Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Song of Solomon (Canticles) 8 / Basic English

1. Oh that you were my brother, who took milk from my mother's breasts! When I came to you in the street, I would give you kisses; yes, I would not be looked down on.
2. I would take you by the hand into my mother's house, and she would be my teacher. I would give you drink of spiced wine, drink of the pomegranate.
3. His left hand would be under my head, and his right hand about me.
4. I say to you, O daughters of Jerusalem, do not let love be moved till it is ready.
5. Who is this, who comes up from the waste places, resting on her loved one? It was I who made you awake under the apple-tree, where your mother gave you birth; there she was in pain at your birth.
6. Put me as a sign on your heart, as a sign on your arm; love is strong as death, and wrath bitter as the underworld: its coals are coals of fire; violent are its flames.
7. Much water may not put out love, or the deep waters overcome it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be judged a price not great enough.
8. We have a young sister, and she has no breasts; what are we to do for our sister in the day when she is given to a man?
9. If she is a wall, we will make on her a strong base of silver; and if she is a door, we will let her be shut up with cedar-wood.
10. I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers; then was I in his eyes as one to whom good chance had come.
11. Solomon had a vine-garden at Baal-hamon; he let out the vine-garden to keepers; every one had to give a thousand bits of silver for its fruit.
12. My vine-garden, which is mine, is before me: you, O Solomon, will have the thousand, and those who keep the fruit of them two hundred.
13. You who have your resting-place in the gardens, the friends give ear to your voice; make me give ear to it.
14. Come quickly, my loved one, and be like a roe on the mountains of spice.

Isaiah 1 / Basic English

1. The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw about Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
2. Give ear, O heavens, and you, O earth, to the word which the Lord has said: I have taken care of my children till they became men, but their hearts have been turned away from me.
3. Even the ox has knowledge of its owner, and the ass of the place where its master puts its food: but Israel has no knowledge, my people give no thought to me.
4. O nation full of sin, a people weighted down with crime, a generation of evil-doers, false-hearted children: they have gone away from the Lord, they have no respect for the Holy One of Israel, their hearts are turned back from him.
5. Why will you have more and more punishment? why keep on in your evil ways? Every head is tired and every heart is feeble.
6. The body, from head to foot, is all diseased; it is a mass of open wounds, marks of blows, and broken flesh: the flow of blood has not been stopped, and no oil has been put on the wounds.
7. Your country has become waste; your towns are burned with fire; as for your land, it is overturned before your eyes, made waste and overcome by men from strange lands.
8. And the daughter of Zion has become like a tent in a vine-garden, like a watchman's house in a field of fruit, like a town shut in by armies.
9. If the Lord of armies had not kept some at least of us safe, we would have been like Sodom, and the fate of Gomorrah would have been ours.
10. Give ear to the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; let your hearts be turned to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah.
11. What use to me is the number of the offerings which you give me? says the Lord; your burned offerings of sheep, and the best parts of fat cattle, are a weariness to me; I take no pleasure in the blood of oxen, or of lambs, or of he-goats.
12. At whose request do you come before me, making my house unclean with your feet?
13. Give me no more false offerings; the smoke of burning flesh is disgusting to me, so are your new moons and Sabbaths and your holy meetings.
14. Your new moons and your regular feasts are a grief to my soul: they are a weight in my spirit; I am crushed under them.
15. And when your hands are stretched out to me, my eyes will be turned away from you: even though you go on making prayers, I will not give ear: your hands are full of blood.
16. Be washed, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; let there be an end of sinning;
17. Take pleasure in well-doing; let your ways be upright, keep down the cruel, give a right decision for the child who has no father, see to the cause of the widow.
18. Come now, and let us have an argument together, says the Lord: how may your sins which are red like blood be white as snow? how may their dark purple seem like wool?
19. If you will give ear to my word and do it, the good things of the land will be yours;
20. But if your hearts are turned against me, I will send destruction on you by the sword; so the Lord has said.
21. The upright town has become untrue; there was a time when her judges gave right decisions, when righteousness had a resting-place in her, but now she is full of those who take men's lives.
22. Your silver is no longer true metal, your wine is mixed with water.
23. Your chiefs have gone against the Lord, they have become friends of thieves; every one of them is looking for profit and going after rewards; they do not give right decisions for the child who has no father, and they do not let the cause of the widow come before them.
24. For this reason the Lord, the Lord of armies, the Strong One of Israel, has said, I will put an end to my haters, and send punishment on those who are against me;
25. And my hand will again be on you, washing away what is unclean as with soap, and taking away all your false metal;
26. And I will give you judges again as at the first, and wise guides as in the past; then you will be named, The Town of Righteousness, the true town.
27. Upright acts will be the price of Zion's forgiveness, and by righteousness will men be living there.
28. But a common destruction will overtake sinners and evil-doers together, and those who have gone away from the Lord will be cut off.
29. For you will be put to shame because of the trees of your desire, and because of the gardens of your pleasure.
30. For you will be like a tree whose leaves have become dry, and like a garden without water.
31. And the strong will be as food for the fire, and his work as a flame; and they will be burned together, with no one to put out the fire.

1 Corinthians 11 / Basic English

1. So take me for your example, even as I take Christ for mine.
2. Now I am pleased to see that you keep me in memory in all things, and that you give attention to the teaching which was handed down from me to you.
3. But it is important for you to keep this fact in mind, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.
4. Every man who takes part in prayer, or gives teaching as a prophet, with his head covered, puts shame on his head.
5. But every woman who does so with her head unveiled, puts shame on her head: for it is the same as if her hair was cut off.
6. For if a woman is not veiled, let her hair be cut off; but if it is a shame to a woman to have her hair cut off, let her be veiled.
7. For it is not right for a man to have his head covered, because he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
8. For the man did not come from the woman, but the woman from the man.
9. And the man was not made for the woman, but the woman for the man.
10. For this reason it is right for the woman to have a sign of authority on her head, because of the angels.
11. But the woman is not separate from the man, and the man is not separate from the woman in the Lord.
12. For as the woman is from the man, so the man is through the woman; but all things are from God.
13. Be judges yourselves of the question: does it seem right for a woman to take part in prayer unveiled?
14. Does it not seem natural to you that if a man has long hair, it is a cause of shame to him?
15. But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given to her for a covering.
16. But if any man will not be ruled in this question, this is not our way of doing things, and it is not done in the churches of God.
17. But in giving you this order, there is one thing about which I am not pleased: it is that when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse.
18. For first of all, it has come to my ears that when you come together in the church, there are divisions among you, and I take the statement to be true in part.
19. For divisions are necessary among you, in order that those who have God's approval may be clearly seen among you.
20. But now, when you come together, it is not possible to take the holy meal of the Lord:
21. For when you take your food, everyone takes his meal before the other; and one has not enough food, and another is the worse for drink.
22. What? have you not houses to take your meals in? or have you no respect for the church of God, putting the poor to shame? What am I to say to you? am I to give you praise? certainly not.
23. For it was handed down to me from the Lord, as I gave it to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when Judas was false to him, took bread,
24. And when it had been broken with an act of praise, he said, This is my body which is for you: do this in memory of me.
25. In the same way, with the cup, after the meal, he said, This cup is the new testament in my blood: do this, whenever you take it, in memory of me.
26. For whenever you take the bread and the cup you give witness to the Lord's death till he comes.
27. If, then, anyone takes the bread or the cup of the Lord in the wrong spirit, he will be responsible for the body and blood of the Lord.
28. But let no man take of the bread and the cup without testing himself.
29. For a man puts himself in danger, if he takes part in the holy meal without being conscious that it is the Lord's body.
30. For this cause a number of you are feeble and ill, and a number are dead.
31. But if we were true judges of ourselves, punishment would not come on us.
32. But if punishment does come, it is sent by the Lord, so that we may be safe when the world is judged.
33. So then, my brothers, when you come together to the holy meal of the Lord, let there be waiting for one another.
34. If any man is in need of food, let him take his meal in his house; so that you may not come together to your damage. And the rest I will put in order when I come.