Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

2 Chronicles 11 / Basic English

1. And Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, and got together the men of Judah and Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand of his best fighting-men, to make war against Israel and get the kingdom back for Rehoboam.
2. But the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, the man of God, saying,
3. Say to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin,
4. The Lord has said, You are not to go to war against your brothers: let every man go back to his house, for this thing is my purpose. So they gave ear to the words of the Lord and were turned back from fighting against Jeroboam.
5. Now Rehoboam kept in Jerusalem, building walled towns in Judah.
6. He was the builder of Beth-lehem and Etam and Tekoa
7. And Beth-zur and Soco and Adullam
8. And Gath and Mareshah and Ziph
9. And Adoraim and Lachish and Azekah
10. And Zorah and Aijalon and Hebron, walled towns in Judah and Benjamin.
11. And he made the walled towns strong, and he put captains in them and stores of food, oil, and wine.
12. And in every town he put stores of body-covers and spears, and made them very strong. And Judah and Benjamin were his.
13. And the priests and Levites who were in all Israel came together to him from every part of their country.
14. For the Levites gave up their living-places and their property, and came to Judah and Jerusalem; for Jeroboam and his sons had sent them away, not letting them be priests to the Lord;
15. And he himself made priests for the high places, and for the images of he-goats and oxen which he had made.
16. And after them, from all the tribes of Israel, all those whose hearts were fixed and true to the Lord, the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to make offerings to the Lord, the God of their fathers.
17. So they went on increasing the power of the kingdom of Judah, and made Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, strong for three years; and for three years they went in the ways of David and Solomon.
18. And Rehoboam took as his wife Mahalath, the daughter of Jerimoth, the son of David and of Abihail, the daughter of Eliab, the son of Jesse;
19. And she had sons by him, Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.
20. And after her he took Maacah, the daughter of Absalom; and she had Abijah and Attai and Ziza and Shelomith by him.
21. Maacah, the daughter of Absalom, was dearer to Rehoboam than all his wives and his servant-wives: (for he had eighteen wives and sixty servant-wives, and was the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.)
22. Rehoboam made Abijah, the son of Maacah, chief and ruler among his brothers, for it was his purpose to make him king.
23. And in his wisdom he had his sons stationed in every walled town through all the lands of Judah and Benjamin; and he gave them a great store of food, and took wives for them.

2 Chronicles 12 / Basic English

1. Now when Rehoboam's position as king had been made certain, and he was strong, he gave up the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him.
2. Now in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem, because of their sin against the Lord,
3. With twelve hundred war-carriages and sixty thousand horsemen: and the people who came with him out of Egypt were more than might be numbered: Lubim and Sukkiim and Ethiopians.
4. And he took the walled towns of Judah, and came as far as Jerusalem.
5. Now Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the chiefs of Judah, who had come together in Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, The Lord has said, Because you have given me up, I have given you up into the hands of Shishak.
6. Then the chiefs of Israel and the king made themselves low and said, The Lord is upright.
7. And the Lord, seeing that they had made themselves low, said to Shemaiah, They have made themselves low: I will not send destruction on them, but in a short time I will give them salvation, and will not let loose my wrath on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.
8. But still they will become his servants, so that they may see how different my yoke is from the yoke of the kingdoms of the lands.
9. So Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem and took away all the stored wealth of the house of the Lord and the king's house: he took everything away, and with the rest the gold body-covers which Solomon had made.
10. And in their place King Rehoboam had other body-covers made of brass and gave them into the care of the captains of the armed men who were stationed at the door of the king's house.
11. And whenever the king went into the house of the Lord, the armed men went with him taking the body-covers, and then took them back to their room.
12. And when he made himself low, the wrath of the Lord was turned back from him, and complete destruction did not come on him, for there was still some good in Judah.
13. So King Rehoboam made himself strong in Jerusalem and was ruling there. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he was ruling for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the town which the Lord had made his out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there; and his mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonite woman.
14. And he did evil because his heart was not true to the Lord.
15. Now the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are they not recorded in the words of Shemaiah the prophet and Iddo the seer? And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days.
16. And Rehoboam went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth in the town of David; and Abijah his son became king in his place.

Acts 1 / Basic English

1. I have given an earlier account, O Theophilus, of all the things which Jesus did, and of his teaching from the first,
2. Till the day when he was taken up to heaven after he had given his orders, through the Holy Spirit, to the Apostles of whom he had made selection:
3. And to whom he gave clear and certain signs that he was living, after his death; for he was seen by them for forty days, and gave them teaching about the kingdom of God:
4. And when they were all together, with him, he gave them orders not to go away from Jerusalem, but to keep there, waiting till the word of the Father was put into effect, of which, he said, I have given you knowledge:
5. For the baptism of John was with water, but you will have baptism with the Holy Spirit, after a little time.
6. So, when they were together, they said to him, Lord, will you at this time give back the kingdom to Israel?
7. And he said to them, It is not for you to have knowledge of the time and the order of events which the Father has kept in his control.
8. But you will have power, when the Holy Spirit has come on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judaea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
9. And when he had said these things, while they were looking, he was taken up, and went from their view into a cloud.
10. And while they were looking up to heaven with great attention, two men came to them, in white clothing,
11. And said, O men of Galilee, why are you looking up into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken from you into heaven, will come again, in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.
12. Then they went back to Jerusalem from the mountain named Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away.
13. And when they came in, they went up into the room where they were living; Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas, the son of James.
14. And they all with one mind gave themselves up to prayer, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
15. And in those days Peter got up among the brothers (there were about one hundred and twenty of them), and said,
16. My brothers, the word of God had to be put into effect, which the Holy Spirit had said before, by the mouth of David, about Judas, who was guide to those who took Jesus,
17. For he was numbered among us, and had his part in our work.
18. (Now this man, with the reward of his evil-doing, got for himself a field, and falling head first, came to a sudden and violent end there.
19. And this came to the knowledge of all those who were living in Jerusalem, so that the field was named in their language, Akel-dama, or, The field of blood.)
20. For in the book of Psalms it says, Let his house be waste, and let no man be living in it: and, Let his position be taken by another.
21. For this reason, of the men who have been with us all the time, while the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
22. Starting from the baptism of John till he went up from us, one will have to be a witness with us of his coming back from death.
23. And they made selection of two, Joseph, named Barsabbas, whose other name was Justus, and Matthias.
24. And they made prayers and said, Lord, having knowledge of the hearts of all men, make clear which of these two has been marked out by you,
25. To take that position as a servant and Apostle, from which Judas by his sin was shut out, so that he might go to his place.
26. And they put it to the decision of chance, and the decision was given for Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven Apostles.