Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

2 Chronicles 7 / Basic English

1. Now when Solomon's prayers were ended, fire came down from heaven, burning up all the offerings; and the house was full of the glory of the Lord.
2. And the priests were not able to go into the house of the Lord, for the Lord's house was full of the glory of the Lord.
3. And all the children of Israel were looking on when the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord was on the house; and they went down on their knees, with their faces to the earth, worshipping and praising the Lord, and saying, He is good; for his mercy is unchanging for ever.
4. Then the king and all the people made offerings before the Lord.
5. King Solomon made an offering of twenty-two thousand oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people kept the feast of the opening of the house of God.
6. And the priests were in their places, and the Levites with their instruments of music for the Lord's song, which David the king had made for the praise of the Lord whose mercy is unchanging for ever, when David gave praise by their hand; and the priests were sounding horns before them; and all Israel were on their feet.
7. Then Solomon made holy the middle of the open square in front of the house of the Lord, offering the burned offerings there, and the fat of the peace-offerings; for there was not room on the brass altar which Solomon had made for all the burned offerings and the meal offerings and the fat.
8. So Solomon kept the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great meeting, for the people had come together from the way into Hamath and from as far as the river of Egypt.
9. And on the eighth day they had a holy meeting; the offerings for making the altar holy went on for seven days, and the feast for seven days.
10. And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month, he sent the people away to their tents, full of joy and glad in their hearts, because of all the good which the Lord had done to David and to Solomon and to Israel his people.
11. So Solomon came to the end of building the house of the Lord and the king's house; and everything which it was in his mind to make in the house of the Lord and for himself had been well done.
12. Now the Lord came to Solomon in a vision by night, and said to him, I have given ear to your prayer, and have taken this place for myself as a house where offerings are to be made.
13. If, at my word, heaven is shut up, so that there is no rain, or if I send locusts on the land for its destruction, or if I send disease on my people;
14. If my people, on whom my name is named, make themselves low and come to me in prayer, searching for me and turning from their evil ways; then I will give ear from heaven, overlooking their sin, and will give life again to their land.
15. Now my eyes will be open and my ears awake to the prayers made in this place.
16. For I have taken this house for myself and made it holy, so that my name may be there for ever; and my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.
17. And as for you, if you will go on your way before me as David your father did, doing whatever I have given you orders to do and keeping my laws and my decisions:
18. Then I will make strong the seat of your kingdom, as I gave my word to David your father, saying, You will never be without a man to be ruler in Israel.
19. But if you are turned away from me, and do not keep my orders and my laws which I have put before you, but go and make yourselves servants to other gods, giving them worship:
20. Then I will have this people uprooted out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, I will put away from before my eyes, and make it an example and a word of shame among all peoples.
21. And this house will become a mass of broken walls, and everyone who goes by will be overcome with wonder, and will say, Why has the Lord done so to this land and to this house?
22. And their answer will be, Because they were turned away from the Lord, the God of their fathers, who took them out of the land of Egypt, and took for themselves other gods and gave them worship and became their servants: that is why he has sent all this evil on them.

2 Chronicles 8 / Basic English

1. Now at the end of twenty years, in which time Solomon had put up the house of the Lord and a house for himself,
2. He took in hand the building up of the towns which Huram had given him, causing the children of Israel to make living-places for themselves there.
3. And Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and overcame it.
4. And he put up the buildings of Tadmor in the waste land, and of all the store-towns in Hamath;
5. And of Beth-horon the higher and the lower, walled towns with walls and doorways and locks;
6. And of Baalath, and all the store-towns which Solomon had, and the towns where he kept his war-carriages and his horse men, and everything which it was his pleasure to put up in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land under his rule.
7. As for all the rest of the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel:
8. Their men who were still living in the land, and whom the children of Israel had not put an end to, these Solomon put to forced work, as is done to this day;
9. But Solomon did not make use of the children of Israel as servants for his work; they were men of war, his chiefs and his captains, and captains of his war-carriages and his horsemen.
10. Now these were the chief men in authority whom King Solomon had: two hundred and fifty of them, in authority over the people.
11. Then Solomon made Pharaoh's daughter come up from the town of David to the house which he had made for her; for he said, I will not have my wife living in the house of David, king of Israel, because those places where the ark of the Lord has come are holy.
12. Then Solomon made burned offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord which he had put up in front of the covered way,
13. Offering every day what had been ordered by Moses, on the Sabbaths and at the new moon and at the regular feasts three times a year, that is at the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks, and the feast of tents.
14. And he gave the divisions of the priests their places for their work, as ordered by his father David, and to the Levites he gave their work of praise and waiting on the priests, to do what was needed day by day; and he gave the door-keepers their places in turn at every door; for so David, the man of God, had given orders.
15. All the orders given by the king to the priests and Levites, in connection with any business or stores, were done with care.
16. And all the work of Solomon was complete, from the day when he put the base of the Lord's house in position, till Solomon had come to the end of building the Lord's house.
17. Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Eloth by the sea in the land of Edom.
18. And Huram sent him, by his servants, ships and experienced seamen, who went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir and came back with four hundred and fifty talents of gold, which they took to King Solomon.

Proverbs 30 / Basic English

1. The words of Agur, the son of Jakeh, from Massa. The man says: I am full of weariness, O God, I am full of weariness; O God, I have come to an end:
2. For I am more like a beast than any man, I have no power of reasoning like a man:
3. I have not got wisdom by teaching, so that I might have the knowledge of the Holy One.
4. Who has gone up to heaven and come down? who has taken the winds in his hands, prisoning the waters in his robe? by whom have all the ends of the earth been fixed? what is his name, and what is his son's name, if you are able to say?
5. Every word of God is tested: he is a breastplate to those who put their faith in him.
6. Make no addition to his words, or he will make clear your error, and you will be seen to be false.
7. I have made request to you for two things; do not keep them from me before my death:
8. Put far from me all false and foolish things: do not give me great wealth or let me be in need, but give me only enough food:
9. For fear that if I am full, I may be false to you and say, Who is the Lord? or if I am poor, I may become a thief, using the name of my God wrongly.
10. Do not say evil of a servant to his master, or he will put a curse on you, and you will get into trouble.
11. There is a generation who put a curse on their father, and do not give a blessing to their mother.
12. There is a generation who seem to themselves to be free from sin, but are not washed from their unclean ways.
13. There is a generation, O how full of pride are their eyes! O how their brows are lifted up!
14. There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, their strong teeth like knives, for the destruction of the poor from the earth, and of those who are in need from among men.
15. The night-spirit has two daughters, Give, give. There are three things which are never full, even four which never say, Enough:
16. The underworld, and the woman without a child; the earth which never has enough water, and the fire which never says, Enough.
17. The eye which makes sport of a father, and sees no value in a mother when she is old will be rooted out by the ravens of the valley, and be food for the young eagles.
18. There are three things, the wonder of which overcomes me, even four things outside my knowledge:
19. The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a snake on a rock; the way of a ship in the heart of the sea; and the way of a man with a girl.
20. This is the way of a false wife; she takes food, and, cleaning her mouth, says, I have done no wrong.
21. For three things the earth is moved, and there are four which it will not put up with:
22. A servant when he becomes a king; a man without sense when his wealth is increased;
23. A hated woman when she is married; and a servant-girl who takes the place of her master's wife.
24. There are four things which are little on the earth, but they are very wise:
25. The ants are a people not strong, but they put by a store of food in the summer;
26. The conies are only a feeble people, but they make their houses in the rocks;
27. The locusts have no king, but they all go out in bands;
28. You may take the lizard in your hands, but it is in kings' houses.
29. There are three things whose steps are good to see, even four whose goings are fair:
30. The lion, which is strongest among beasts, not turning from his way for any;
31. The war-horse, and the he-goat, and the king when his army is with him.
32. If you have done foolishly in lifting yourself up, or if you have had evil designs, put your hand over your mouth.
33. The shaking of milk makes butter, and the twisting of the nose makes blood come: so the forcing of wrath is a cause of fighting.