Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

1 Kings (3 Kings) 9 / Basic English

1. Now when Solomon came to the end of building the house of the Lord and the king's house, and all Solomon's desires, which he had in mind were effected;
2. The Lord came to him again in a vision, as he had done at Gibeon;
3. And the Lord said to him, Your prayers and your requests for grace have come to my ears: I have made holy this house which you have made, and I have put my name there for ever; my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.
4. As for you, if you will go on your way before me, as David your father did, uprightly and with a true heart, doing what I have given you orders to do, keeping my laws and my decisions;
5. Then I will make the seat of your rule over Israel certain for ever, as I gave my word to David your father, saying, You will never be without a man to be king in Israel.
6. But if you are turned from my ways, you or your children, and do not keep my orders and my laws which I have put before you, but go and make yourselves servants to other gods and give them worship:
7. Then I will have Israel cut off from the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for myself, I will put away from before my eyes; and Israel will be a public example, and a word of shame among all peoples.
8. And this house will become a mass of broken walls, and everyone who goes by will be overcome with wonder at it and make whistling sounds; and they will say, Why has the Lord done so to this land and to this house?
9. And their answer will be, Because they were turned away from the Lord their God, who took their fathers out of the land of Egypt; they took for themselves other gods and gave them worship and became their servants: that is why the Lord has sent all this evil on them.
10. Now at the end of twenty years, in which time Solomon had put up the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king's house,
11. (Hiram, king of Tyre, had given Solomon cedar-trees and cypress-trees and gold, as much as he had need of,) King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the land of Galilee.
12. But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the towns which Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them.
13. And he said, What sort of towns are these which you have given me, my brother? So they were named the land of Cabul, to this day.
14. And Hiram sent the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold.
15. Now, this was the way of Solomon's system of forced work for the building of the Lord's house and of the king's house, and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Megiddo and Gezer. ...
16. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, came and took Gezer, burning it down and putting to death the Canaanites living in the town, and he gave it for a bride-offering to his daughter, Solomon's wife. ...
17. ... and Solomon was the builder of Gezer and Beth-horon the lower,
18. And Baalath and Tamar in the waste land, in that land;
19. And all the store-towns and the towns which Solomon had for his war-carriages and for his horsemen, and everything which it was his pleasure to put up in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land under his rule.
20. As for the rest of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not children of Israel;
21. Their children who were still in the land, and whom the children of Israel had not been able to put to complete destruction, them did Solomon put to forced work, to this day.
22. But Solomon did not put the children of Israel to forced work; they were the men of war, his servants, his captains, and his chiefs, captains of his war-carriages and of his horsemen.
23. These were the chiefs of the overseers of Solomon's work, five hundred and fifty, in authority over the people who did the work.
24. At that time Solomon made Pharaoh's daughter come up from the town of David to the house which he had made for her: then he made the Millo.
25. Three times in the year it was Solomon's way to give burned offerings and peace-offerings on the altar he had made to the Lord, causing his fire-offering to go up on the altar before the Lord.
26. And King Solomon made a sea-force of ships in Ezion-geber, by Eloth, on the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.
27. Hiram sent his servants, who were experienced seamen, in the sea-force with Solomon's men.
28. And they came to Ophir, where they got four hundred and twenty talents of gold, and took it back to King Solomon.

1 Kings (3 Kings) 10 / Basic English

1. Now the queen of Sheba, hearing great things of Solomon, came to put his wisdom to the test with hard questions.
2. And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels weighted down with spices, and stores of gold and jewels: and when she came to Solomon she had talk with him of everything in her mind.
3. And Solomon gave her answers to all her questions; there was no secret which the king did not make clear to her.
4. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house which he had made,
5. And the food at his table, and all his servants seated there, and those who were waiting on him in their places, and their robes, and his wine-servants, and the burned offerings which he made in the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her.
6. And she said to the king, The account which was given to me in my country of your acts and your wisdom was true.
7. But I had no faith in what was said about you, till I came and saw for myself; and now I see that it was not half the story; your wisdom and your wealth are much greater than they said.
8. Happy are your wives, happy are these your servants whose place is ever before you, hearing your words of wisdom.
9. May the Lord your God be praised, whose pleasure it was to put you on the seat of the kingdom of Israel; because the Lord's love for Israel is eternal, he has made you king, to be their judge in righteousness.
10. And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and a great store of spices and jewels: never again was such a wealth of spices seen as that which the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon.
11. And the sea-force of Hiram, in addition to gold from Ophir, came back with much sandal-wood and jewels.
12. And from the sandal-wood the king made pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the king's house, and instruments of music for the makers of melody: never has such sandal-wood been seen to this day.
13. And King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatever she made request for, in addition to what he gave her freely from the impulse of his heart. So she went back to her country, she and her servants.
14. Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and sixty-six talents;
15. In addition to what came to him from the business of the traders, and from all the kings of the Arabians, and from the rulers of the country.
16. And Solomon made two hundred body-covers of hammered gold, every one having six hundred shekels of gold in it.
17. And he made three hundred smaller body-covers of hammered gold, with three pounds of gold in every cover: and the king put them in the house of the Woods of Lebanon.
18. Then the king made a great ivory seat, plated with the best gold.
19. There were six steps going up to it, and the top of it was round at the back, there were arms on the two sides of the seat, and two lions by the side of the arms;
20. And twelve lions were placed on the one side and on the other side on the six steps: there was nothing like it in any kingdom.
21. And all King Solomon's drinking-vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the Woods of Lebanon were of the best gold; not one was of silver, for no one gave a thought to silver in the days of King Solomon.
22. For the king had Tarshish-ships at sea with the ships of Hiram; once every three years the Tarshish-ships came with gold and silver and ivory and monkeys and peacocks.
23. And King Solomon was greater than all the kings of the earth in wealth and in wisdom.
24. And from all over the earth they came to see Solomon and to give ear to his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.
25. And everyone took with him an offering, vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and robes, and coats of metal, and spices, and horses, and beasts of transport, regularly year by year.
26. And Solomon got together war-carriages and horsemen; he had one thousand, four hundred carriages and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he kept, some in the carriage-towns and some with the king at Jerusalem.
27. And the king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem and cedars like the sycamore-trees of the lowlands in number.
28. And Solomon's horses came from Egypt and from Kue; the king's traders got them at a price from Kue.
29. A war-carriage might be got from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty; they got them at the same rate for all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram.

John 11 / Basic English

1. Now a certain man named Lazarus was ill; he was of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.
2. (The Mary whose brother Lazarus was ill, was the Mary who put perfumed oil on the Lord and made his feet dry with her hair.)
3. So the sisters sent to him, saying, Lord, your dear friend is ill.
4. When this came to his ears, Jesus said, The end of this disease is not death, but the glory of God, so that the Son of God may have glory because of it.
5. Now Jesus had love in his heart for Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
6. So when the news came to him that Lazarus was ill, he did not go from the place where he was for two days.
7. Then after that time he said to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again.
8. The disciples said to him, Master, the Jews were attempting only the other day to have you stoned, and are you going back there again?
9. Then Jesus said in answer, Are there not twelve hours in the day? A man may go about in the day without falling, because he sees the light of this world.
10. But if a man goes about in the night, he may have a fall because the light is not in him.
11. These things said he: and after that he said to them, Lazarus our friend is at rest; but I go so that I may make him come out of his sleep.
12. Then his disciples said to him, Lord, if he is resting he will get well.
13. Jesus, however, was talking of his death: but they had the idea that he was talking about taking rest in sleep.
14. Then Jesus said to them clearly, Lazarus is dead.
15. And because of you I am glad I was not there, so that you may have faith; but let us go to him.
16. Then Thomas, who was named Didymus, said to the other disciples, Let us go so that we may be with him in death.
17. Now when Jesus came, he made the discovery that Lazarus had been put into the earth four days before.
18. Now Bethany was near to Jerusalem, about two miles away;
19. And a number of Jews had come to Martha and Mary to give them comfort about their brother.
20. When Martha had the news that Jesus was on the way, she went out to him, but Mary did not go from the house.
21. Then Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here my brother would not be dead.
22. But I am certain that, even now, whatever request you make to God, God will give it to you.
23. Jesus said to her, Your brother will come to life again.
24. Martha said to him, I am certain that he will come to life again when all come back from the dead at the last day.
25. Jesus said to her, I am myself that day and that life; he who has faith in me will have life even if he is dead;
26. And no one who is living and has faith in me will ever see death. Is this your faith?
27. She said to him, Yes, Lord: my faith is that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.
28. And having said this, she went away and said secretly to her sister Mary, The Master is here and has sent for you.
29. And Mary, hearing this, got up quickly and went to him.
30. Now Jesus had not at this time come into the town, but was still in the place where Martha had seen him.
31. Then the Jews who were with her in the house, comforting her, when they saw Mary get up quickly and go out, went after her in the belief that she was going to the place of the dead and would be weeping there.
32. When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she went down at his feet, saying, Lord, if you had been here my brother would not be dead.
33. And when Jesus saw her weeping, and saw the Jews weeping who came with her, his spirit was moved and he was troubled,
34. And said, Where have you put him? They said, Come and see, Lord.
35. And Jesus himself was weeping.
36. So the Jews said, See how dear he was to him!
37. But some of them said, This man, who made open the eyes of the blind man, was he not able to keep his friend from death?
38. So Jesus, deeply troubled in heart, came to the place of the dead. It was a hole in the rock, and a stone was over the opening.
39. Jesus said, Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said, Lord, by this time the body will be smelling, for he has been dead four days.
40. Jesus said to her, Did I not say to you that if you had faith you would see the glory of God?
41. So they took away the stone. And Jesus, looking up to heaven, said, Father, I give praise to you for hearing me.
42. I was certain that your ears are at all times open to me, but I said it because of these who are here, so that they may see that you sent me.
43. Then he said in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out!
44. And he who was dead came out, with linen bands folded tightly about his hands and feet, and a cloth about his face. Jesus said to them, Make him free and let him go.
45. Then a number of the Jews who had come to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did had belief in him.
46. But some of them went to the Pharisees with the news of what Jesus had done.
47. Then the high priests and the Pharisees had a meeting and said, What are we doing? This man is doing a number of signs.
48. If we let him go on in this way, everybody will have belief in him and the Romans will come and take away our place and our nation.
49. But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, You have no knowledge of anything;
50. You do not see that it is in your interest for one man to be put to death for the people, so that all the nation may not come to destruction.
51. He did not say this of himself, but being the high priest that year he said, as a prophet, that Jesus would be put to death for the nation;
52. And not for that nation only, but for the purpose of uniting in one body the children of God all over the world.
53. And from that day they took thought together how to put him to death.
54. So Jesus no longer went about publicly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near to the waste land, to a town named Ephraim, where he was for some time with the disciples.
55. Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and numbers of people went up from the country to Jerusalem to make themselves clean before the Passover.
56. They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another while they were in the Temple, What is your opinion? Will he not come to the feast?
57. Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone had knowledge where he was, he was to give them word, so that they might take him.