Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Isaiah 41 / Basic English

1. Come quietly before me, O sea-lands, and let the peoples get together their strength: let them come near; then let them say what they have to say: let us put forward our cause against one another.
2. Who sent out from the east one who is right wherever he goes? he gives the nations into his hands, and makes him ruler over kings; he gives them as the dust to his sword, as dry stems before the wind to his bow.
3. He goes after them safely, not touching the road with his feet.
4. Whose purpose and work was it? His who sent out the generations from the start. I the Lord, the first, and with the last, I am he.
5. The sea-lands saw it, and were in fear; the ends of the earth were shaking: they came near.
6. They gave help everyone to his neighbour; and everyone said to his brother, Take heart!
7. So the metal-worker put heart into the gold-worker, and he who was hammering the metal smooth said kind words to the iron-worker, saying of the plate, It is ready: and he put it together with nails, so that there might be no slipping.
8. But as for you, Israel, my servant, and you, Jacob, whom I have taken for myself, the seed of Abraham my friend:
9. You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and sent for from its farthest parts, saying to you, You are my servant, whom I have taken for myself, and whom I have not given up:
10. Have no fear, for I am with you; do not be looking about in trouble, for I am your God; I will give you strength, yes, I will be your helper; yes, my true right hand will be your support.
11. Truly, all those who are angry with you will be made low and put to shame: those desiring to do you wrong will come to nothing and never again be seen.
12. You will make search for your haters but they will not be there; those who make war against you will be as nothing and will come to destruction.
13. For I, the Lord your God, have taken your right hand in mine, saying to you, Have no fear; I will be your helper.
14. Have no fear, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel; I will be your helper, says the Lord, even he who takes up your cause, the Holy One of Israel.
15. See, I will make you like a new grain-crushing instrument with teeth, crushing the mountains small, and making the hills like dry stems.
16. You will send the wind over them, and it will take them away; they will go in all directions before the storm-wind: you will have joy in the Lord, and be glad in the Holy One of Israel.
17. The poor and crushed are looking for water where no water is, and their tongue is dry for need of it: I the Lord will give ear to their prayer, I the God of Israel will not give them up.
18. I will make rivers on the dry mountain-tops, and fountains in the valleys: I will make the waste land a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
19. I will put in the waste land the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive-tree; and in the lowland will be planted the fir-tree, the plane, and the cypress together:
20. So that they may see and be wise and give their mind to it, and that it may be clear to them all that the hand of the Lord has done this, and that the Holy One of Israel has made it.
21. Put forward your cause, says the Lord; let your strong argument come out, says the King of Jacob.
22. Let the future be made clear to us: give us news of the past things, so that we may give thought to them; or of the things to come, so that we may see if they are true.
23. Give us word of what will be after this, so that we may be certain that you are gods: yes, do good or do evil, so that we may all see it and be surprised.
24. But you are nothing, and your work is of no value: foolish is he who takes you for his gods.
25. I have sent for one from the north, and from the dawn he has come; in my name he will get rulers together and go against them; they will be like dust, even as the wet earth is stamped on by the feet of the potter.
26. Who has given knowledge of it from the first, so that we may be certain of it? and from the start, so that we may say, His word is true? There is no one who gives news, or says anything, or who gives ear to your words.
27. I was the first to give word of it to Zion, and I gave the good news to Jerusalem.
28. And I saw that there was no man, even no wise man among them, who might give an answer to my questions.
29. Truly they are all nothing, their works are nothing and of no value: their metal images are of no more use than wind.

Isaiah 42 / Basic English

1. See my servant, whom I am supporting, my loved one, in whom I take delight: I have put my spirit on him; he will give the knowledge of the true God to the nations.
2. He will make no cry, his voice will not be loud: his words will not come to men's ears in the streets.
3. He will not let a crushed stem be quite broken, and he will not let a feebly burning light be put out: he will go on sending out the true word to the peoples.
4. His light will not be put out, and he will not be crushed, till he has given the knowledge of the true God to the earth, and the sea-lands will be waiting for his teaching.
5. God the Lord, even he who made the heavens, measuring them out on high; stretching out the earth, and giving its produce; he who gives breath to the people on it, and life to those who go about on it, says:
6. I the Lord have made you the vessel of my purpose, I have taken you by the hand, and kept you safe, and I have given you to be an agreement to the people, and a light to the nations:
7. To give eyes to the blind, to make free the prisoners from the prison, to let out those who are shut up in the dark.
8. I am the Lord; that is my name: I will not give my glory to another, or my praise to pictured images.
9. See, the things said before have come about, and now I give word of new things: before they come I give you news of them.
10. Make a new song to the Lord, and let his praise be sounded from the end of the earth; you who go down to the sea, and everything in it, the sea-lands and their people.
11. Let the waste land and its flocks be glad, the tent-circles of Kedar; let the people of the rock give a glad cry, from the top of the mountains let them make a sound of joy.
12. Let them give glory to the Lord, sounding his praise in the sea-lands.
13. The Lord will go out as a man of war, he will be moved to wrath like a fighting-man: his voice will be strong, he will give a loud cry; he will go against his attackers like a man of war.
14. I have long been quiet, I have kept myself in and done nothing: now I will make sounds of pain like a woman in childbirth, breathing hard and quickly.
15. I will make waste mountains and hills, drying up all their plants; and I will make rivers dry, and pools dry land.
16. And I will take the blind by a way of which they had no knowledge, guiding them by roads strange to them: I will make the dark places light before them, and the rough places level. These things will I do and will not give them up.
17. They will be turned back and be greatly shamed who put their hope in pictured images, who say to metal images, You are our gods.
18. Give ear, you whose ears are shut; and let your eyes be open, you blind, so that you may see.
19. Who is blind, but my servant? who has his ears stopped, but he whom I send? who is blind as my true one, or who has his ears shut like the Lord's servant?
20. Seeing much, but keeping nothing in mind; his ears are open, but there is no hearing.
21. It was the Lord's pleasure, because of his righteousness, to make the teaching great and give it honour.
22. But this is a people whose property has been taken away from them by force; they are all taken in holes, and shut up in prisons: they are made prisoners, and no one makes them free; they are taken by force and no one says, Give them back.
23. Who is there among you who will give ear to this? who will give attention to it for the time to come?
24. Who gave up Jacob to those who took away his goods, and Israel to his attackers? Did not the Lord? he against whom they did wrong, and in whose ways they would not go, turning away from his teaching.
25. For this reason he let loose on him the heat of his wrath, and his strength was like a flame; and it put fire round about him, but he did not see it; he was burned, but did not take it to heart.

2 Corinthians 12 / Basic English

1. As it is necessary for me to take glory to myself, though it is not a good thing, I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
2. I have knowledge of a man in Christ, fourteen years back (if he was in the body, or out of the body, I am not able to say, but God only), who was taken up to the third heaven.
3. And I have knowledge of such a man (if he was in the body, or out of the body, I am not able to say, but God only),
4. How he was taken up into Paradise, and words came to his ears which may not be said, and which man is not able to say.
5. On account of such a one I will have glory: for myself I will take no glory, but only in my feeble body.
6. For if I had a desire to take credit to myself, it would not be foolish, for I would be saying what is true: but I will not, for fear that I might seem to any man more than he sees me to be, or has word from me that I am.
7. And because the revelations were so very great, in order that I might not be overmuch lifted up, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, one sent from Satan to give me pain.
8. And about this thing I made request to the Lord three times that it might be taken away from me.
9. And he said to me, My grace is enough for you, for my power is made complete in what is feeble. Most gladly, then, will I take pride in my feeble body, so that the power of Christ may be on me.
10. So I take pleasure in being feeble, in unkind words, in needs, in cruel attacks, in troubles, on account of Christ: for when I am feeble, then am I strong.
11. I have been forced by you to become foolish, though it was right for my praise to have come from you: for in no way was I less than the chief of the Apostles, though I am nothing.
12. Truly the signs of an Apostle were done among you in quiet strength, with wonders and acts of power.
13. For what is there in which you were made less than the other churches, but in the one thing that I was not a trouble to you? Let me have forgiveness for this wrong.
14. This is now the third time that I am ready to come to you; and I will not be a trouble to you: my desire is for you, not for your property: for it is not the children's business to make store for their fathers, but the fathers for the children.
15. And I will gladly give all I have for your souls. If I have the more love for you, am I to be loved the less?
16. But let it be so, that I was not a trouble to you myself; but (someone may say) being false, I took you with deceit.
17. Did I make a profit out of you by any of those whom I sent to you?
18. I gave orders to Titus, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus make any profit out of you? were we not guided by the same Spirit, in the same ways?
19. It may seem to you that all this time we have been attempting to put ourselves in the right; but we are saying these things before God in Christ. For all things, dear brothers, are for your profit.
20. For I have a fear that, when I come, you may not be answering to my desire, and that I may not be answering to yours; that there may be fighting, hate, angry feeling, divisions, evil talk about others, secrets, thoughts of pride, outbursts against authority;
21. And that when I come again, my God may put me to shame among you, and I may have grief for those who have done wrong before and have had no regret for their unclean ways, and for the evil desires of the flesh to which they have given way.