Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Genesis 36 / Basic English

1. Now these are the generations of Esau, that is to say, Edom.
2. Esau's wives were women of Canaan: Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite,
3. And Basemath, Ishmael's daughter, the sister of Nebaioth.
4. Adah had a son Eliphaz; and Basemath was the mother of Reuel;
5. Oholibamah was the mother of Jeush, Jalam, and Korah; these are the sons of Esau, whose birth took place in the land of Canaan.
6. Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters, and all the people of his house, and his beasts and his cattle and all his goods which he had got together in the land of Canaan, and went into the land of Seir, away from his brother Jacob.
7. For their wealth was so great that the land was not wide enough for the two of them and all their cattle.
8. So Esau made his living-place in the hill-country of Seir (Esau is Edom).
9. And these are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites in the hill-country of Seir:
10. These are the names of Esau's sons: Eliphaz, the son of Esau's wife Adah, and Reuel, the son of Esau's wife Basemath.
11. The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz.
12. And Eliphaz, the son of Esau, had connection with a woman named Timna, who gave birth to Amalek: all these were the children of Esau's wife Adah.
13. And these are the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah: they were the children of Esau's wife Basemath.
14. And these are the sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon: she was the mother of Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.
15. These were the chiefs among the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz, Esau's first son: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz,
16. Korah, Gatam, Amalek: all these were chiefs in the land of Edom, the offspring of Eliphaz, the seed of Adah.
17. And these are the sons of Esau's son Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, Mizzah: these were the chiefs of Reuel in the land of Edom, the children of Esau's wife Basemath.
18. And these are the sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah: Jeush, Jalam, and Korah: these were the chiefs who came from Esau's wife Oholibamah, daughter of Anah.
19. These were the sons of Esau (that is, Edom), and these were their chiefs.
20. These are the sons of Seir the Horite who were living in that country; Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,
21. Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan: these are the chiefs of the Horites, offspring of Seir in the land of Edom.
22. The children of Lotan were Hori and Hemam; Lotan's sister was Timna.
23. And these are the children of Shobal: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.
24. And these are the children of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah; that same Anah who made the discovery of the water-springs in the waste land, when he was looking after the asses of his father Zibeon.
25. And these are the children of Anah: Dishon and Oholibamah his daughter.
26. These are the children of Dishon: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Keran.
27. These are the children of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.
28. These are the children of Dishan: Uz and Aran.
29. These were the Horite chiefs: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,
30. Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. Such were the Horite chiefs in their order in the land of Seir.
31. And these are the kings who were ruling in the land of Edom before there was any king over the children of Israel.
32. Bela, son of Beor, was king in Edom, and the name of his chief town was Dinhabah.
33. At his death, Jobab, son of Zerah of Bozrah, became king in his place.
34. And at the death of Jobab, Husham, from the country of the Temanites, became king in his place.
35. And at the death of Husham, Hadad, son of Bedad, who overcame the Midianites in the field of Moab, became king; his chief town was named Avith.
36. And at the death of Hadad, Samlah of Masrekah became king.
37. And at the death of Samlah, Shaul of Rehoboth by the River became king in his place.
38. And at the death of Shaul, Baal-hanan, son of Achbor, became king.
39. And at the death of Baal-hanan, Hadar became king in his place; his chief town was named Pau, and his wife's name was Mehetabel; she was the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-zahab.
40. These are the names of the chiefs of Esau in the order of their families and their places: Timna, Alvah, Jetheth,
41. Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon,
42. Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar,
43. Magdiel, Iram; these are the Edomite chiefs, in their places in their heritage; this is Esau, the father of the Edomites.

Matthew 21 / Basic English

1. And when they were near Jerusalem, and had come to Beth-phage, to the Mountain of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples,
2. Saying to them, Go into the little town in front of you, and straight away you will see an ass with a cord round her neck, and a young one with her; let them loose and come with them to me.
3. And if anyone says anything to you, you will say, The Lord has need of them; and straight away he will send them.
4. Now this took place so that these words of the prophet might come true,
5. Say to the daughter of Zion, See, your King comes to you, gentle and seated on an ass, and on a young ass.
6. And the disciples went and did as Jesus had given them orders,
7. And got the ass and the young one, and put their clothing on them, and he took his seat on it.
8. And all the people put their clothing down in the way; and others got branches from the trees, and put them down in the way.
9. And those who went before him, and those who came after, gave loud cries, saying, Glory to the Son of David: A blessing on him who comes in the name of the Lord: Glory in the highest.
10. And when he came into Jerusalem, all the town was moved, saying, Who is this?
11. And the people said, This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.
12. And Jesus went into the Temple and sent out all who were trading there, overturning the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those trading in doves.
13. And he said to them, It is in the Writings, My house is to be named a house of prayer, but you are making it a hole of thieves.
14. And the blind and the broken in body came to him in the Temple, and he made them well.
15. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the works of power which he did, and the children crying out in the Temple, Glory to the son of David, they were angry and said to him,
16. Have you any idea what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes: have you not seen in the Writings, From the lips of children and babies at the breast you have made your praise complete?
17. And he went away from them, and went out of the town to Bethany, and was there for the night.
18. Now in the morning when he was coming back to the town, he had a desire for food.
19. And seeing a fig-tree by the wayside, he came to it, and saw nothing on it but leaves only; and he said to it, Let there be no fruit from you from this time forward for ever. And straight away the fig-tree became dry and dead.
20. And when the disciples saw it they were surprised, saying, How did the fig-tree become dry in so short a time?
21. And Jesus in answer said to them, Truly I say to you, If you have faith, without doubting, not only may you do what has been done to the fig-tree, but even if you say to this mountain, Be taken up and put into the sea, it will be done.
22. And all things, whatever you make request for in prayer, having faith, you will get.
23. And when he had come into the Temple, the chief priests and those in authority over the people came to him while he was teaching, and said, By what authority do you do these things? and who gave you this authority?
24. And Jesus said to them in answer, I will put one question to you, and if you give me the answer, I will say by what authority I do these things.
25. The baptism of John, where did it come from? from heaven or from men? And they were reasoning among themselves, saying, If we say, From heaven; he will say to us, Why then did you not have faith in him?
26. But if we say, From men; we are in fear of the people, because all take John to be a prophet.
27. And they made answer and said, We have no idea. Then he said to them, And I will not say to you by what authority I do these things.
28. But how does it seem to you? A man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go and do work today in the vine-garden.
29. And he said in answer, I will not: but later, changing his decision, he went.
30. And he came to the second and said the same. And he made answer and said, I go, sir: and went not.
31. Which of the two did his father's pleasure? They say, The first. Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, that tax-farmers and loose women are going into the kingdom of God before you.
32. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you had no faith in him, but the tax-farmers and the loose women had faith in him: and you, when you saw it, did not even have regret for your sins, so as to have faith in him.
33. Give ear to another story. A master of a house made a vine garden, and put a wall round it, and made a place for crushing out the wine, and made a tower, and let it out to field-workers, and went into another country.
34. And when the time for the fruit came near, he sent his servants to the workmen, to get the fruit.
35. And the workmen made an attack on his servants, giving blows to one, putting another to death, and stoning another.
36. Again, he sent other servants more in number than the first: and they did the same to them.
37. But after that he sent his son to them, saying, They will have respect for my son.
38. But when the workmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is he who will one day be the owner of the property; come, let us put him to death and take his heritage.
39. And they took him and, driving him out of the vine-garden, put him to death.
40. When, then, the lord of the vine-garden comes, what will he do to those workmen?
41. They say to him, He will put those cruel men to a cruel death, and will let out the vine-garden to other workmen, who will give him the fruit when it is ready.
42. Jesus says to them, Did you never see in the Writings, The stone which the builders put on one side, the same has been made the chief stone of the building: this was the Lord's doing, and it is a wonder in our eyes?
43. For this reason I say to you, The kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and will be given to a nation producing the fruits of it.
44. Any man falling on this stone will be broken, but he on whom it comes down will be crushed to dust.
45. And when his stories came to the ears of the chief priests and the Pharisees, they saw that he was talking of them.
46. And though they had a desire to take him, they were in fear of the people, because in their eyes he was a prophet.