Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Job 39 / Basic English

1. Have you knowledge of the rock-goats? or do you see the roes giving birth to their young?
2. Is the number of their months fixed by you? or is the time when they give birth ordered by you?
3. They are bent down, they give birth to their young, they let loose the fruit of their body.
4. Their young ones are strong, living in the open country; they go out and do not come back again.
5. Who has let the ass of the fields go free? or made loose the bands of the loud-voiced beast?
6. To whom I have given the waste land for a heritage, and the salt land as a living-place.
7. He makes sport of the noise of the town; the voice of the driver does not come to his ears;
8. He goes looking for his grass-lands in the mountains, searching out every green thing.
9. Will the ox of the mountains be your servant? or is his night's resting-place by your food-store?
10. Will he be pulling your plough with cords, turning up the valleys after you?
11. Will you put your faith in him, because his strength is great? will you give the fruit of your work into his care?
12. Will you be looking for him to come back, and get in your seed to the crushing-floor?
13. Is the wing of the ostrich feeble, or is it because she has no feathers,
14. That she puts her eggs on the earth, warming them in the dust,
15. Without a thought that they may be crushed by the foot, and broken by the beasts of the field?
16. She is cruel to her young ones, as if they were not hers; her work is to no purpose; she has no fear.
17. For God has taken wisdom from her mind, and given her no measure of knowledge.
18. When she is shaking her wings on high, she makes sport of the horse and of him who is seated on him.
19. Do you give strength to the horse? is it by your hand that his neck is clothed with power?
20. Is it through you that he is shaking like a locust, in the pride of his loud-sounding breath?
21. He is stamping with joy in the valley; he makes sport of fear.
22. In his strength he goes out against the arms of war, turning not away from the sword.
23. The bow is sounding against him; he sees the shining point of spear and arrow.
24. Shaking with passion, he is biting the earth; he is not able to keep quiet at the sound of the horn;
25. When it comes to his ears he says, Aha! He is smelling the fight from far off, and hearing the thunder of the captains, and the war-cries.
26. Is it through your knowledge that the hawk takes his flight, stretching out his wings to the south?
27. Or is it by your orders that the eagle goes up, and makes his resting-place on high?
28. On the rock is his house, and on the mountain-top his strong place.
29. From there he is watching for food; his eye sees it far off.
30. His young have blood for their drink, and where the dead bodies are, there is he to be seen.

Job 40 / Basic English

1. ...
2. Will he who is protesting give teaching to the Ruler of all? Let him who has arguments to put forward against God give an answer.
3. And Job said in answer to the Lord,
4. Truly, I am of no value; what answer may I give to you? I will put my hand on my mouth.
5. I have said once, and even twice, what was in my mind, but I will not do so again.
6. Then the Lord made answer to Job out of the storm-wind, and said,
7. Get your strength together like a man of war: I will put questions to you, and you will give me the answers.
8. Will you even make my right of no value? will you say that I am wrong in order to make clear that you are right?
9. Have you an arm like God? have you a voice of thunder like his?
10. Put on the ornaments of your pride; be clothed with glory and power:
11. Let your wrath be overflowing; let your eyes see all the sons of pride, and make them low.
12. Send destruction on all who are lifted up, pulling down the sinners from their places.
13. Let them be covered together in the dust; let their faces be dark in the secret place of the underworld.
14. Then I will give praise to you, saying that your right hand is able to give you salvation.
15. See now the Great Beast, whom I made, even as I made you; he takes grass for food, like the ox.
16. His strength is in his body, and his force in the muscles of his stomach.
17. His tail is curving like a cedar; the muscles of his legs are joined together.
18. His bones are pipes of brass, his legs are like rods of iron.
19. He is the chief of the ways of God, made by him for his pleasure.
20. He takes the produce of the mountains, where all the beasts of the field are at play.
21. He takes his rest under the trees of the river, and in the pool, under the shade of the water-plants.
22. He is covered by the branches of the trees; the grasses of the stream are round him.
23. Truly, if the river is overflowing, it gives him no cause for fear; he has no sense of danger, even if Jordan is rushing against his mouth.
24. Will anyone take him when he is on the watch, or put metal teeth through his nose?

1 Corinthians 2 / Basic English

1. And when I came to you, my brothers, I did not come with wise words of knowledge, putting before you the secret of God.
2. For I had made the decision to have knowledge of nothing among you but only of Jesus Christ on the cross.
3. And I was with you without strength, in fear and in doubt.
4. And in my preaching there were no honeyed words of wisdom, but I was dependent on the power of the Spirit to make it clear to you:
5. So that your faith might be based not on man's wisdom but on the power of God.
6. But still we have wisdom for those who are complete in knowledge, though not the wisdom of this world, and not of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing:
7. But we give the news of the secret wisdom of God, which he had kept in store before the world came into existence, for our glory;
8. Of which not one of the rulers of this world had knowledge: for if they had, they would not have put the Lord of glory on the cross:
9. But as it says in the holy Writings, Things which the eye saw not, and which had not come to the ears or into the heart of man, such things as God has made ready for those who have love for him.
10. But God has given us the revelation of these things through his Spirit, for the Spirit makes search into all things, even the deep things of God.
11. For who has knowledge of the things of a man but the spirit of the man which is in him? in the same way, no one has knowledge of the things of God but the Spirit of God.
12. But we have not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which comes from God, so that we may have knowledge of the things which are freely given to us by God.
13. And these are the things which we say, not in the language of man's wisdom, but in words given to us by the Spirit, judging the things of the spirit by the help of the Spirit.
14. For the natural man is not able to take in the things of the Spirit of God: for they seem foolish to him, and he is not able to have knowledge of them, because such knowledge comes only through the Spirit.
15. But he who has the Spirit, though judging all things, is himself judged by no one.
16. For who has knowledge of the mind of the Lord, so as to be his teacher? But we have the mind of Christ.