Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Song of Solomon (Canticles) 5 / Basic English

1. I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; to take my myrrh with my spice; my wax with my honey; my wine with my milk. Take meat, O friends; take wine, yes, be overcome with love.
2. I am sleeping, but my heart is awake; it is the sound of my loved one at the door, saying, Be open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my very beautiful one; my head is wet with dew, and my hair with the drops of the night.
3. I have put off my coat; how may I put it on? My feet are washed; how may I make them unclean?
4. My loved one put his hand on the door, and my heart was moved for him.
5. I got up to let my loved one in; and my hands were dropping with myrrh, and my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the lock of the door.
6. I made the door open to my loved one; but my loved one had taken himself away, and was gone, my soul was feeble when his back was turned on me; I went after him, but I did not come near him; I said his name, but he gave me no answer.
7. The keepers who go about the town overtook me; they gave me blows and wounds; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.
8. I say to you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you see my loved one, what will you say to him? That I am overcome with love.
9. What is your loved one more than another, O fairest among women? What is your loved one more than another, that you say this to us?
10. My loved one is white and red, the chief among ten thousand.
11. His head is as the most delicate gold; his hair is thick, and black as a raven.
12. His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the water streams, washed with milk, and rightly placed.
13. His face is as beds of spices, giving out perfumes of every sort; his lips like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.
14. His hands are as rings of gold ornamented with beryl-stones; his body is as a smooth plate of ivory covered with sapphires.
15. His legs are as pillars of stone on a base of delicate gold; his looks are as Lebanon, beautiful as the cedar-tree.
16. His mouth is most sweet; yes, he is all beautiful. This is my loved one, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

Song of Solomon (Canticles) 6 / Basic English

1. Where is your loved one gone, O most fair among women? Where is your loved one turned away, that we may go looking for him with you?
2. My loved one is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to take food in the gardens, and to get lilies.
3. I am for my loved one, and my loved one is for me; he takes food among the lilies.
4. You are beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, as fair as Jerusalem; you are to be feared like an army with flags.
5. Let your eyes be turned away from me; see, they have overcome me; your hair is as a flock of goats which take their rest on the side of Gilead.
6. Your teeth are like a flock of sheep which come up from the washing; every one has two lambs, and there is not one without young.
7. Like pomegranate fruit are the sides of your head under your veil.
8. There are sixty queens, and eighty servant-wives, and young girls without number.
9. My dove, my very beautiful one, is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the dearest one of her who gave her birth. The daughters saw her, and gave her a blessing; yes, the queens and the servant-wives, and they gave her praises.
10. Who is she, looking down as the morning light, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, who is to be feared like an army with flags?
11. I went down into the garden of nuts to see the green plants of the valley, and to see if the vine was in bud, and the pomegranate-trees were in flower.
12. Before I was conscious of it, ...
13. Come back, come back, O Shulammite; come back, come back, so that our eyes may see you. What will you see in the Shulammite? A sword-dance.

Song of Solomon (Canticles) 7 / Basic English

1. How beautiful are your feet in their shoes, O king's daughter! The curves of your legs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a good workman:
2. Your stomach is a store of grain with lilies round it, and in the middle a round cup full of wine.
3. Your two breasts are like two young roes of the same birth.
4. Your neck is as a tower of ivory; your eyes like the waters in Heshbon, by the doorway of Bath-rabbim; your nose is as the tower on Lebanon looking over Damascus:
5. Your head is like Carmel, and the hair of your head is like purple, in whose net the king is prisoner.
6. How beautiful and how sweet you are, O love, for delight.
7. You are tall like a palm-tree, and your breasts are like the fruit of the vine.
8. I said, Let me go up the palm-tree, and let me take its branches in my hands: your breasts will be as the fruit of the vine, and the smell of your breath like apples;
9. And the roof of your mouth like good wine flowing down smoothly for my loved one, moving gently over my lips and my teeth.
10. I am for my loved one, and his desire is for me.
11. Come, my loved one, let us go out into the field; let us take rest among the cypress-trees.
12. Let us go out early to the vine-gardens; let us see if the vine is in bud, if it has put out its young fruit, and the pomegranate is in flower. There I will give you my love.
13. The mandrakes give out a sweet smell, and at our doors are all sorts of good fruits, new and old, which I have kept for my loved one.

1 Corinthians 10 / Basic English

1. For it is my desire, my brothers, that you may keep in mind how all our fathers were under the cloud, and they all went through the sea;
2. And they all had baptism from Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
3. And they all took the same holy food;
4. And the same holy drink: for they all took of the water from the holy rock which came after them: and the rock was Christ.
5. But with most of them God was not pleased: for they came to their end in the waste land.
6. Now these things were for an example to us, so that our hearts might not go after evil things, as they did.
7. Then do not go after false gods, as some of them did; as it is said in the holy Writings, After resting and feasting, the people got up to take their pleasure.
8. Again, let us not give way to the desires of the flesh, as some of them did, of whom twenty-three thousand came to their end in one day.
9. And let us not put the Lord to the test, as some of them did, and came to their death by snakes.
10. And do not say evil things against the Lord, as some of them did, and destruction overtook them.
11. Now these things were done as an example; and were put down in writing for our teaching, on whom the last days have come.
12. So let him who seems to himself to be safe go in fear of a fall.
13. You have been put to no test but such as is common to man: and God is true, who will not let any test come on you which you are not able to undergo; but he will make with the test a way out of it, so that you may be able to go through it.
14. For this cause, my dear brothers, give no worship to false gods.
15. What I am saying is for wise men, do you be the judges of it.
16. The cup of blessing which we take, does it not give us a part in the blood of Christ? and is not the broken bread a taking part in the body of Christ?
17. Because we, being a number of persons, are one bread, we are one body: for we all take part in the one bread.
18. See Israel after the flesh: do not those who take as food the offerings of the altar take a part in the altar?
19. Do I say, then, that what is offered to images is anything, or that the image is anything?
20. What I say is that the things offered by the Gentiles are offered to evil spirits and not to God; and it is not my desire for you to have any part with evil spirits.
21. It is not possible for you, at the same time, to take the cup of the Lord and the cup of evil spirits; you may not take part in the table of the Lord and the table of evil spirits.
22. Or may we be the cause of envy to the Lord? are we stronger than he?
23. We are free to do all things, but there are things which it is not wise to do. We are free to do all things, but not all things are for the common good.
24. Let a man give attention not only to what is good for himself, but equally to his neighbour's good.
25. Whatever meat may be had at the public market, take as food without question of right or wrong;
26. For the earth is the Lord's and all things in it.
27. If a Gentile makes a feast for you, and you are pleased to go as a guest, take whatever is put before you, without question of right or wrong.
28. But if anyone says to you, This food has been used as an offering, do not take it, on account of him who said it, and on account of his sense of right and wrong:
29. Right and wrong, I say, not for you, but for the other man; for the fact that I am free is not dependent on another man's sense of right or wrong.
30. But if I give praise to God for the food which I take, let no man say evil of me for that reason.
31. So then, if it is a question of food or drink, or any other thing, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
32. Give no cause of trouble to Jews, or to Greeks, or to the church of God.
33. Even as I give way to all men in all things, not looking for profit for myself, but for the good of others, that they may get salvation.