Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Ezra 8 / Basic English

1. Now these are the heads of families who were listed of those who went up with me from Babylon, when Artaxerxes was king.
2. Of the sons of Phinehas, Gershom; of the sons of Ithamar, Daniel; of the sons of David, Hattush;
3. Of the sons of Shecaniah; of the sons of Parosh, Zechariah; and with him were listed a hundred and fifty males.
4. Of the sons of Pahath-moab, Eliehoenai, the son of Zerahiah; and with him two hundred males.
5. Of the sons of Shecaniah, the son of Jahaziel; and with him three hundred males.
6. And of the sons of Adin, Ebed, the son of Jonathan; and with him fifty males.
7. And of the sons of Elam, Jeshaiah; the son of Athaliah; and with him seventy males.
8. And of the sons of Shephatiah, Zebadiah, the son of Michael; and with him eighty males.
9. Of the sons of Joab, Obadiah, the son of Jehiel; and with him two hundred and eighteen males.
10. And of the sons of Shelomith, the son of Josiphiah; and with him a hundred and sixty males.
11. And of the sons of Bebai, Zechariah, the son of Bebai; and with him twenty-eight males.
12. And of the sons of Azgad, Johanan, the son of Hakkatan; and with him a hundred and ten males.
13. And of the sons of Adonikam, the last, whose names were Eliphelet, Jeuel, and Shemaiah; and with them sixty males.
14. And of the sons of Bigvai, Uthai and Zabbud; and with them seventy males.
15. And I made them come together by the river flowing to Ahava; and we were there in tents for three days: and after viewing the people and the priests I saw that no sons of Levi were there.
16. Then I sent for Eliezer and Ariel and Shemaiah and Elnathan Jarib and Elnathan and Nathan and Zechariah and Meshullam, all responsible men; and for Joiarib and Elnathan, who were wise men.
17. And I sent them to Iddo the chief at the place Casiphia, and gave them orders what to say to Iddo and his brothers the Nethinim at the place Casiphia, so that they might come back to us with men to do the work of the house of our God.
18. And by the help of our God they got for us Ish-sechel, one of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel; and Sherebiah with his sons and brothers, eighteen;
19. And Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brothers and their sons, twenty;
20. And of the Nethinim, to whom David and the captains had given the work of helping the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinim, all of them specially named.
21. Then I gave orders for a time of going without food, there by the river Ahava, so that we might make ourselves low before our God in prayer, requesting from him a straight way for us and for our little ones and for all our substance.
22. For I would not, for shame, make request to the king for a band of armed men and horsemen to give us help against those who might make attacks on us on the way: for we had said to the king, The hand of our God is on his servants for good, but his power and his wrath are against all those who are turned away from him.
23. So we went without food, requesting our God for this: and his ear was open to our prayer.
24. So I put on one side twelve of the chiefs of the priests, Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brothers with them,
25. And gave to them by weight the silver and the gold and the vessels, all the offering for the house of our God which the king and his wise men and his captains and all Israel there present had given:
26. Measuring into their hands six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels, a hundred talents' weight, and a hundred talents of gold,
27. And twenty gold basins, of a thousand darics, and two vessels of the best bright brass, equal in value to gold.
28. And I said to them, You are holy to the Lord and the vessels are holy: and the silver and the gold are an offering freely given to the Lord, the God of your fathers.
29. Take care of them and keep them, till you put them on the scales before the chiefs of the priests and the Levites and the chiefs of the families of Israel, in Jerusalem, in the rooms of the house of the Lord.
30. So the priests and the Levites took the weight of silver and gold and the vessels, to take them to Jerusalem into the house of our God.
31. Then we went away from the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem; and the hand of our God was on us, and he gave us salvation from our haters and those who were waiting to make an attack on us by the way.
32. And we came to Jerusalem and were there for three days.
33. And on the fourth day, the silver and the gold and the vessels were measured out by weight in the house of our God into the hands of Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the priest; and with him was Eleazar, the son of Phinehas; and with them were Jozabad, the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah, the son of Binnui, the Levites;
34. All was handed over by number and by weight: and the weight was put on record at that time.
35. And those who had been prisoners, who had come back from a strange land, made burned offerings to the God of Israel, twelve oxen for all Israel, ninety-six male sheep, seventy-seven lambs, twelve he-goats for a sin-offering: all this was a burned offering to the Lord.
36. And they gave the king's orders to the king's captains and the rulers across the river, and they gave the people and the house of God the help which was needed.

Ezra 9 / Basic English

1. Now after these things were done, the captains came to me and said, The people of Israel and the priests and Levites have not kept themselves separate from the people of the lands, but have taken part in the disgusting ways of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
2. For they have taken their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed has been mixed with the peoples of the lands; and in fact the captains and rulers have been the first to do this evil.
3. And hearing this, with signs of grief and pulling out the hair of my head and my chin, I took my seat on the earth deeply troubled.
4. Then everyone who went in fear of the words of the God of Israel, because of the sin of those who had come back, came together to me; and I kept where I was, overcome with grief, till the evening offering.
5. And at the evening offering, having made myself low before God, I got up, and with signs of grief, falling down on my knees, with my hands stretched out to the Lord my God,
6. I said, O my God, shame keeps me from lifting up my face to you, my God: for our sins are increased higher than our heads and our evil-doing has come up to heaven.
7. From the days of our fathers till this day we have been great sinners; and for our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been given up into the hands of the kings of the lands, to the sword and to prison and to loss of goods and to shame of face, as it is this day.
8. And now for a little time grace has come to us from the Lord our God, to let a small band of us get free and to give us a nail in his holy place, so that our God may give light to our eyes and a measure of new life in our prison chains.
9. For we are servants; but our God has not been turned away from us in our prison, but has had mercy on us before the eyes of the kings of Persia, to give us new strength to put up again the house of our God and to make fair its waste places, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.
10. And now, O our God, what are we to say after this? for we have not kept your laws,
11. Which you gave to your servants the prophets, saying, The land into which you are going, to take it for a heritage, is an unclean land, because of the evil lives of the peoples of the land and their disgusting ways, which have made the land unclean from end to end.
12. So now do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or do anything for their peace or well-being for ever; so that you may be strong, living on the good of the land, and handing it on to your children for a heritage for ever.
13. And after everything which has come on us because of our evil-doing and our great sin, and seeing that the punishment which you, O God, have given us, is less than the measure of our sins, and that you have kept from death those of us who are here;
14. Are we again to go against your orders, taking wives from among the people who do these disgusting things? would you not be angry with us till our destruction was complete, till there was not one who got away safe?
15. O Lord God of Israel, righteousness is yours; we are only a small band which has been kept from death, as at this day: see, we are before you in our sin; for no one may keep his place before you because of this.

Acts 15 / Basic English

1. Now certain men came down from Judaea, teaching the brothers and saying that without circumcision, after the rule of Moses, there is no salvation.
2. And after Paul and Barnabas had had no little argument and discussion with them, the brothers made a decision to send Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them to the Apostles and the rulers of the church at Jerusalem about this question.
3. So they, being sent on their way by the church, went through Phoenicia and Samaria, giving news of the salvation of the Gentiles, to the great joy of all the brothers.
4. And when they came to Jerusalem, they had a meeting with the church and the Apostles and the rulers, and they gave an account of all the things which God had done through them.
5. But some of the Pharisees, who were of the faith, got up and said, It is necessary for these to have circumcision and to keep the law of Moses.
6. And the Apostles and the rulers of the church came together and gave thought to the question.
7. And when there had been much discussion, Peter got up and said to them, My brothers, you have knowledge that some time back it was God's pleasure that by my mouth the good news might be given to the Gentiles so that they might have faith.
8. And God, the searcher of hearts, was a witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit even as he did to us;
9. Making no division between them and us, but making clean their hearts by faith.
10. Why then are you testing God, by putting on the neck of the disciples a yoke so hard that not even our fathers or we were strong enough for it?
11. But we have faith that we will get salvation through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way as they.
12. And all the people were quiet while Barnabas and Paul gave an account of the signs and wonders which God had done among the Gentiles by them.
13. And when they had come to an end, James, answering, said, My brothers, give ear to me:
14. Symeon has given an account of how God was first pleased to take from among the Gentiles a people for himself.
15. And this is in agreement with the words of the prophets, as it is said,
16. After these things I will come back, and will put up the tent of David which has been broken down, building up again its broken parts and making it complete:
17. So that the rest of men may make search for the Lord, and all the Gentiles on whom my name is named,
18. Says the Lord, who has made these things clear from the earliest times.
19. For this reason my decision is, that we do not put trouble in the way of those who from among the Gentiles are turned to God;
20. But that we give them orders to keep themselves from things offered to false gods, and from the evil desires of the body, and from the flesh of animals put to death in ways against the law, and from blood.
21. For Moses, from times long past, has his preachers in every town, reading his law in the Synagogues every Sabbath.
22. Then it seemed good to the Apostles and the rulers and all the church, to send men from among them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; Judas, named Barsabbas, and Silas, chief men among the brothers:
23. And they sent a letter by them, saying, The Apostles and the older brothers, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, may joy be with you:
24. Because we have knowledge that some who went from us have been troubling you with their words, putting your souls in doubt; to whom we gave no such order;
25. It seemed good to us, having come to an agreement together, to send these men to you, with our well loved Barnabas and Paul,
26. Men who have given up their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
27. And so we have sent Judas and Silas, who will say the same things to you themselves, by word of mouth.
28. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us, to put on you nothing more than these necessary things;
29. To keep from things offered to false gods, and from blood, and from things put to death in ways which are against the law, and from the evil desires of the body; if you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. May you be happy.
30. So they, being sent away, came down to Antioch, and having got the people together, they gave them the letter.
31. And after reading it, they were glad of its comfort.
32. And Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, gave teaching to the brothers and made them strong in the faith.
33. And when they had been there for some time, they were sent back in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them.
34. []
35. But Paul and Barnabas kept on in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of God, with a number of others.
36. And after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, Let us go back and see the brothers in every town where we have given the word of God, and see how they are.
37. And Barnabas had a desire to take with them John, named Mark.
38. But Paul was of the opinion that it was not right to take with them one who had gone away from them in Pamphylia, and had not gone on with the work.
39. And there was a sharp argument between them, so that they were parted from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and went by ship to Cyprus;
40. But Paul took Silas and went away with the blessing of the brothers.
41. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, making the churches stronger in the faith.