Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

2 Chronicles 1 / Basic English

1. And Solomon, the son of David, made himself strong in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him, and made him very great.
2. And Solomon sent word to all Israel, to the captains of thousands and of hundreds and to the judges and to every chief in all Israel, heads of their families.
3. Then Solomon, and all the men of Israel with him, went to the high place at Gibeon, because the Tent of meeting of God, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, had made in the waste land, was there.
4. But the ark of God had been moved by David from Kiriath-jearim to the place which he had made ready for it, for he had put up a tent for it at Jerusalem.
5. And the altar of brass which Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, was there before the Tent of the Lord; and Solomon and all the people went to give worship there.
6. And Solomon went up there to the brass altar before the Lord at the Tent of meeting, offering on it a thousand burned offerings.
7. In that night God came to Solomon in a vision, and said to him, Say what I am to give you.
8. And Solomon said to God, Great was your mercy to David my father, and you have made me king in his place.
9. Now, O Lord God, let your word to David my father come true; for you have made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in number.
10. Give me now wisdom and knowledge, so that I may go out and come in before this people: for who is able to be the judge of this great people of yours?
11. And God said to Solomon, Because this was in your heart, and you did not make request for money, property, or honour, or for the destruction of your haters, or for long life; but you have made request for wisdom and knowledge for yourself, so that you may be the judge of my people over whom I have made you king:
12. Wisdom and knowledge are given to you; and I will give you wealth and honour, such as no king has had before you or ever will have after you.
13. So Solomon went back from the high place at Gibeon, from before the Tent of meeting, to Jerusalem; and he was king over Israel.
14. And Solomon got together war-carriages and horsemen; he had one thousand, four hundred carriages and twelve thousand horsemen, which he kept, some in the carriage-towns and some with the king at Jerusalem.
15. And the king made silver and gold as common as stones in Jerusalem, and cedar like the sycamore-trees of the lowland in number.
16. And Solomon's horses came out of Egypt; the king's traders got them from Kue at a price.
17. 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.

2 Chronicles 2 / Basic English

1. Now it was Solomon's purpose to put up a house for the name of the Lord and a house for himself as king.
2. And Solomon had seventy thousand men numbered for transport, and eighty thousand for cutting stone in the mountains, and three thousand, six hundred as overseers.
3. And Solomon sent to Huram, king of Tyre, saying, As you did for my father David, sending him cedar-trees for the building of his house,
4. See! I am building a house for the name of the Lord my God, to be made holy to him, where perfumes of sweet spices will be burned before him, and the holy bread will be placed at all times, and burned offerings will be offered morning and evening, on the Sabbaths and at the new moons, and on the regular feasts of the Lord our God. This is a law for ever to Israel.
5. And the house which I am building is to be great, for our God is greater than all gods.
6. But who may have strength enough to make a house for him, seeing that the heaven and the heaven of heavens are not wide enough to be his resting-place? who am I then to make a house for him? But I am building it only for the burning of perfume before him.
7. So now send me an expert worker in gold and silver and brass and iron? in purple and red and blue, and in the cutting of all sorts of ornament, to be with the expert workmen who are here in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom my father David got together.
8. And send me cedar-trees, cypress-trees and sandal-wood from Lebanon, for, to my knowledge, your servants are expert wood-cutters in Lebanon; and my servants will be with yours,
9. To get trees for me in great numbers, for the house which I am building is to be great and a wonder.
10. And I will give as food to your servants, the wood-cutters, twenty thousand measures of grain, and twenty thousand measures of barley and twenty thousand measures of wine and twenty thousand measures of oil.
11. Then Huram, king of Tyre, sent Solomon an answer in writing, saying, Because of his love for his people the Lord has made you king over them.
12. And Huram said, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, maker of heaven and earth, who has given to David the king a wise son, full of wisdom and good sense, to be the builder of a house for the Lord and a house for himself as king.
13. And now I am sending you a wise and expert man, Huram who is as my father,
14. The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, whose father was a man of Tyre, an expert worker in gold and silver and brass and iron, in stone and wood, in purple and blue and fair linen and red, trained in the cutting of every sort of ornament and the invention of every sort of design; let him be given a place among your expert workmen and those of my lord, your father David.
15. So now let my lord send to his servants the grain and the oil and the wine as my lord has said;
16. And we will have wood cut from Lebanon, as much as you have need of, and will send it to you on flat boats by sea to Joppa, and from there you may take it up to Jerusalem.
17. Then Solomon took the number of all the men from strange lands who were living in Israel, as his father David had done; there were a hundred and fifty-three thousand, six hundred.
18. Seventy thousand he put to the work of transport, eighty thousand to cutting stone in the mountains, and three thousand, six hundred as overseers to put the people to work.

2 Chronicles 3 / Basic English

1. Then Solomon made a start at building the house of the Lord on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, where the Lord had been seen by his father David, in the place which David had made ready in the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
2. The building was started in the second month in the fourth year of his rule.
3. And Solomon put the base of the house of God in position; by the older measure it was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide.
4. And the covered way in front of the house was twenty cubits long, as wide as the house, and a hundred and twenty cubits high, all plated inside with the best gold.
5. And the greater house was roofed with cypress-wood, plated with the best gold and ornamented with designs of palm-trees and chains.
6. And the house was made beautiful with stones of great value, and the gold was gold of Parvaim.
7. All the house was plated with gold, the supports, the steps, the walls and the doors; and the walls were ornamented with designs of winged ones.
8. And he made the most holy place; it was twenty cubits long, and twenty cubits wide, like the greater house, and was plated all over with the best gold; six hundred talents were used for it.
9. And fifty shekels weight of gold was used for the nails. He had all the higher rooms plated with gold.
10. And in the most holy place he made images of two winged beings, covering them with gold.
11. Their outstretched wings were twenty cubits across; one wing, five cubits long, touching the wall of the house, and the other, of the same size, meeting the wing of the other winged one.
12. And in the same way, the wings of the other, five cubits long, were stretched out, one touching the wall and the other meeting the wing of the first winged one.
13. Their outstretched wings were twenty cubits across; they were placed upright on their feet, facing the inner part of the house.
14. And he made the veil of blue and purple and red, of the best linen, worked with winged ones.
15. And in front of the house he made two pillars, thirty-five cubits high, with crowns on the tops of them, five cubits high.
16. And he made chains, like neck ornaments, and put them on the tops of the pillars, and a hundred apples on the chains.
17. He put up the pillars in front of the Temple, one on the right side and one on the left, naming the one on the right Jachin and that on the left Boaz.

Proverbs 28 / Basic English

1. The evil man goes running away when no man is after him, but the upright are without fear, like the lion.
2. Because of the sin of the land, its troubles are increased; but by a man of wisdom and knowledge they will be put out like a fire.
3. A man of wealth who is cruel to the poor is like a violent rain causing destruction of food.
4. Those who have no respect for the law give praise to the evil-doer; but such as keep the law are against him.
5. Evil men have no knowledge of what is right; but those who go after the Lord have knowledge of all things.
6. Better is the poor man whose ways are upright, than the man of wealth whose ways are not straight.
7. He who keeps the law is a wise son, but he who keeps company with feasters puts shame on his father.
8. He who makes his wealth greater by taking interest, only gets it together for him who has pity on the poor.
9. As for the man whose ear is turned away from hearing the law, even his prayer is disgusting.
10. Anyone causing the upright to go wandering in an evil way, will himself go down into the hole he has made; but the upright will have good things for their heritage.
11. The man of wealth seems to himself to be wise, but the poor man who has sense has a low opinion of him.
12. When the upright do well, there is great glory; but when evil-doers are lifted up, men do not let themselves be seen.
13. He who keeps his sins secret will not do well; but one who is open about them, and gives them up, will get mercy.
14. Happy is the man in whom is the fear of the Lord at all times; but he whose heart is hard will come into trouble.
15. Like a loud-voiced lion and a wandering bear, is an evil ruler over a poor people.
16. The prince who has no sense is a cruel ruler; but he who has no desire to get profit for himself will have long life.
17. One who has been the cause of a man's death will go in flight to the underworld: let no man give him help.
18. He whose ways are upright will be safe, but sudden will be the fall of him whose ways are twisted.
19. By ploughing his land a man will have bread in full measure; but he who goes after good-for-nothing persons will be poor enough.
20. A man of good faith will have great blessing, but one attempting to get wealth quickly will not go free from punishment.
21. It is not good to have respect for a man's position: for a man will do wrong for a bit of bread.
22. He who is ever desiring wealth goes running after money, and does not see that need will come on him.
23. He who says words of protest to a man will later have more approval than one who says smooth words with his tongue.
24. He who takes from his father or his mother what is theirs by right, and says, It is no sin; is the same as a taker of life.
25. He who is ever desiring profit is a cause of fighting; but he who puts his faith in the Lord will be made fat.
26. He whose faith is in himself is foolish; but everyone walking wisely will be kept safe.
27. He who gives to the poor will never be in need, but great curses will be on him who gives no attention to them.
28. When evil-doers are lifted up, men take cover; but when destruction overtakes them, the upright are increased.