Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Job 9 / Basic English

1. And Job made answer and said,
2. Truly, I see that it is so: and how is it possible for a man to get his right before God?
3. If a man was desiring to go to law with him, he would not be able to give him an answer to one out of a thousand questions.
4. He is wise in heart and great in strength: who ever made his face hard against him, and any good came of it?
5. It is he who takes away the mountains without their knowledge, overturning them in his wrath:
6. Who is moving the earth out of its place, so that its pillars are shaking:
7. Who gives orders to the sun, and it does not give its light; and who keeps the stars from shining.
8. By whose hand the heavens were stretched out, and who is walking on the waves of the sea:
9. Who made the Bear and Orion, and the Pleiades, and the store-houses of the south:
10. Who does great things not to be searched out; yes, wonders without number.
11. See, he goes past me and I see him not: he goes on before, but I have no knowledge of him.
12. If he puts out his hand to take, by whom may it be turned back? who may say to him, What are you doing?
13. God's wrath may not be turned back; the helpers of Rahab were bent down under him.
14. How much less may I give an answer to him, using the right words in argument with him?
15. Even if my cause was good, I would not be able to give an answer; I would make request for grace from him who was against me.
16. If I had sent for him to be present, and he had come, I would have no faith that he would give ear to my voice.
17. For I would be crushed by his storm, my wounds would be increased without cause.
18. He would not let me take my breath, but I would be full of bitter grief.
19. If it is a question of strength, he says, Here I am! and if it is a question of a cause at law, he says, Who will give me a fixed day?
20. Though I was in the right, he would say that I was in the wrong; I have done no evil; but he says that I am a sinner.
21. I have done no wrong; I give no thought to what becomes of me; I have no desire for life.
22. It is all the same to me; so I say, He puts an end to the sinner and to him who has done no wrong together.
23. If death comes suddenly through disease, he makes sport of the fate of those who have done no wrong.
24. The land is given into the power of the evil-doer; the faces of its judges are covered; if not by him, then who has done it?
25. My days go quicker than a post-runner: they go in flight, they see no good.
26. They go rushing on like reed-boats, like an eagle dropping suddenly on its food.
27. If I say, I will put my grief out of mind, I will let my face be sad no longer and I will be bright;
28. I go in fear of all my pains; I am certain that I will not be free from sin in your eyes.
29. You will not let me be clear of sin! why then do I take trouble for nothing?
30. If I am washed with snow water, and make my hands clean with soap;
31. Then you will have me pushed into the dust, so that I will seem disgusting to my very clothing.
32. For he is not a man as I am, that I might give him an answer, that we might come together before a judge.
33. There is no one to give a decision between us, who might have control over us.
34. Let him take away his rod from me and not send his fear on me:
35. Then I would say what is in my mind without fear of him; for there is no cause of fear in myself.

Job 10 / Basic English

1. My soul is tired of life; I will let my sad thoughts go free in words; my soul will make a bitter outcry.
2. I will say to God, Do not put me down as a sinner; make clear to me what you have against me.
3. What profit is it to you to be cruel, to give up the work of your hands, looking kindly on the design of evil-doers?
4. Have you eyes of flesh, or do you see as man sees?
5. Are your days as the days of man, or your years like his,
6. That you take note of my sin, searching after my wrongdoing,
7. Though you see that I am not an evil-doer; and there is no one who is able to take a man out of your hands?
8. Your hands made me, and I was formed by you, but then, changing your purpose, you gave me up to destruction.
9. O keep in mind that you made me out of earth; and will you send me back again to dust?
10. Was I not drained out like milk, becoming hard like cheese?
11. By you I was clothed with skin and flesh, and joined together with bones and muscles.
12. You have been kind to me, and your grace has been with me, and your care has kept my spirit safe.
13. But you kept these things in the secret of your heart; I am certain this was in your thoughts:
14. That, if I did wrong, you would take note of it, and would not make me clear from sin:
15. That, if I was an evil-doer, the curse would come on me; and if I was upright, my head would not be lifted up, being full of shame and overcome with trouble.
16. And that if there was cause for pride, you would go after me like a lion; and again put out your wonders against me:
17. That you would send new witnesses against me, increasing your wrath against me, and letting loose new armies on me.
18. Why then did you make me come out of my mother's body? It would have been better for me to have taken my last breath, and for no eye to have seen me,
19. And for me to have been as if I had not been; to have been taken from my mother's body straight to my last resting-place.
20. Are not the days of my life small in number? Let your eyes be turned away from me, so that I may have a little pleasure,
21. Before I go to the place from which I will not come back, to the land where all is dark and black,
22. A land of thick dark, without order, where the very light is dark.

Romans 3 / Basic English

1. How then is the Jew better off? or what profit is there in circumcision?
2. Much in every way: first of all because the words of God were given to them.
3. And if some have no faith, will that make the faith of God without effect?
4. In no way: but let God be true, though every man is seen to be untrue; as it is said in the Writings, That your words may be seen to be true, and you may be seen to be right when you are judged.
5. But if the righteousness of God is supported by our wrongdoing what is to be said? is it wrong for God to be angry (as men may say)?
6. In no way: because if it is so, how is God able to be the judge of all the world?
7. But if, because I am untrue, God being seen to be true gets more glory, why am I to be judged as a sinner?
8. Let us not do evil so that good may come (a statement which we are falsely said by some to have made), because such behaviour will have its right punishment.
9. What then? are we worse off than they? In no way: because we have before made it clear that Jews as well as Greeks are all under the power of sin;
10. As it is said in the holy Writings, There is not one who does righteousness;
11. Not one who has the knowledge of what is right, not one who is a searcher after God;
12. They have all gone out of the way, there is no profit in any of them; there is not one who does good, not so much as one:
13. Their throat is like an open place of death; with their tongues they have said what is not true: the poison of snakes is under their lips:
14. Whose mouth is full of curses and bitter words:
15. Their feet are quick in running after blood;
16. Destruction and trouble are in their ways;
17. And of the way of peace they have no knowledge:
18. There is no fear of God before their eyes.
19. Now, we have knowledge that what the law says is for those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and all men may be judged by God:
20. Because by the works of the law no man is able to have righteousness in his eyes, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
21. But now without the law there is a revelation of the righteousness of God, to which witness is given by the law and the prophets;
22. That is, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all those who have faith; and one man is not different from another,
23. For all have done wrong and are far from the glory of God;
24. And they may have righteousness put to their credit, freely, by his grace, through the salvation which is in Christ Jesus:
25. Whom God has put forward as the sign of his mercy, through faith, by his blood, to make clear his righteousness when, in his pity, God let the sins of earlier times go without punishment;
26. And to make clear his righteousness now, so that he might himself be upright, and give righteousness to him who has faith in Jesus.
27. What reason, then, is there for pride? It is shut out. By what sort of law? of works? No, but by a law of faith.
28. For this reason, then, a man may get righteousness by faith without the works of the law.
29. Or is God the God of Jews only? is he not in the same way the God of Gentiles? Yes, of Gentiles:
30. If God is one; and he will give righteousness because of faith to those who have circumcision, and through faith to those who have not circumcision.
31. Do we, then, through faith make the law of no effect? in no way: but we make it clear that the law is important.