Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

2 Chronicles 16 / Basic English

1. In the thirty-sixth year of the rule of Asa, Baasha, king of Israel, went up against Judah, building Ramah so that no one was able to go out or in to Asa, king of Judah.
2. Then Asa took silver and gold out of the stores of the Lord's house and of the king's store-house, and sent to Ben-hadad, king of Aram, at Damascus, saying,
3. Let there be an agreement between me and you as there was between my father and your father: see, I have sent you silver and gold; go and put an end to your agreement with Baasha, king of Israel, so that he may give up attacking me.
4. And Ben-hadad did as King Asa said, and sent the captains of his armies against the towns of Israel, attacking Ijon and Dan and Abel-maim, and all the store-towns of Naphtali.
5. Then Baasha, hearing of it, put a stop to the building of Ramah, and let his work come to an end.
6. Then King Asa, with all Judah, took away the stones and wood with which Baasha was building Ramah, and he made use of them for building Geba and Mizpah.
7. At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa, king of Judah, and said to him, Because you have put your faith in the king of Aram and not in the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has got away out of your hands.
8. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim a very great army, with war-carriages and horsemen more than might be numbered? but because your faith was in the Lord, he gave them up into your hands.
9. For the eyes of the Lord go this way and that, through all the earth, letting it be seen that he is the strong support of those whose hearts are true to him. In this you have done foolishly, for from now you will have wars.
10. Then Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in prison, burning with wrath against him because of this thing. And at the same time Asa was cruel to some of the people.
11. Now the acts of Asa, first and last, are recorded in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
12. In the thirty-ninth year of his rule, Asa had a very bad disease of the feet; but he did not go to the Lord for help in his disease, but to medical men.
13. So Asa went to rest with his fathers, and death came to him in the forty-first year of his rule.
14. And they put him into the resting-place which he had made for himself in the town of David, in a bed full of sweet perfumes of all sorts of spices, made by the perfumer's art, and they made a great burning for him.

2 Chronicles 17 / Basic English

1. And Jehoshaphat his son became king in his place, and made himself strong against Israel.
2. He put forces in all the walled towns of Judah, and responsible chiefs in the land of Judah and in the towns of Ephraim, which Asa his father had taken.
3. And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he went in the early ways of his father, not turning to the Baals,
4. But turning to the God of his father and keeping his laws, and not doing as Israel did.
5. So the Lord made his kingdom strong; and all Judah gave offerings to Jehoshaphat, and he had great wealth and honour.
6. His heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord; and he went so far as to take away the high places and the wood pillars out of Judah.
7. In the third year of his rule he sent Benhail and Obadiah and Zechariah and Nethanel and Micaiah, his captains, as teachers into the towns of Judah;
8. And with them, Shemaiah and Nethaniah and Zebadiah and Asahel and Shemiramoth and Jehonathan and Adonijah and Tobijah and Tob-adonijah, the Levites; and Elishama and Jehoram the priests.
9. And they gave teaching in Judah and had the book of the law of the Lord with them; they went through all the towns of Judah teaching the people.
10. And the fear of the Lord was on all the kingdoms of the lands round Judah, so that they made no wars against Jehoshaphat.
11. And some of the Philistines took offerings to Jehoshaphat, and made him payments of silver; and the Arabians gave him flocks, seven thousand, seven hundred sheep, and seven thousand, seven hundred he-goats.
12. Jehoshaphat became greater and greater, and made strong towers and store-towns in Judah.
13. He had much property in the towns of Judah; he had forces of armed men, great and strong, in Jerusalem.
14. This is the number of them, listed by their families, the captains of thousands of Judah: Adnah, the captain, and with him three hundred thousand men of war;
15. Second to him Jehohanan, the captain, and with him two hundred and eighty thousand;
16. After him Amasiah, the son of Zichri, who freely gave himself to the Lord, and with him two hundred thousand men of war;
17. And the captains of Benjamin: Eliada, a great man of war, and with him two hundred thousand armed with bows and body-covers;
18. And after him Jehozabad, and with him a hundred and eighty thousand trained for war.
19. These were the men who were waiting on the king, in addition to those placed by the king in the walled towns through all Judah.

2 Chronicles 18 / Basic English

1. Now Jehoshaphat had great wealth and honour, and his son was married to Ahab's daughter.
2. And after some years he went down to Samaria to see Ahab. And Ahab made a feast for him and the people who were with him, putting to death great numbers of sheep and oxen; and he got Jehoshaphat to go with him to Ramoth-gilead.
3. For Ahab, king of Israel, said to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, Will you go with me to Ramoth-gilead? And he said, I am as you are, and my people as your people; we will be with you in the war.
4. Then Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Let us now get directions from the Lord.
5. So the king of Israel got together all the prophets, four hundred men, and said to them, Am I to go to Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And they said, Go up: for God will give it into the hands of the king.
6. But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no other prophet of the Lord here from whom we may get directions?
7. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is still one man by whom we may get directions from the Lord, but I have no love for him, because he has never been a prophet of good to me, but only of evil: he is Micaiah, the son of Imla. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.
8. Then the king of Israel sent for one of his unsexed servants and said, Go quickly and come back with Micaiah, the son of Imla.
9. Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, were seated on their seats of authority, dressed in their robes, by the doorway into Samaria; and all the prophets were acting as prophets before them.
10. And Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, made himself iron horns and said, The Lord says, Pushing back the Aramaeans with these, you will put an end to them completely.
11. And all the prophets said the same thing, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and it will go well for you, for the Lord will give it into the hands of the king.
12. Now the servant who had gone to get Micaiah said to him, See now, all the prophets with one voice are saying good things to the king; so let your words be like theirs, and say good things.
13. And Micaiah said, By the living Lord, whatever the Lord says to me I will say.
14. When he came to the king, the king said to him, Micaiah, are we to go to Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And he said, Go up, and it will go well for you; and they will be given up into your hands.
15. And the king said to him, Have I not, again and again, put you on your oath to say nothing to me but what is true in the name of the Lord?
16. Then he said, I saw all Israel wandering on the mountains like sheep without a keeper; and the Lord said, These have no master: let them go back, every man to his house in peace.
17. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not say that he would not be a prophet of good to me, but of evil?
18. Then he said, Give ear now to the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord seated on his seat of power, and all the army of heaven in their places, at his right hand and at his left.
19. And the Lord said, How may Ahab, king of Israel, be tricked into going up to Ramoth-gilead to his death? And one said one thing and one another.
20. Then a spirit came forward and took his place before the Lord and said, I will get him to do it by a trick. And the Lord said to him, How?
21. And he said, I will go out and be a spirit of deceit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said, Your trick will have its effect on him: go out and do so.
22. And now, see, the Lord has put a spirit of deceit in the mouth of these prophets of yours; and the Lord has said evil against you.
23. Then Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, came near and gave Micaiah a blow on the side of his face, saying, Where is the spirit of the Lord whose word is in you?
24. And Micaiah said, Truly, you will see on that day when you go into an inner room to keep yourself safe.
25. And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon, the ruler of the town, and to Joash, the king's son;
26. And say, By the king's order this man is to be put in prison, and given prison food till I come back in peace.
27. And Micaiah said, If you come back at all in peace, the Lord has not sent his word by me.
28. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up to Ramoth-gilead.
29. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will make a change in my clothing, so that I do not seem to be the king, and will go into the fight; but do you put on your robes. So the king of Israel made a change in his dress, and they went to the fight.
30. Now the king of Aram had given orders to the captains of his war-carriages, saying, Make no attack on small or great, but only on the king of Israel.
31. So when the captains of the war-carriages saw Jehoshaphat, they said, It is the king of Israel. And turning about, they came round him, but Jehoshaphat gave a cry, and the Lord came to his help, and God sent them away from him.
32. Now when the captains of the war-carriages saw that he was not the king of Israel, they went back from going after him.
33. And a certain man sent an arrow from his bow without thought of its direction, and gave the king of Israel a wound where his breastplate was joined to his clothing; so he said to the driver of his war-carriage, Go to one side and take me away out of the army, for I am badly wounded.
34. But the fight became more violent while the day went on; and the king of Israel was supported in his war-carriage facing the Aramaeans till the evening; and by sundown he was dead.

Acts 3 / Basic English

1. Now Peter and John were going up to the Temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer;
2. And a certain man who from birth had had no power in his legs, was taken there every day, and put down at the door of the Temple which is named Beautiful, requesting money from those who went into the Temple;
3. He then, seeing Peter and John going into the Temple, made a request to them.
4. And Peter, looking at him, with John, said, Keep your eyes on us.
5. And he gave attention to them, hoping to get something from them.
6. But Peter said, I have no silver or gold, but what I have, that I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up on your feet.
7. And he took him by his right hand, lifting him up; and straight away his feet and the bones of his legs became strong,
8. And, jumping up, he got on to his feet and went into the Temple with them, walking and jumping and giving praise to God.
9. And all the people saw him walking and praising God:
10. And they saw that it was the man who made requests for money at the door of the Temple, and they were full of wonder and surprise at what had taken place.
11. And while he kept his hands on Peter and John, all the people came running together to the covered way which is named Solomon's, full of wonder.
12. And when Peter saw it he said to the people, You men of Israel, why are you so greatly surprised at this man? or why are you looking at us as if by our power or virtue we had given him the use of his legs?
13. The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has given glory to his servant Jesus; whom you gave up, turning your backs on him, when Pilate had made the decision to let him go free.
14. But you would have nothing to do with the Holy and Upright One, and made request for a man of blood to be given to you,
15. And put to death the Lord of life; whom God gave back from the dead; of which fact we are witnesses.
16. And his name, through faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and have knowledge of: yes, the faith which is through him has made him well, before you all.
17. And now, my brothers, I am conscious that you did this, as did your rulers, without knowledge.
18. But the things which God had made clear before, by the mouth of all the prophets, that the Christ would have to undergo, he has put into effect in this way.
19. So then, let your hearts be changed and be turned to God, so that your sins may be completely taken away, and times of blessing may come from the Lord;
20. And that he may send the Christ who was marked out for you from the first, even Jesus:
21. Who is to be kept in heaven till the time when all things are put right, of which God has given word by the mouth of his holy prophets, who have been from the earliest times.
22. For Moses said, The Lord will give you a prophet from among your people, like me; you will give ear to everything which he will say to you.
23. And every soul who does not give attention to that prophet, will be cut off from among the people.
24. And all the prophets from Samuel and those who came after, every one of them, gave word of these days.
25. You are the sons of the prophets, and of the agreement which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, Through your seed a blessing will come on all the families of the earth.
26. To you, first, God sent his servant, blessing you by turning every one of you from his sins.