pleasing to the Lord.
11. And God said to him, Because your request is for this thing, and not for long life for yourself or for wealth or for the destruction of your haters, but for wisdom to be a judge of causes;
12. I have done as you said: I have given you a wise and far-seeing heart, so that there has never been your equal in the past, and never will there be any like you in the future.
13. And with this I have given you what you made no request for: wealth and honour, so that no king was ever your equal.
14. And if you go on in my ways, keeping my laws and my orders as your father David did, I will give you a long life.
15. And Solomon, awakening, saw that it was a dream; then he came to Jerusalem, where he went before the ark of the agreement of the Lord, offering burned offerings and peace-offerings; and he made a feast for all his servants.
16. Then two loose women of the town came and took their places before the king;
17. And one of them said, O my lord, I and this woman are living in the same house; and I gave birth to a child by her side in the house.
18. And three days after the birth of my child, this woman had a child: we were together, no other-person was with us in the house but we two only.
19. In the night, this woman, sleeping on her child, was the cause of its death.
20. And she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while your servant was sleeping; and she took it in her arms and put her dead child in my arms.
21. And when I got up to give my child the breast, I saw that it was dead; but in the morning, looking at it with care, I saw that it was not my son.
22. And the other woman said, No; but the living child is my son and the dead one yours. But the first said, No; the dead child is your son and the living one mine. So they kept on talking before the king.
23. Then the king said, One says, The living child is my son, and yours is the dead: and the other says, Not so; but your son is the dead one and mine is the living.
24. Then he said, Get me a sword. So they went and put a sword before the king.
25. And the king said, Let the living child be cut in two and one half given to one woman and one to the other.
26. Then the mother of the living child came forward, for her heart went out to her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the child; do not on any account put it to death. But the other woman said, It will not be mine or yours; let it be cut in two.
27. Then the king made answer and said, Give her the child, and do not put it to death; she is the mother of it.
28. And news of this decision which the king had made went through all Israel; and they had fear of the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to give decisions.

1 Kings (3 Kings) 4 / Basic English



1. Now Solomon was king over all Israel.
2. And these were his chief men: Azariah, the son of Zadok, was the priest;
3. Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, were scribes; Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was the recorder;
4. Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was head of the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests;
5. Azariah, the son of Nathan, was over those in authority in the different divisions of the country; Zabud, the son of Nathan, was priest and the king's friend;
6. Ahishar was controller of the king's house; Adoniram, the son of Abda, was overseer of the forced work.
7. And Solomon put twelve overseers over all Israel, to be responsible for the stores needed for the king and those of his house; every man was responsible for one month in the year.
8. And these are their names: ... the son of Hur in the hill country of Ephraim;
9. ... the son of Deker in Makaz and Shaalbim and Beth-shemesh and Elonbeth-hanan;
10. ... the son of Hesed in Arubboth; Socoh and all the land of Hepher were under his control;
11. ... the son of Abinadab in all Naphath-dor; his wife was Taphath, the daughter of Solomon.
12. Baana, the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean which is by the side of Zarethan, under Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as the far side of Jokmeam;
13. ... the son of Geber in Ramoth-gilead; he had the towns of Jair, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, and the country of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great towns with walls and locks of brass.
14. Ahinadab, the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;
15. Ahimaaz in Naphtali; he took Basemath, the daughter of Solomon, as his wife;
16. Baana, the son of Hushai, in Asher and Aloth;
17. Jehoshaphat, the son of Paruah, in Issachar;
18. Shimei, the son of Ela, in Benjamin;
19. Geber, the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan; and one overseer had authority over all the overseers who were in the land.
20. Judah and Israel were as great in number as the sand by the seaside, and they took their food and drink with joy in their hearts.
21. And Solomon was ruler over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, and as far as the edge of Egypt; men gave him offerings and were his servants all the days of his life.
22. And the amount of Solomon's food for one day was thirty measures of crushed grain and sixty measures of meal;
23. Ten fat oxen and twenty oxen from the fields, and a hundred sheep, in addition to harts and gazelles and roes and fat fowls.
24. For he had authority over all the country on this side of the River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings on this side of the River; and he had peace round him on every side.
25. So Judah and Israel were living safely, every man under his vine and his fig-tree, from Dan as far as Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon.
26. And Solomon had four thousand boxed-off spaces for horses for his carriages, and twelve thousand horsemen.
27. And those overseers, every man in his month, saw that food was produced for Solomon and all his guests, they took care that nothing was overlooked.
28. And they took grain and dry grass for the horses and the carriage-horses, to the right place, every man as he was ordered.
29. And God gave Solomon a great store of wisdom and good sense, and a mind of wide range, as wide as the sand by the seaside.
30. And Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt.
31. For he was wiser than all men, even than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman and Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and he had a great name among all the nations round about.
32. He was the maker of three thousand wise sayings, and of songs to the number of a thousand and five.
33. He made sayings about all plants, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop hanging on the wall; and about all beasts and birds and fishes and the small things of the earth.
34. People came from every nation to give ear to the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had word of his wisdom.

John 7 / Basic English



1. After this, Jesus went from place to place in Galilee. He did not go about in Judaea, because the Jews were looking for a chance to put him to death.
2. But the feast of the Jews, the feast of tents, was near.
3. So his brothers said to him, Go away from here into Judaea so that your disciples may see the works which you do.
4. Because no man does things secretly if he has a desire that men may have knowledge of him. If you do these things, let yourself be seen by all men.
5. For even his brothers had no belief in him.
6. Jesus said to them, My time is still to come, but any time is good for you.
7. It is not possible for you to be hated by the world; but I am hated by it, because I give witness that what it does is evil.
8. Go you up to the feast: I am not going up now to the feast because my time has not fully come.
9. Having said these things to them, he still kept in Galilee.
10. But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he went up, not publicly, but in secret.
11. At the feast the Jews were looking for him and saying, Where is he?
12. And there was much discussion about him among the mass of the people. Some said, He is a good man; but others said, No, he is giving people false ideas.
13. But no man said anything about him openly for fear of the Jews.
14. Now in the middle of the feast Jesus went up to the Temple and was teaching.
15. Then the Jews were surprised and said, How has this man got knowledge of books? He has never been to school.
16. Jesus gave them this answer: It is not my teaching, but his who sent me.
17. If any man is ready to do God's pleasure he will have knowledge of the teaching and of where it comes from--from God or from myself.
18. The man whose words come from himself is looking for glory for himself, but he who is looking for the glory of him who sent him--that man is true and there is no evil in him.
19. Did not Moses give you the law? Even so, not one of you keeps the law. Why have you a desire to put me to death?
20. The people said in answer, You have an evil spirit: who has any desire to put you to death?
21. This was the answer of Jesus: I have done one work and you are all surprised at it.
22. Moses gave you circumcision--not that it comes from Moses, but from the fathers--and even on the Sabbath you give a child circumcision.
23. If a child is given circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath?
24. Let not your decisions be based on what you see, but on righteousness.
25. Then some of the people of Jerusalem said, Is not this the man whose death is desired?
26. And here he is talking openly and they say nothing to him! Is it possible that the rulers have knowledge that this is truly the Christ?
27. However, it is clear to us where this man comes from: but when the Christ comes no one will have knowledge where he comes from.
28. Then, when he was teaching in the Temple, Jesus said with a loud voice, You have knowledge of me and you have knowledge of where I come from; and I have not come of myself; but there is One who has sent me; he is true, but you have no knowledge of him.
29. I have knowledge of him because I came from him and he sent me.
30. Then they had a desire to take him: but no man put hands on him because his hour was still to come.
31. And numbers of the people had belief in him, and they said, When the Christ comes will he do more signs than this man has done?
32. This discussion of the people came to the ears of the Pharisees; and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent servants to take him.
33. Then Jesus said, I will be with you a little longer and then I go to him who sent me.
34. You will be looking for me, and you will not see me: and where I am you may not come.
35. So the Jews said among themselves, To what place is he going where we will not see him? will he go to the Jews living among the Greeks and become the teacher of the Greeks?
36. What is this saying of his, You will be looking for me and will not see me, and where I am you may not come?
37. On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus got up and said in a loud voice, If any man is in need of drink let him come to me and I will give it to him.
38. He who has faith in me, out of his body, as the Writings have said, will come rivers of living water.
39. This he said of the Spirit which would be given to those who had faith in him: the Spirit had not been given then, because the glory of Jesus was still to come.
40. When these words came to their ears, some of the people said, This is certainly the prophet.
41. Others said, This is the Christ. But others said, Not so; will the Christ come from Galilee?
42. Do not the Writings say that the Christ comes of the seed of David and from Beth-lehem, the little town where David was?
43. So there was a division among the people because of him.
44. And some of them had a desire to take him; but no man put hands on him.
45. Then the servants went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, Why have you not got him with you?
46. The servants made answer, No man ever said things like this man.
47. Then the Pharisees said to them, Have you, like the others, been given false ideas?
48. Have any of the rulers belief in him, or any one of the Pharisees?
49. But these people who have no knowledge of the law are cursed.
50. Nicodemus--he who had come to Jesus before, being himself one of them--said to them,
51. Is a man judged by our law before it has given him a hearing and has knowledge of what he has done?
52. This was their answer: And do you come from Galilee? Make search and you will see that no prophet comes out of Galilee.
53. [And every man went to his house;