Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Isaiah 30 / Basic English

1. Ho! uncontrolled children, says the Lord, who give effect to a purpose which is not mine, and who make an agreement, but not by my spirit, increasing their sin:
2. Who make a move to go down into Egypt, without authority from me; who are looking to the strength of Pharaoh for help, and whose hope is in the shade of Egypt.
3. And the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and your hope in the shade of Egypt will come to nothing.
4. For his chiefs are at Zoan, and his representatives have come to Hanes.
5. For they have all come with offerings to a people of no use to them, in whom is no help or profit, but only shame and a bad name.
6. The word about the Beasts of the South. Through the land of trouble and grief, the land of the she-lion and the voice of the lion, of the snake and the burning winged snake, they take their wealth on the backs of young asses, and their stores on camels, to a people in whom is no profit.
7. For there is no use or purpose in the help of Egypt: so I have said about her, She is Rahab, who has come to an end.
8. Now go, put it in writing before them on a board, and make a record of it in a book, so that it may be for the future, a witness for all time to come.
9. For they are an uncontrolled people, false-hearted, who will not give ear to the teaching of the Lord:
10. Who say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Do not give us word of what is true, but say false things to give us pleasure:
11. Get out of the good way, turning from the right road; do not keep the Holy One of Israel before our minds.
12. For this cause the Holy One of Israel says, Because you will not give ear to this word, and are looking for help in ways of deceit and evil, and are putting your hope in them:
13. This sin will be to you like a crack in a high wall, causing its fall suddenly and in a minute.
14. And he will let it be broken as a potter's vessel is broken: it will be smashed to bits without mercy; so that there will not be a bit in which one may take fire from the fireplace, or water from the spring.
15. For the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, said, In quiet and rest is your salvation: peace and hope are your strength: but you would not have it so.
16. Saying, No, for we will go in flight on horses; so you will certainly go in flight: and, We will go on the backs of quick-running beasts; so those who go after you will be quick-footed.
17. A thousand will go in fear before one; even before five you will go in flight: till you are like a pillar by itself on the top of a mountain, and like a flag on a hill.
18. For this cause the Lord will be waiting, so that he may be kind to you; and he will be lifted up, so that he may have mercy on you; for the Lord is a God of righteousness: there is a blessing on all whose hope is in him.
19. O people, living in Zion, at Jerusalem, your weeping will be ended; he will certainly have mercy on you at the sound of your cry; when it comes to his ear, he will give you an answer.
20. And though the Lord will give you the bread of trouble and the water of grief, you will no longer put your teacher on one side, but you will see your teacher:
21. And at your back, when you are turning to the right hand or to the left, a voice will be sounding in your ears, saying, This is the way in which you are to go.
22. And you will make unclean what is covering your pictured images of silver, and the plating of your images of gold: you will send them away as an unclean thing, saying, Be gone!
23. And he will give rain for your seed, so that you may put it in the earth; and you will have bread from the produce of the earth, good and more than enough for your needs: in that day the cattle will get their food in wide grass-lands.
24. And the oxen and the young asses which are used for ploughing, will have salted grain which has been made free from the waste with fork and basket.
25. And there will be rivers and streams of water on every tall mountain and on every high hill, in the day when great numbers are put to the sword, when the towers come down.
26. And the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times greater, as the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord puts oil on the wounds of his people, and makes them well from the blows they have undergone.
27. See, the name of the Lord is coming from far, burning with his wrath, with thick smoke going up: his lips are full of passion, and his tongue is like a burning fire:
28. And his breath is as an overflowing stream, coming up even to the neck, shaking the nations for their destruction, like the shaking of grain in a basket: and he will put a cord in the mouths of the people, turning them out of their way.
29. You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and you will be glad in heart, as when they go with music of the pipe to the mountain of the Lord, the Rock of Israel.
30. And the Lord will send out the sound of his great voice, and they will see his arm stretched out, with the heat of his wrath, and the flame of a burning fire; with a cloud-burst, and storm, and a rain of ice.
31. For through the voice of the Lord the Assyrian will be broken, and the Lord's rod will be lifted up against him.
32. And every blow of the rod of his punishment, which the Lord will send on him, will be with the sound of music: and with the waving of his sword the Lord will make war against him.
33. For a place of fire has long been ready; yes, it has been made ready for the king; he has made it deep and wide: it is massed with fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of fire, puts a light to it.

Isaiah 31 / Basic English

1. Cursed are those who go down to Egypt for help, and who put their faith in horses; looking to war-carriages for salvation, because of their numbers; and to horsemen, because they are very strong; but they are not looking to the Holy One of Israel, or turning their hearts to the Lord;
2. Though he is wise, and able to send evil, and his purpose will not be changed; but he will go against the house of the evil-doers, and against those to whom they are looking for help.
3. For the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses are flesh, and not spirit: and when the Lord's hand is stretched out, the helper and he who is helped will come down together.
4. For the Lord has said to me, As a lion, or a young lion, makes an angry noise over his food, and if a band of herdsmen come out against him, he will not be in fear of their voices, or give up his food for their noise: so the Lord of armies will come down to make war against Mount Zion and its hill.
5. Like birds with outstretched wings, so will the Lord of armies be a cover to Jerusalem; he will be a cover and salvation for it, going over it he will keep it from danger.
6. Come back to him who has been so deeply sinned against by the children of Israel.
7. For in that day they will all give up their images of silver and of gold, the sin which they made for themselves.
8. Then the Assyrian will come down by the sword, but not of man; the sword, not of men, will be the cause of his destruction: and he will go in flight from the sword, and his young men will be put to forced work.
9. And his rock will come to nothing because of fear, and his chiefs will go in flight from the flag, says the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and his altar in Jerusalem.

2 Corinthians 7 / Basic English

1. Because God, then, will give us such rewards, dear brothers, let us make ourselves clean from all evil of flesh and spirit, and become completely holy in the fear of God.
2. Let your hearts be open to us: we have done no man wrong, no man has been damaged by us, we have made no profit out of any man,
3. It is not with the purpose of judging you that I say this: for I have said before that you are in our hearts for life and death together.
4. My words to you are without fear, I am full of pride on account of you: I have great comfort and joy in all our troubles.
5. For even when we had come into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; there were fightings outside and fears inside.
6. But God who gives comfort to the poor in spirit gave us comfort by the coming of Titus;
7. And not by his coming only, but by the comfort which he had in you, while he gave us word of your desire, your sorrow, your care for me; so that I was still more glad.
8. For though my letter gave you pain, I have no regret for it now, though I had before; for I see that the letter gave you pain, but only for a time.
9. Now I am glad, not that you had sorrow, but that your sorrow was the cause of a change of heart; for yours was a holy sorrow so that you might undergo no loss by us in anything.
10. For the sorrow which God gives is the cause of salvation through a change of heart, in which there is no reason for grief: but the sorrow of the world is a cause of death.
11. For you see what care was produced in you by this very sorrow of yours before God, what clearing of yourselves, what wrath against sin, what fear, what desire, what serious purpose, what punishment. In everything you have made it clear that you are free from sin in this business.
12. So though I sent you a letter, it was not only because of the man who did the wrong, or because of him to whom the wrong was done, but so that your true care for us might be made clear in the eyes of God.
13. So we have been comforted: and we had the greater joy in our comfort because of the joy of Titus, for his spirit had been made glad by you all.
14. For I was not put to shame in anything in which I may have made clear to him my pride in you; but as we said nothing to you but what was true, so the good things which I said to Titus about you were seen by him to be true.
15. And his love to you is the more increased by his memory of you all, how you gave way to his authority, and how you took him to your hearts with fear and honour.
16. It gives me great joy to see you answering to my good opinion of you in every way.