Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Isaiah 37 / Basic English

1. And on hearing it Hezekiah took off his robe and put on haircloth and went into the house of the Lord.
2. And he sent Eliakim, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and the chief priests, dressed in haircloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.
3. And they said to him, Hezekiah says, This day is a day of trouble and punishment and shame: for the children are ready to come to birth, but there is no strength to give birth to them.
4. It may be that the Lord your God will give ear to the words of the Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria, his master, has sent to say evil things against the living God, and will make his words come to nothing: so make your prayer for the rest of the people.
5. So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6. And Isaiah said to them, This is what you are to say to your master: The Lord says, Be not troubled by the words which the servants of the king of Assyria have said against me in your hearing.
7. See, I will put a spirit into him, and bad news will come to his ears, and he will go back to his land; and there I will have him put to death.
8. So the Rab-shakeh went back, and when he got there the king of Assyria was making war against Libnah: for it had come to his ears that the king of Assyria had gone away from Lachish.
9. And when news came to him that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had made an attack on him, ... And he sent representatives to Hezekiah, king of Judah, saying,
10. This is what you are to say to Hezekiah, king of Judah: Let not your God, in whom is your faith, give you a false hope, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.
11. No doubt the story has come to your ears of what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, putting them to the curse: and will you be kept safe from their fate?
12. Did the gods of the nations keep safe those on whom my fathers sent destruction, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar?
13. Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the town of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivva?
14. And Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of those who had come with it; and after reading it, Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, opening the letter there before the Lord,
15. And he made prayer to the Lord, saying,
16. O Lord of armies, the God of Israel, seated between the winged ones, you only are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.
17. Let your ear be turned to us, O Lord; let your eyes be open, O Lord, and see: take note of all the words of Sennacherib who has sent men to say evil against the living God.
18. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have made waste all the nations and their lands,
19. And have given their gods to the fire: for they were no gods, but wood and stone, the work of men's hands; so they have given them to destruction.
20. But now, O Lord our God, give us salvation from his hand, so that it may be clear to all the kingdoms of the earth that you, and you only, are the Lord.
21. Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying, The Lord, the God of Israel, says, The prayer you have made to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, has come to my ears.
22. This is the word which the Lord has said about him: In the eyes of the virgin daughter of Zion you are shamed and laughed at; the daughter of Jerusalem has made sport of you.
23. Against whom have you said evil and bitter things? and against whom has your voice been loud and your eyes lifted up? even against the Holy One of Israel.
24. You have sent your servants with evil words against the Lord, and have said, With all my war-carriages I have come up to the top of the mountains, to the inmost parts of Lebanon; and its tall cedars will be cut down, and the best trees of its woods: I will come up into his highest places, into his thick woods.
25. I have made water-holes and taken their waters, and with my foot I have made all the rivers of Egypt dry.
26. Has it not come to your ears how I did it long before, purposing it in times long past? Now I have given effect to my design, so that by you strong towns might be turned into masses of broken walls.
27. This is why their townsmen had no power, they were broken and put to shame; they were like the grass of the field, or a green plant; like the grass on the house-tops, which a cold wind makes waste.
28. But I have knowledge of your getting up and your resting, of your going out and your coming in.
29. Because your wrath against me and your pride have come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my cord in your lips, and I will make you go back by the way you came.
30. And this will be the sign to you: you will get your food this year from what comes up of itself, and in the second year from the produce of the same; and in the third year you will put in your seed, and get in the grain, and make vine-gardens, and take of their fruit.
31. And those of Judah who are still living will again take root in the earth, and give fruit.
32. For from Jerusalem those who have been kept safe will go out, and those who are still living will go out of Mount Zion: by the fixed purpose of the Lord of armies this will be done.
33. For this cause the Lord says about the king of Assyria, He will not come into this town, or send an arrow against it; he will not come before it with arms, or put up an earthwork against it.
34. By the way he came he will go back, and he will not get into this town.
35. For I will keep this town safe, for my honour, and for the honour of my servant David.
36. And the angel of the Lord went out and put to death in the army of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand men: and when the people got up early in the morning, there was nothing to be seen but dead bodies.
37. Sennacherib, king of Assyria, went back to his place at Nineveh.
38. And it came about, when he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him to death with the sword, and they went in flight into the land of Ararat. And Esar-haddon, his son, became king in his place.

Isaiah 38 / Basic English

1. In those days Hezekiah was ill and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, The Lord says, Put your house in order; for your death is near.
2. And Hezekiah, turning his face to the wall, made his prayer to the Lord, saying,
3. O Lord, keep in mind how I have been true to you with all my heart, and have done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah gave way to bitter weeping.
4. Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying,
5. Go to Hezekiah, and say, The Lord, the God of David, your father, says, Your prayer has come to my ears, and I have seen your weeping: see, I will give you fifteen more years of life.
6. And I will keep you and this town safe from the hands of the king of Assyria: and I will keep watch over this town.
7. And Isaiah said, This is the sign the Lord will give you, that he will do what he has said:
8. See, I will make the shade which has gone down on the steps of Ahaz with the sun, go back ten steps. So the shade went back the ten steps by which it had gone down.
9. The writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, after he had been ill, and had got better from his disease.
10. I said, In the quiet of my days I am going down into the underworld: the rest of my years are being taken away from me.
11. I said, I will not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living: I will not see man again or those living in the world.
12. My resting-place is pulled up and taken away from me like a herdsman's tent: my life is rolled up like a linen-worker's thread; I am cut off from the cloth on the frame: from day even to night you give me up to pain.
13. I am crying out with pain till the morning; it is as if a lion was crushing all my bones.
14. I make cries like a bird; I give out sounds of grief like a dove: my eyes are looking up with desire; O Lord, I am crushed, take up my cause.
15. What am I to say? seeing that it is he who has done it: all my time of sleeping I am turning from side to side without rest.
16. O Lord, for this cause I am waiting for you, give rest to my spirit: make me well again, and let me come back to life.
17. See, in place of peace my soul had bitter sorrow. but you have kept back my soul from the underworld; for you have put all my sins out of your memory.
18. For the underworld is not able to give you praise, death gives you no honour: for those who go down into the underworld there is no hope in your mercy.
19. The living, the living man, he will give you praise, as I do this day: the father will give the story of your mercy to his children.
20. O Lord, quickly be my saviour; so we will make my songs to corded instruments all the days of our lives in the house of the Lord.
21. And Isaiah said, Let them take a cake of figs, and put it on the diseased place, and he will get well.
22. And Hezekiah said, What is the sign that I will go up to the house of the Lord?

2 Corinthians 10 / Basic English

1. Now I, Paul, myself make request to you by the quiet and gentle behaviour of Christ, I who am poor in spirit when with you, but who say what is in my mind to you without fear when I am away from you:
2. Yes, I make my request to you, so that when I am with you I may not have to make use of the authority which may be needed against some to whom we seem to be walking after the flesh.
3. For though we may be living in the flesh, we are not fighting after the way of the flesh
4. (For the arms with which we are fighting are not those of the flesh, but are strong before God for the destruction of high places);
5. Putting an end to reasonings, and every high thing which is lifted up against the knowledge of God, and causing every thought to come under the authority of Christ;
6. Being ready to give punishment to whatever is against his authority, after you have made it clear that you are completely under his control.
7. Give attention to the things which are before you. If any man seems to himself to be Christ's, let him keep in mind that we are as much Christ's as he is.
8. For though I might take pride in our authority (which the Lord gave for building you up, and not for your destruction), it will not be a cause of shame to me:
9. That I may not seem to have the desire of causing you fear by my letters.
10. For his letters, they say, have weight and are strong; but in body he is feeble, and his way of talking has little force.
11. Let those who say this keep in mind that, what we are in word by letters when we are away, so will we be in act when we are present.
12. For we will not make comparison of ourselves with some of those who say good things about themselves: but these, measuring themselves by themselves, and making comparison of themselves with themselves, are not wise.
13. We will not give glory to ourselves in over-great measure, but after the measure of the rule which God has given us, a measure which comes even to you.
14. For we have no need to make ourselves seem more than we are, as if our authority did not come as far as to you: for we came even as far as you with the good news of Christ:
15. Not taking credit to ourselves for what is not our business, that is, for the work of others; but having hope that, with the growth of your faith, we may get the credit for an increase which is the effect of our work,
16. So that we may be able to go on and take the good news to countries still farther away than you are, and not take credit for another man's work in making things ready to our hand.
17. But whoever has a desire for glory, let his glory be in the Lord.
18. For the Lord's approval of a man is not dependent on his opinion of himself, but on the Lord's opinion of him.