Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Isaiah 20 / Basic English

1. In the year when the Tartan came to Ashdod, sent by Sargon, king of Assyria, and made war against it and took it;
2. At that time the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saying, Go, and take off your robe, and your shoes from your feet; and he did so, walking unclothed and without shoes on his feet.
3. And the Lord said, As my servant Isaiah has gone unclothed and without shoes for three years as a sign and a wonder to Egypt and Ethiopia,
4. So will the king of Assyria take away the prisoners of Egypt and those forced out of Ethiopia, young and old, unclothed and without shoes, and with backs uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
5. And they will be full of fear, and will no longer have faith in Ethiopia which was their hope, or in Egypt which was their glory.
6. And those living by the sea will say in that day, See the fate of our hope to whom we went for help and salvation from the king of Assyria: what hope have we then of salvation?

Isaiah 21 / Basic English

1. The word about the waste land. As storm-winds in the South go rushing through, it comes from the waste land, from the land greatly to be feared.
2. A vision of fear comes before my eyes; the worker of deceit goes on in his false way, and the waster goes on making waste. Up! Elam; to the attack! Media; I have put an end to her sorrow.
3. For this cause I am full of bitter grief; pains like the pains of a woman in childbirth have come on me: I am bent down with sorrow at what comes to my ears; I am shocked by what I see.
4. My mind is wandering, fear has overcome me: the evening of my desire has been turned into shaking for me.
5. They make ready the table, they put down the covers, they take food and drink. Up! you captains; put oil on your breastplates.
6. For so has the Lord said to me, Go, let a watchman be placed; let him give word of what he sees:
7. And when he sees war-carriages, horsemen by twos, war-carriages with asses, war-carriages with camels, let him give special attention.
8. And the watchman gave a loud cry, O my lord, I am on the watchtower all day, and am placed in my watch every night:
9. See, here come war-carriages with men, horsemen by twos: and in answer he said, Babylon is made low, is made low, and all her images are broken on the earth.
10. O my crushed ones, the grain of my floor! I have given you the word which came to me from the Lord of armies, the God of Israel.
11. The word about Edom. A voice comes to me from Seir, Watchman, how far gone is the night? how far gone is the night?
12. The watchman says, The morning has come, but night is still to come: if you have questions to put, put them, and come back again.
13. The word about Arabia. In the thick woods of Arabia will be your night's resting-place, O travelling bands of Dedanites!
14. Give water to him who is in need of water; give bread, O men of the land of Tema, to those in flight.
15. For they are in flight from the sharp sword, and the bent bow, and from the trouble of war.
16. For so has the Lord said to me, In a year, by the years of a servant working for payment, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end:
17. And the rest of the bowmen, the men of war of the children of Kedar, will be small in number: for the Lord, the God of Israel, has said it.

Isaiah 22 / Basic English

1. The word about the valley of vision. Why have all your people gone up to the house-tops?
2. You, who are full of loud voices, a town of outcries, given up to joy; your dead men have not been put to the sword, or come to their death in war.
3. All your rulers ... have gone in flight; all your strong ones have gone far away.
4. For this cause I have said, Let your eyes be turned away from me in my bitter weeping; I will not be comforted for the wasting of the daughter of my people.
5. For it is a day of trouble and of crushing down and of destruction from the Lord, the Lord of armies, in the valley of vision; ...
6. And Elam was armed with arrows, and Aram came on horseback; and the breastplate of Kir was uncovered.
7. And your most fertile valleys were full of war-carriages, and the horsemen took up their positions in front of the town.
8. He took away the cover of Judah; and in that day you were looking with care at the store of arms in the house of the woods.
9. And you saw all the broken places in the wall of the town of David: and you got together the waters of the lower pool.
10. And you had the houses of Jerusalem numbered, pulling down the houses to make the wall stronger.
11. And you made a place between the two walls for storing the waters of the old pool: but you gave no thought to him who had done this, and were not looking to him by whom it had been purposed long before.
12. And in that day the Lord, the Lord of armies, was looking for weeping, and cries of sorrow, cutting off of the hair, and putting on the clothing of grief:
13. But in place of these there was joy and delight, oxen and sheep were being made ready for food, there was feasting and drinking: men said, Now is the time for food and wine, for tomorrow death comes.
14. And the Lord of armies said to me secretly, Truly, this sin will not be taken from you till your death, says the Lord, the Lord of armies.
15. The Lord, the Lord of armies, says, Go to this person in authority, this Shebna, who is over the house; who has made himself a resting-place on high, cutting out a place for himself in the rock, and say,
16. Who are you, and by what right have you made for yourself a resting-place here?
17. See, O strong man, the Lord will send you violently away, gripping you with force,
18. Twisting you round and round like a ball he will send you out into a wide country: there you will come to your end, and there will be the carriages of your pride, O shame of your lord's house!
19. And I will have you forced out of your place of authority, and pulled down from your position.
20. And in that day I will send for my servant, Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah:
21. And I will put your robe on him, and put your band about him, and I will give your authority into his hand: and he will be a father to the men of Jerusalem, and to the family of Judah.
22. And I will give the key of the family of David into his care; and what he keeps open will be shut by no one, and what he keeps shut no one will make open.
23. And I will put him like a nail in a safe place; and he will be for a seat of glory to his father's family.
24. And all the glory of his father's family will be hanging on him, all their offspring, every small vessel, even the cups and the basins.
25. In that day, says the Lord of armies, will the nail fixed in a safe place give way; and it will be cut down, and in its fall the weight hanging on it will be cut off, for the Lord has said it.

2 Corinthians 3 / Basic English

1. Do we seem to be again attempting to put ourselves in the right? or have we need, as some have, of letters of approval to you or from you?
2. You yourselves are our letter, whose writing is in our heart, open for every man's reading and knowledge;
3. For you are clearly a letter of Christ, the fruit of our work, recorded not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in stone, but in hearts of flesh.
4. And this is the certain faith which we have in God through Christ:
5. Not as if we were able by ourselves to do anything for which we might take the credit; but our power comes from God;
6. Who has made us able to be servants of a new agreement; not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter gives death, but the Spirit gives life.
7. For if the operation of the law, giving death, recorded in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the eyes of the children of Israel had to be turned away from the face of Moses because of its glory, a glory which was only for a time:
8. Will not the operation of the Spirit have a much greater glory?
9. For if the operation of the law, producing punishment, had its glory, how much greater will be the operation of the Spirit causing righteousness?
10. For the glory of the first no longer seems to be glory, because of the greater glory of that which comes after.
11. For if the order which was for a time had its glory, much more will the eternal order have its glory.
12. Having then such a hope, we keep nothing back,
13. And are not like Moses, who put a veil on his face, so that the children of Israel might not see clearly to the end of the present order of things:
14. But their minds were made hard: for to this very day at the reading of the old agreement the same veil is still unlifted; though it is taken away in Christ.
15. But to this day, at the reading of the law of Moses, a veil is over their heart.
16. But when it is turned to the Lord, the veil will be taken away.
17. Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there the heart is free.
18. But we all, with unveiled face giving back as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord who is the Spirit.