Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Song of Solomon (Canticles) 2 / Basic English

1. I am a rose of Sharon, a flower of the valleys.
2. As the lily-flower among the thorns of the waste, so is my love among the daughters.
3. As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my loved one among the sons. I took my rest under his shade with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
4. He took me to the house of wine, and his flag over me was love.
5. Make me strong with wine-cakes, let me be comforted with apples; I am overcome with love.
6. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand is round about me.
7. I say to you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes of the field, do not let love be moved till it is ready.
8. The voice of my loved one! See, he comes dancing on the mountains, stepping quickly on the hills.
9. My loved one is like a roe; see, he is on the other side of our wall, he is looking in at the windows, letting himself be seen through the spaces.
10. My loved one said to me, Get up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
11. For, see, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
12. The flowers are come on the earth; the time of cutting the vines is come, and the voice of the dove is sounding in our land;
13. The fig-tree puts out her green fruit and the vines with their young fruit give a good smell. Get up from your bed, my beautiful one, and come away.
14. O my dove, you are in the holes of the mountain sides, in the cracks of the high hills; let me see your face, let your voice come to my ears; for sweet is your voice, and your face is fair.
15. Take for us the foxes, the little foxes, which do damage to the vines; our vines have young grapes.
16. My loved one is mine, and I am his: he takes his food among the flowers.
17. Till the evening comes, and the sky slowly becomes dark, come, my loved one, and be like a roe on the mountains of Bether.

Song of Solomon (Canticles) 3 / Basic English

1. By night on my bed I was looking for him who is the love of my soul: I was looking for him, but I did not see him.
2. I will get up now and go about the town, in the streets and in the wide ways I will go after him who is the love of my soul: I went after him, but I did not see him.
3. The watchmen who go about the town came by me; to them I said, Have you seen him who is my heart's desire?
4. I was but a little way from them, when I came face to face with him who is the love of my soul. I took him by the hands, and did not let him go, till I had taken him into my mother's house, and into the room of her who gave me birth.
5. I say to you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes of the field, let not love be moved till it is ready.
6. Who is this coming out of the waste places like pillars of smoke, perfumed with sweet spices, with all the spices of the trader?
7. See, it is the bed of Solomon; sixty men of war are about it, of the army of Israel,
8. All of them armed with swords, trained in war; every man has his sword at his side, because of fear in the night.
9. King Solomon made himself a bed of the wood of Lebanon.
10. He made its pillars of silver, its base of gold, its seat of purple, the middle of it of ebony.
11. Go out, O daughters of Jerusalem, and see King Solomon, with the crown which his mother put on his head on the day when he was married, and on the day of the joy of his heart.

Song of Solomon (Canticles) 4 / Basic English

1. See, you are fair, my love, you are fair; you have the eyes of a dove; your hair is as a flock of goats, which take their rest on the side of Gilead.
2. Your teeth are like a flock of sheep whose wool is newly cut, which come up from the washing; every one has two lambs, and there is not one without young.
3. Your red lips are like a bright thread, and your mouth is fair of form; the sides of your head are like pomegranate fruit under your veil.
4. Your neck is like the tower of David made for a store-house of arms, in which a thousand breastplates are hanging, breastplates for fighting-men.
5. Your two breasts are like two young roes of the same birth, which take their food among the lilies.
6. Till the evening comes, and the sky slowly becomes dark, I will go to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.
7. You are all fair, my love; there is no mark on you.
8. Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon; see from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the places of the lions, from the mountains of the leopards.
9. You have taken away my heart, my sister, my bride; you have taken away my heart, with one look you have taken it, with one chain of your neck!
10. How fair is your love, my sister! How much better is your love than wine, and the smell of your oils than any perfume!
11. Your lips are dropping honey; honey and milk are under your tongue; and the smell of your clothing is like the smell of Lebanon.
12. A garden walled-in is my sister, my bride; a garden shut up, a spring of water stopped.
13. The produce of the garden is pomegranates; with all the best fruits, henna and spikenard,
14. Spikenard and safron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices.
15. You are a fountain of gardens, a spring of living waters, and flowing waters from Lebanon.
16. Be awake, O north wind; and come, O south, blowing on my garden, so that its spices may come out. Let my loved one come into his garden, and take of his good fruits.

1 Corinthians 9 / Basic English

1. Am I not free? am I not an Apostle? have I not seen Jesus our Lord? are you not my work in the Lord?
2. If to others I am not an Apostle, at least I am one to you: for the fact that you are Christians is the sign that I am an Apostle.
3. My answer to those who are judging me is this.
4. Have we no right to take food and drink?
5. Have we no right to take about with us a Christian wife, like the rest of the Apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?
6. Or I only and Barnabas, have we no right to take a rest from work?
7. Who ever goes to war without looking to someone to be responsible for his payment? who puts in vines and does not take the fruit of them? or who takes care of sheep without drinking of their milk?
8. Am I talking as a man? does not the law say the same?
9. For it says in the law of Moses, It is not right to keep the ox from taking the grain when he is crushing it. Is it for the oxen that God is giving orders?
10. Or has he us in mind? Yes, it was said for us; because it is right for the ploughman to do his ploughing in hope, and for him who is crushing the grain to do his work hoping for a part in the fruits of it.
11. If we have been planting the things of the Spirit for you, does it seem a great thing for you to give us a part in your things of this world?
12. If others have a part in this right over you, have we not even more? But we did not make use of our right, so that we might put nothing in the way of the good news of Christ.
13. Do you not see that the servants of the holy things get their living from the Temple, and the servants of the altar have their part in the food which is offered on the altar?
14. Even so did the Lord give orders that the preachers of the good news might get their living from the good news.
15. But I have not made use of any of these things: and I am not writing this in the hope that it may be so for me: for it would be better for me to undergo death, than for any man to make this pride of mine of no effect.
16. For if I am a preacher of the good news, I have no cause for pride in this; because I am forced to do so, for a curse is on me if I do not.
17. But if I do it gladly, I have a reward; and if not, I am under orders to do it.
18. What then is my reward? This, that when I am giving the good news, I may give it without payment, not making use of my rights as a preacher of the good news.
19. For though I was free from all men, I made myself a servant to all, so that more might have salvation.
20. And to the Jews I was as a Jew, so that I might give the good news to them; to those under the law I was the same, not as being myself under the law, but so that I might give the good news to those under the law.
21. To those without the law I was as one without the law, not as being without law to God, but as under law to Christ, so that I might give the good news to those without the law.
22. To the feeble, I was as one who is feeble, so that they might have salvation: I have been all things to all men, so that some at least might have salvation.
23. And I do all things for the cause of the good news, so that I may have a part in it.
24. Do you not see that in a running competition all take part, but only one gets the reward? So let your minds be fixed on the reward.
25. And every man who takes part in the sports has self-control in all things. Now they do it to get a crown which is of this world, but we for an eternal crown.
26. So then I am running, not uncertainly; so I am fighting, not as one who gives blows in the air:
27. But I give blows to my body, and keep it under control, for fear that, after having given the good news to others, I myself might not have God's approval.