Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

2 Chronicles 29 / Basic English

1. Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old; and he was king in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; and his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.
2. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done.
3. In the first year of his rule, in the first month, opening the doors of the Lord's house, he made them strong.
4. And he sent for the priests and the Levites, and got them together in the wide place on the east side,
5. And said to them, Give ear to me, O Levites: now make yourselves holy, and make holy the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and take away everything unclean from the holy place.
6. For our fathers have done evil, sinning in the eyes of the Lord our God, and have given him up, turning away their faces from the house of the Lord, and turning their backs on him.
7. The doors of his house have been shut and the lights put out; no perfumes have been burned or offerings made to the God of Israel in his holy place.
8. And so the wrath of the Lord has come on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has given them up to be a cause of fear and wonder and shame, as your eyes have seen.
9. For see, our fathers have been put to death with the sword, and our sons and daughters and wives have been taken away prisoners because of this.
10. Now it is my purpose to make an agreement with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that the heat of his wrath may be turned away from us.
11. My sons, take care now: for you have been marked out by the Lord to come before him and to be his servants, burning offerings to him.
12. Then the Levites took their places; Mahath, the son of Amasai, and Joel, the son of Azariah, among the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish, the son of Abdi, and Azariah, the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah, the son of Zimmah, and Eden, the son of Joah;
13. And of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah;
14. And of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel.
15. And they got their brothers together and made themselves holy, and went in, as the king had said by the word of the Lord, to make the house of the Lord clean.
16. And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to make it clean, and everything unclean which was to be seen in the Temple of the Lord they took out into the outer square of the Lord's house, and the Levites got it together and took it away to the stream Kidron.
17. On the first day of the first month the work of making the house holy was started, and on the eighth day they came to the covered way of the Lord; in eight days they made the Lord's house holy, and on the sixteenth day of the first month the work was done.
18. Then they went in to King Hezekiah and said, We have made all the house of the Lord clean, as well as the altar of burned offerings with all its vessels, and the table for the holy bread, with all its vessels.
19. And all the vessels which were turned out by King Ahaz in his sin while he was king, we have put in order and made holy, and now they are in their places before the altar of the Lord.
20. Then Hezekiah the king got up early, and got together the great men of the town, and went up to the house of the Lord.
21. And they took with them seven oxen and seven male sheep and seven lambs and seven he-goats as a sin-offering for the kingdom and for the holy house and for Judah. And he gave orders to the sons of Aaron, the priests, that these were to be offered on the altar of the Lord.
22. So they put the oxen to death and their blood was given to the priests to be drained out against the altar; then they put the male sheep to death, draining out their blood against the altar, and they put the lambs to death, draining out their blood against the altar.
23. Then they took the he-goats for the sin-offering, placing them before the king and the meeting of the people, and they put their hands on them:
24. And the priests put them to death, and made a sin-offering with their blood on the altar, to take away the sin of all Israel: for the king gave orders that the burned offering and the sin-offering were for all Israel.
25. Then he put the Levites in their places in the house of the Lord, with brass and corded instruments of music as ordered by David and Gad, the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet: for the order was the Lord's, given by his prophets.
26. So the Levites took their places with David's instruments, and the priests with their horns.
27. And Hezekiah gave the word for the burned offering to be offered on the altar. And when the burned offering was started, then the song of the Lord was started, with the blowing of horns and with all the instruments of David, king of Israel.
28. And all the people gave worship, to the sound of songs and the blowing of horns; and this went on till the burned offering was ended.
29. And at the end of the offering, the king and all who were present with him gave worship with bent heads.
30. Then King Hezekiah and the captains gave orders to the Levites to give praise to God in the words of David and Asaph the seer. And they made songs of praise with joy, and with bent heads gave worship.
31. Then Hezekiah made answer and said, Now that you have given yourselves to the Lord, come near and take offerings and praise-offerings into the house of the Lord. So all the people took in offerings and praise-offerings: and those whose hearts were moved, took in burned offerings.
32. The number of burned offerings which the people took in was seventy oxen, a hundred male sheep, and two hundred lambs: all these were for burned offerings to the Lord.
33. And the holy things were six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep.
34. There were not enough priests for the work of cutting up all the burned offerings; so their brothers the Levites gave them help till the work was done and the priests had made themselves holy: for the Levites were more upright in heart to make themselves holy than the priests.
35. And there was a great amount of burned offerings, with the fat of the peace-offerings and the drink offerings for every burned offering. So the work of the Lord's house was put in order.
36. And Hezekiah and all the people were full of joy, because God had made the people ready: for the thing was done suddenly.

2 Chronicles 30 / Basic English

1. Then Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah, and sent letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, requesting them to come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel.
2. For the king, after discussion with his chiefs and all the body of the people in Jerusalem, had made a decision to keep the Passover in the second month.
3. It was not possible to keep it at that time, because not enough priests had made themselves holy, and the people had not come together in Jerusalem.
4. And the thing was right in the eyes of the king and all the people.
5. So it was ordered that word was to be sent out through all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, that they were to come to keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem: because they had not kept it in great numbers in agreement with the law.
6. So runners went with letters from the king and his chiefs through all Israel and Judah, by the order of the king, saying, O children of Israel, come back again to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that he may come again to that small band of you which has been kept safe out of the hands of the kings of Assyria.
7. Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were sinners against the Lord, the God of their fathers, so that he made them a cause of fear, as you see.
8. Now do not be hard-hearted, as your fathers were; but give yourselves to the Lord, and come into his holy place, which he has made his for ever, and be the servants of the Lord your God, so that the heat of his wrath may be turned away from you.
9. For if you come back to the Lord, those who took away your brothers and your children will have pity on them, and let them come back to this land: for the Lord your God is full of grace and mercy, and his face will not be turned away from you if you come back to him.
10. So the runners went from town to town through all the country of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun: but they were laughed at and made sport of.
11. However, some of Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun put away their pride and came to Jerusalem.
12. And in Judah the power of God gave them one heart to do the orders of the king and the captains, which were taken as the word of the Lord.
13. So a very great number of people came together at Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month.
14. And they got to work and took away all the altars in Jerusalem, and they put all the vessels for burning perfumes into the stream Kidron.
15. Then on the fourteenth day of the second month they put the Passover lambs to death: and the priests and the Levites were shamed, and made themselves holy and took burned offerings into the house of the Lord.
16. And they took their places in their right order, as it was ordered in the law of Moses, the man of God: the priests draining out on the altar the blood given them by the Levites.
17. For there were still a number of the people there who had not made themselves holy: so the Levites had to put Passover lambs to death for those who were not clean, to make them holy to the Lord.
18. For a great number of the people from Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not made themselves clean, but they took the Passover meal, though not in the right way. For Hezekiah had made prayer for them, saying, May the good Lord have mercy on everyone
19. Who, with all his heart, is turned to God the Lord, the God of his fathers, even if he has not been made clean after the rules of the holy place.
20. And the Lord gave ear to Hezekiah, and made the people well.
21. So the children of Israel who were present in Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread for seven days with great joy: and the Levites and the priests gave praise to the Lord day by day, making melody to the Lord with loud instruments.
22. And Hezekiah said kind words to the Levites who were expert in the ordering of the worship of the Lord: so they kept the feast for seven days, offering peace-offerings and praising the Lord, the God of their fathers.
23. And by the desire of all the people, the feast went on for another seven days, and they kept the seven days with joy.
24. For Hezekiah, king of Judah, gave to the people for offerings, a thousand oxen and seven thousand sheep; and the rulers gave a thousand oxen and ten thousand sheep; and a great number of priests made themselves holy.
25. And all the people of Judah, with the priests and the Levites, and those who had come from Israel, and men from other lands who had come from Israel or who were living in Judah, were glad with great joy.
26. So there was great joy in Jerusalem: for nothing like this had been seen in Jerusalem from the time of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel.
27. Then the priests and the Levites gave the people a blessing: and the voice of their prayer went up to the holy place of God in heaven.

Acts 8 / Basic English

1. And Saul gave approval to his death. Now at that time a violent attack was started against the church in Jerusalem; and all but the Apostles went away into all parts of Judaea and Samaria.
2. And God-fearing men put Stephen's body in its last resting-place, making great weeping over him.
3. But Saul was burning with hate against the church, going into every house and taking men and women and putting them in prison.
4. But those who had gone in flight went everywhere preaching the word.
5. And Philip went down to Samaria and was teaching them about Christ.
6. And all the people gave attention to the words which Philip said, when they saw the signs which he did.
7. For unclean spirits came out from those who had them, crying with a loud voice; and a number of those who were ill and broken in body were made well.
8. And there was much joy in that town.
9. But there was a certain man named Simon, who in the past had been a wonder-worker and a cause of surprise to the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was a great man:
10. To whom they all gave attention, from the smallest to the greatest, saying, This man is that power of God which is named Great.
11. And they gave attention to him, because for a long time his wonder-working powers had kept them under his control.
12. But when they had faith in the good news given by Philip about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, a number of men and women had baptism.
13. And Simon himself had faith and, having had baptism, he went with Philip and, seeing the signs and the great wonders which he did, he was full of surprise.
14. Now when the Apostles at Jerusalem had news that the people of Samaria had taken the word of God into their hearts, they sent to them Peter and John;
15. Who, when they came there, made prayer for them, that the Holy Spirit might be given to them:
16. For up to that time he had not come on any of them; only baptism had been given to them in the name of the Lord Jesus.
17. Then they put their hands on them, and the Holy Spirit came on them.
18. Now when Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the touch of the Apostles' hands, he made them an offering of money, saying,
19. Give me this power, so that when I put my hands on anyone he may get the Holy Spirit.
20. But Peter said, May your money come to destruction with you, because you had the idea that what is freely given by God may be got for a price.
21. You have no part in this business, because your heart is not right before God.
22. Let your heart be changed, and make prayer to God that you may have forgiveness for your evil thoughts.
23. For I see that you are prisoned in bitter envy and the chains of sin.
24. And Simon, answering, said, Make prayer for me to the Lord, so that these things which you have said may not come on me.
25. So they, having given their witness and made clear the word of the Lord, went back to Jerusalem, giving the good news on their way in a number of the small towns of Samaria.
26. But an angel of the Lord said to Philip, Get up, and go to the south, to the road which goes from Jerusalem to Gaza, through the waste land.
27. And he went and there was a man of Ethiopia, a servant of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, and controller of all her property, who had come up to Jerusalem for worship;
28. He was going back, seated in his carriage, and was reading the book of the prophet Isaiah.
29. And the Spirit said to Philip, Go near, and get on his carriage.
30. And Philip, running up to him, saw that he was reading Isaiah the prophet, and said to him, Is the sense of what you are reading clear to you?
31. And he said, How is that possible when I have no guide? And he made Philip get up by his side.
32. Now the place in the book where he was reading was this: He was taken, like a sheep, to be put to death; and as a lamb is quiet when its wool is being cut, so he made no sound:
33. Being of low degree, his cause was not given a hearing: who has knowledge of his family? for his life is cut off from the earth.
34. And the Ethiopian said to Philip, About whom are these words said by the prophet? about himself, or some other?
35. So Philip, starting from this writing, gave him the good news about Jesus.
36. And while they were going on their way, they came to some water, and the Ethiopian said, See, here is water; why may I not have baptism?
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38. And he gave orders for the carriage to be stopped, and the two of them went down into the water, and Philip gave him baptism.
39. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord took Philip away; and the Ethiopian saw him no more, for he went on his way full of joy.
40. But Philip came to Azotus, and went through all the towns, preaching the good news, till he came to Caesarea.