Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Isaiah 39 / Basic English

1. At that time Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters with an offering to Hezekiah, because he had news that Hezekiah had been ill, and was well again.
2. And Hezekiah was glad at their coming, and let them see all his store of wealth, the silver and the gold and the spices and the oil, and all the house of his arms, and everything there was in his stores: there was nothing in all his house or his kingdom which he did not let them see.
3. Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, What did these men say, and where did they come from? And Hezekiah said, They came from a far country, even from Babylon.
4. And he said, What have they seen in your house? And Hezekiah said in answer, They saw everything in my house: there is nothing among my stores which I did not let them see.
5. Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Give ear to the word of the Lord of armies:
6. Truly, the days are coming when everything in your house, and whatever your fathers have put in store till this day, will be taken away to Babylon: all will be gone.
7. And your sons, even your offspring, will they take away to be unsexed servants in the house of the king of Babylon.
8. Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which you have said. And he said in his heart, There will be peace and quiet in my days.

Isaiah 40 / Basic English

1. Give comfort, give comfort, to my people, says your God.
2. Say kind words to the heart of Jerusalem, crying out to her that her time of trouble is ended, that her punishment is complete; that she has been rewarded by the Lord's hand twice over for all her sins.
3. A voice of one crying, Make ready in the waste land the way of the Lord, make level in the lowland a highway for our God.
4. Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low, and let the rough places become level, and the hilltops become a valley,
5. And the glory of the Lord will be made clear, and all flesh will see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has said it.
6. A voice of one saying, Give a cry! And I said, What is my cry to be? All flesh is grass, and all its strength like the flower of the field.
7. The grass becomes dry, the flower is dead; because the breath of the Lord goes over it: truly the people is grass.
8. The grass is dry, the flower is dead; but the word of our God is eternal.
9. You who give good news to Zion, get up into the high mountain; you who give good news to Jerusalem, let your voice be strong; let it be sounding without fear; say to the towns of Judah, See, your God!
10. See, the Lord God will come as a strong one, ruling in power: see, those made free by him are with him, and those whom he has made safe go before him.
11. He will give food to his flock like a keeper of sheep; with his arm he will get it together, and will take up the lambs on his breast, gently guiding those which are with young.
12. In the hollow of whose hand have the waters been measured? and who is able to take the heavens in his stretched-out fingers? who has got together the dust of the earth in a measure? who has taken the weight of the mountains, or put the hills into the scales?
13. By whom has the spirit of the Lord been guided, or who has been his teacher?
14. Who gave him suggestions, and made clear to him the right way? who gave him knowledge, guiding him in the way of wisdom?
15. See, the nations are to him like a drop hanging from a bucket, and like the small dust in the scales: he takes up the islands like small dust.
16. And Lebanon is not enough to make a fire with, or all its cattle enough for a burned offering.
17. All the nations are as nothing before him; even less than nothing, a thing of no value.
18. Whom then is God like, in your opinion? or what will you put forward as a comparison with him?
19. The workman makes an image, and the gold-worker puts gold plates over it, and makes silver bands for it.
20. The wise workman makes selection of the mulberry-tree of the offering, a wood which will not become soft; so that the image may be fixed to it and not be moved.
21. Have you no knowledge of it? has it not come to your ears? has not news of it been given to you from the first? has it not been clear to you from the time when the earth was placed on its base?
22. It is he who is seated over the arch of the earth, and the people in it are as small as locusts; by him the heavens are stretched out like an arch, and made ready like a tent for a living-place.
23. He makes rulers come to nothing; the judges of the earth are of no value.
24. They have only now been planted, and their seed put into the earth, and they have only now taken root, when he sends out his breath over them and they become dry, and the storm-wind takes them away like dry grass.
25. Who then seems to you to be my equal? says the Holy One.
26. Let your eyes be lifted up on high, and see: who has made these? He who sends out their numbered army: who has knowledge of all their names: by whose great strength, because he is strong in power, all of them are in their places.
27. Why do you say, O Jacob, such words as these, O Israel, The Lord's eyes are not on my way, and my God gives no attention to my cause?
28. Have you no knowledge of it? has it not come to your ears? The eternal God, the Lord, the Maker of the ends of the earth, is never feeble or tired; there is no searching out of his wisdom.
29. He gives power to the feeble, increasing the strength of him who has no force.
30. Even the young men will become feeble and tired, and the best of them will come to the end of his strength;
31. But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness.

2 Corinthians 11 / Basic English

1. Put up with me if I am a little foolish: but, truly, you do put up with me.
2. For I have a very great care for you: because you have been married by me to one husband, and it is my desire to give you completely holy to Christ.
3. But I have a fear, that in some way, as Eve was tricked by the deceit of the snake, your minds may be turned away from their simple and holy love for Christ.
4. For if anyone comes preaching another Jesus from the one whose preachers we are, or if you have got a different spirit, or a different sort of good news from those which came to you, how well you put up with these things.
5. For in my opinion, I am in no way less than the most important of the Apostles.
6. But though I am rough in my way of talking, I am not so in knowledge, as we have made clear to all by our acts among you.
7. Or did I do wrong in making myself low so that you might be lifted up, because I gave you the good news of God without reward?
8. I took money from other churches as payment for my work, so that I might be your servant;
9. And when I was present with you, and was in need, I let no man be responsible for me; for the brothers, when they came from Macedonia, gave me whatever was needed; and in everything I kept myself from being a trouble to you, and I will go on doing so.
10. As the true word of Christ is in me, I will let no man take from me this my cause of pride in the country of Achaia.
11. Why? because I have no love for you? let God be judge.
12. But what I do, that I will go on doing, so that I may give no chance to those who are looking for one; so that, in the cause of their pride, they may be seen to be the same as we are.
13. For such men are false Apostles, workers of deceit, making themselves seem like Apostles of Christ.
14. And it is no wonder; for even Satan himself is able to take the form of an angel of light.
15. So it is no great thing if his servants make themselves seem to be servants of righteousness; whose end will be the reward of their works.
16. I say again, Let me not seem foolish to anyone; but if I do, put up with me as such, so that I may take a little glory to myself.
17. What I am now saying is not by the order of the Lord, but as a foolish person, taking credit to myself, as it seems.
18. Seeing that there are those who take credit to themselves after the flesh, I will do the same.
19. For you put up with the foolish gladly, being wise yourselves.
20. You put up with a man if he makes servants of you, if he makes profit out of you, if he makes you prisoners, if he puts himself in a high place, if he gives you blows on the face.
21. I say this by way of shaming ourselves, as if we had been feeble. But if anyone puts himself forward (I am talking like a foolish person), I will do the same.
22. Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they of Israel? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I.
23. Are they servants of Christ? (I am talking foolishly) I am more so; I have had more experience of hard work, of prisons, of blows more than measure, of death.
24. Five times the Jews gave me forty blows but one.
25. Three times I was whipped with rods, once I was stoned, three times the ship I was in came to destruction at sea, a night and a day I have been in the water;
26. In frequent travels, in dangers on rivers, in dangers from outlaws, in dangers from my countrymen, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the town, in dangers in the waste land, in dangers at sea, in dangers among false brothers;
27. In hard work and weariness, in frequent watchings, going without food and drink, cold and in need of clothing.
28. In addition to all the other things, there is that which comes on me every day, the care of all the churches.
29. Who is feeble and I am not feeble? who is in danger of falling, and I am not angry?
30. If I have to take credit to myself, I will do so in the things in which I am feeble.
31. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be praise for ever, is witness that the things which I say are true.
32. In Damascus, the ruler under Aretas the king kept watch over the town of the people of Damascus, in order to take me:
33. And being let down in a basket from the wall through a window, I got free from his hands.