Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

1 Kings (3 Kings) 7 / Basic English

1. Solomon was thirteen years building a house for himself till it was complete.
2. And he made the house of the Woods of Lebanon, which was a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high, resting on four lines of cedar-wood pillars with cedar-wood supports on the pillars.
3. And it was covered with cedar over the forty-five supports which were on the pillars, fifteen in a line.
4. There were three lines of window-frames, window facing window in every line.
5. And all the doors and windows had square frames, with the windows facing one another in three lines.
6. And he made a covered room of pillars, fifty cubits long and thirty cubits wide, and ... with steps before it.
7. Then he made a covered room for his high seat when he gave decisions; this was the covered room of judging; it was covered with cedar-wood from floor to roof.
8. And the house for his living-place, the other open square in the covered room, was made in the same way. And then he made a house like it for Pharaoh's daughter, whom Solomon had taken as his wife.
9. All these buildings were made, inside and out, from base to crowning stone, and outside to the great walled square, of highly priced stone, cut to different sizes with cutting-instruments.
10. And the base was of great masses of highly priced stone, some ten cubits and some eight cubits square.
11. Overhead were highly priced stones cut to measure, and cedar-wood.
12. The great outer square all round was walled with three lines of squared stones and a line of cedar-wood boards, round about the open square inside the house of the Lord and the covered room of the king's house.
13. Then King Solomon sent and got Hiram from Tyre.
14. He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass; he was full of wisdom and knowledge and an expert worker in brass. He came to King Solomon and did all his work for him.
15. He it was who made the two brass pillars; the first pillar was eighteen cubits high, and a line of twelve cubits went round it; and the second was the same.
16. And he made the two crowns to be put on the tops of the pillars, of brass made soft in the fire; the crowns were five cubits high.
17. There were nets of open-work for the crowns on the tops of the pillars, a net of open-work for one and a net of open-work for the other.
18. And he made ornaments of apples; and two lines of apples all round over the network, covering the crowns of the pillars, the two crowns in the same way.
19. The crowns on the tops of the pillars were ornamented with a design of flowers, and were four cubits across.
20. And there were crowns on the two pillars near the round part by the network, and there were two hundred apples in lines round every crown.
21. He put up the pillars at the doorway of the Temple, naming the one on the right Jachin, and that on the left Boaz.
22. The tops of the pillars had a design of flowers; and the work of making the pillars was complete.
23. And he made a great metal water-vessel ten cubits across from edge to edge, five cubits high and thirty cubits round.
24. And under the edge of it, circling it all round for ten cubits, were two lines of flower buds, made together with it from liquid metal.
25. It was supported on twelve oxen, with their back parts turned to the middle of it, three of them facing to the north, three to the west, three to the south, and three to the east; the vessel was resting on top of them.
26. It was as thick as a man's open hand, and was curved like the edge of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it would take two thousand baths.
27. And he made ten wheeled bases of brass; every one four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits high.
28. And the bases were made in this way; their sides were square, fixed in a framework;
29. And on the square sides between the frames were lions, oxen, and winged ones; and the same on the frame; and over and under the lions and the oxen and the winged ones were steps.
30. Every base had four wheels of brass, turning on brass rods, and their four angles had angle-plates under them; the angle-plates under the base were of metal, and there were ornaments at the side of every one.
31. The mouth of it inside the angle-plate was one cubit across; it was round like a pillar, a cubit and a half across; it had designs cut on it; the sides were square, not round.
32. The four wheels were under the frames, and the rods on which the wheels were fixed were in the base; the wheels were a cubit and a half high.
33. The wheels were made like carriage-wheels, the rods on which they were fixed, the parts forming their edges, their rods and the middle points of them, were all formed out of liquid metal.
34. And there were four angle-plates at the four angles of every base, forming part of the structure of the base.
35. And at the top of the base there was a round vessel, half a cubit high;
36. In the spaces of the flat sides and on the frames of them, he made designs of winged ones, lions, and palm-trees, with ornamented edges all round.
37. All the ten bases were made in this way, after the same design, of the same size and form.
38. And he made ten brass washing-vessels, everyone taking forty baths, and measuring four cubits; one vessel was placed on every one of the ten bases.
39. And he put the bases by the house, five on the right side and five on the left; and he put the great water-vessel on the right side of the house, to the east, facing south.
40. And Hiram made the pots and spades and the basins. So Hiram came to the end of all the work he did for King Solomon in the house of the Lord:
41. The two pillars and the two cups of the crowns which were on the tops of the two pillars; and the network covering the two cups of the crowns on the tops of the pillars,
42. And the four hundred apples for the network, two lines of apples for every network, covering the two cups of the crowns on the pillars;
43. And the ten bases, with the ten washing-vessels on them;
44. And the great water-vessel, with the twelve oxen under it;
45. And the pots and the spades and the basins; all the vessels which Hiram made for King Solomon, for the house of the Lord, were of polished brass.
46. He made them of liquid metal in the lowland of Jordan, at the way across the river, at Adama, between Succoth and Zarethan.
47. The weight of all these vessels was not measured, because there was such a number of them; it was not possible to get the weight of the brass.
48. And Solomon had all the vessels made for use in the house of the Lord: the altar of gold and the gold table on which the holy bread was placed;
49. And the supports for the lights, five on the right side and five on the left before the inmost room, of clear gold; and the flowers and the lights and all the instruments of gold;
50. And the cups and the scissors and the basins and the spoons and the fire-trays, all of gold; and the pins on which the doors were turned, the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and the doors of the Temple, all of gold.
51. So all the work King Solomon had done in the house of the Lord was complete. Then Solomon took the holy things which David his father had given, the silver and the gold and all the vessels, and put them in the store-houses of the house of the Lord.

John 9 / Basic English

1. And when he went on his way, he saw a man blind from birth.
2. And his disciples put a question to him, saying, Master, was it because of this man's sin, or the sin of his father and mother, that he has been blind from birth?
3. Jesus said in answer, It was not because of his sin, or because of his father's or mother's; it was so that the works of God might be seen openly in him.
4. While it is day we have to do the works of him who sent me: the night comes when no work may be done.
5. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
6. Having said these words, he put earth, mixed with water from his mouth, on the man's eyes,
7. And said to him, Go and make yourself clean in the bath of Siloam (the sense of the name is, Sent). So he went away and, after washing, came back able to see.
8. Then the neighbours and others who had seen him before in the street, with his hand out for money, said, Is not this the man who got money from people?
9. Some said, It is he: others said, No, but he is like him. He said, I am he.
10. So they said to him, How then were your eyes made open?
11. His answer was: The man who is named Jesus put earth mixed with water on my eyes, and said to me, Go and make yourself clean in Siloam: so I went away and, after washing, am now able to see.
12. And they said to him, Where is he? His answer was: I have no knowledge.
13. They took him before the Pharisees--this man who had been blind.
14. Now the day on which the earth was mixed by Jesus and the man's eyes were made open was the Sabbath.
15. So the Pharisees put more questions to him about how his eyes had been made open. And he said to them, He put earth on my eyes, and I had a wash and am able to see.
16. Then some of the Pharisees said, That man has not come from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath. Others said, How is it possible for a sinner to do such signs? So there was a division among them.
17. Again they said to the blind man, What have you to say about him for opening your eyes? And he said, He is a prophet.
18. Now the Jews had no belief in the statement that he had been blind and was now able to see, till they sent for the father and mother of the man whose eyes had been made open,
19. And put the question to them, saying, Is this your son, of whom you say that he was blind at birth? how is it then that he is now able to see?
20. In answer his father and mother said, We are certain that this is our son and that he was blind at birth:
21. But how it is he is now able to see, or who made his eyes open, we are not able to say: put the question to him; he is old enough to give an answer for himself.
22. They said this because of their fear of the Jews: for the Jews had come to an agreement that if any man said that Jesus was the Christ he would be put out of the Synagogue.
23. That was the reason why they said, He is old enough; put the question to him.
24. So they sent a second time for the man who had been blind and they said to him, Give glory to God: it is clear to us that this man is a sinner.
25. He said in answer, I have no knowledge if he is a sinner or not, but one thing I am certain about; I was blind, and now I see.
26. Then they said to him, What did he do to you? how did he give you the use of your eyes?
27. His answer was: I have said it before, but your ears were shut: why would you have me say it again? is it your desire to become his disciples?
28. And they were angry with him and said, You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.
29. We are certain that God gave his word to Moses: but as for this man, we have no knowledge where he comes from.
30. The man said in answer, Why, here is a strange thing! You have no knowledge where he comes from though he gave me the use of my eyes.
31. We have knowledge that God does not give ear to sinners, but if any man is a worshipper of God and does his pleasure, to him God's ears are open.
32. In all the years nobody has ever before seen the eyes of a man blind from birth made open.
33. If this man did not come from God he would be unable to do anything.
34. Their answer was: You came to birth through sin; do you make yourself our teacher? And they put him out of the Synagogue.
35. It came to the ears of Jesus that they had put him out, and meeting him he said, Have you faith in the Son of man?
36. He said in answer, And who is he, Lord? Say, so that I may have faith in him.
37. Jesus said to him, You have seen him; it is he who is talking to you.
38. And he said, Lord, I have faith. And he gave him worship.
39. And Jesus said, I came into this world to be a judge, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.
40. These words came to the ears of the Pharisees who were with him and they said to him, Are we, then, blind?
41. Jesus said to them, If you were blind you would have no sin: but now that you say, We see; your sin is there still.