Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Isaiah 48 / Basic English

1. Give ear to this, O family of Jacob, you who are named by the name of Israel, and have come out of the body of Judah; who take oaths by the name of the Lord, and make use of the name of the God of Israel, but not truly and not in good faith.
2. For they say that they are of the holy town, and put their faith in the God of Israel: the Lord of armies is his name.
3. I gave word in the past of the things which came about; they came from my mouth, and I made them clear: suddenly I did them, and they came about.
4. Because I saw that your heart was hard, and that your neck was an iron cord, and your brow brass;
5. For this reason I made it clear to you in the past, before it came I gave you word of it: for fear that you might say, My god did these things, and my pictured and metal images made them come about.
6. All this has come to your ears and you have seen it; will you not give witness to it? I am now making clear new things, even secret things, of which you had no knowledge.
7. They have only now been effected, and not in the past: and before this day they had not come to your ears; for fear that you might say, I had knowledge of them.
8. Truly you had no word of them, no knowledge of them; no news of them in the past had come to your ears; because I saw how false was your behaviour, and that your heart was turned against me from your earliest days.
9. Because of my name I will put away my wrath, and for my praise I will keep myself from cutting you off.
10. See, I have been testing you for myself like silver; I have put you through the fire of trouble.
11. For myself, even because of my name, I will do it; for I will not let my name be shamed; and my glory I will not give to another.
12. Give ear to me, Jacob, and Israel, my loved one; I am he, I am the first and I am the last.
13. Yes, by my hand was the earth placed on its base, and by my right hand the heavens were stretched out; at my word they take up their places.
14. Come together, all of you, and give ear; who among you has given news of these things? the Lord's loved one will do his pleasure with Babylon, and with the seed of the Chaldaeans.
15. I, even I, have given the word; I have sent for him: I have made him come, and have given effect to his undertakings.
16. Come near to me, and give ear to this; from the start I did not keep it secret; from the time of its coming into existence I was there: and now the Lord God has sent me, and given me his spirit.
17. The Lord who takes up your cause, the Holy One of Israel, says, I am the Lord your God, who is teaching you for your profit, guiding you by the way in which you are to go.
18. If only you had given ear to my orders, then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea:
19. Your seed would have been like the sand, and your offspring like the dust: your name would not be cut off or come to an end before me.
20. Go out of Babylon, go in flight from the Chaldaeans; with the sound of song make it clear, give the news, let the word go out even to the end of the earth: say, The Lord has taken up the cause of his servant Jacob.
21. They had no need of water when he was guiding them through the waste lands: he made water come out of the rock for them: the rock was parted and the waters came flowing out.
22. There is no peace, says the Lord, for the evil-doers.

Isaiah 49 / Basic English

1. Give ear, O sea-lands, to me; and take note, you peoples from far: I have been marked out by the Lord from the first; when I was still in my mother's body, he had my name in mind:
2. And he has made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shade of his hand he has kept me; and he has made me like a polished arrow, keeping me in his secret place;
3. And he said to me, You are my servant, Israel, in whom my glory will be seen;
4. And I said, I have undergone weariness for nothing, I have given my strength for no purpose or profit: but still the Lord will take up my cause, and my God will give me my reward.
5. And now, says the Lord, who made me his servant when I was still in my mother's body, so that I might make Jacob come back to him, and so that Israel might come together to him: and I was honoured in the eyes of the Lord, and my God became my strength.
6. It is not enough for one who is my servant to put the tribes of Jacob again in their place, and to get back those of Israel who have been sent away: my purpose is to give you as a light to the nations, so that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.
7. The Lord who takes up Israel's cause, even his Holy One, says to him whom men make sport of, who is hated by the nations, a servant of rulers: Kings will see and get up from their places, and chiefs will give worship: because of the Lord who keeps faith; even the Holy One of Israel who has taken you for himself.
8. This is the word of the Lord: I have given ear to you at a good time, and I have been your helper in a day of salvation: and I will keep you safe, and will make you a glory for the people, putting the land in order, and giving them the heritages which now are waste;
9. Saying to those who are in chains, Go free; to those who are in the dark, Come out into the light. They will get food by the way wherever they go, and have grass-lands on all the dry mountain-tops.
10. They will not be in need of food or drink, or be troubled by the heat or the sun: for he who has mercy on them will be their guide, taking them by the springs of water.
11. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways will be lifted up.
12. See, these are coming from far; and these from the north and the west; and these from the land of Sinim.
13. Let your voice be loud in song, O heavens; and be glad, O earth; make sounds of joy, O mountains, for the Lord has given comfort to his people, and will have mercy on his crushed ones.
14. But Zion said, The Lord has given me up, I have gone from his memory.
15. Will a woman give up the child at her breast, will she be without pity for the fruit of her body? yes, these may, but I will not let you go out of my memory.
16. See, your name is marked on my hands; your walls are ever before me.
17. Your builders are coming quickly; your haters and those who made you waste will go out of you.
18. Let your eyes be lifted up round about, and see: they are all coming together to you. By my life, says the Lord, truly you will put them all on you as an ornament, and be clothed with them like a bride.
19. For though the waste places of your land have been given to destruction, now you will not be wide enough for your people, and those who made you waste will be far away.
20. The children to whom you gave birth in other lands will say in your ears, The place is not wide enough for me: make room for me to have a resting-place.
21. Then you will say in your heart, Who has given me all these children? when my children had been taken from me, and I was no longer able to have others, who took care of these? when I was by myself, where then were these?
22. This is the word of the Lord God: See, I will make a sign with my hand to the nations, and put up my flag for the peoples; and they will take up your sons on their beasts, and your daughters on their backs.
23. And kings will take care of you, and queens will give you their milk: they will go down on their faces before you, kissing the dust of your feet; and you will be certain that I am the Lord, and that those who put their hope in me will not be shamed.
24. Will the goods of war be taken from the strong man, or the prisoners of the cruel one be let go?
25. But the Lord says, Even the prisoners of the strong will be taken from him, and the cruel made to let go his goods: for I will take up your cause against your haters, and I will keep your children safe.
26. And the flesh of your attackers will be taken by themselves for food; and they will take their blood for drink, as if it was sweet wine: and all men will see that I the Lord am your saviour, even he who takes up your cause, the Strong One of Jacob.

Galatians 2 / Basic English

1. Then after the space of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus with me.
2. And I went up by revelation; and I put before them the good news which I was preaching among the Gentiles, but privately before those who were of good name, so that the work which I was or had been doing might not be without effect.
3. But not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was made to undergo circumcision:
4. And that because of the false brothers let in secretly, who came searching out our free condition which we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might make servants of us;
5. To whom we gave way not even for an hour; so that the true words of the good news might still be with you.
6. But from those who seemed to be important (whatever they were has no weight with me: God does not take man's person into account): those who seemed to be important gave nothing new to me;
7. But, quite the opposite, when they saw that I had been made responsible for preaching the good news to those without circumcision, even as Peter had been for those of the circumcision
8. (Because he who was working in Peter as the Apostle of the circumcision was working no less in me among the Gentiles);
9. When they saw the grace which was given to me, James and Cephas and John, who had the name of being pillars, gave to me and Barnabas their right hands as friends so that we might go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision;
10. Only it was their desire that we would give thought to the poor; which very thing I had much in mind to do.
11. But when Cephas came to Antioch, I made a protest against him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.
12. For before certain men came from James, he did take food with the Gentiles: but when they came, he went back and made himself separate, fearing those who were of the circumcision.
13. And the rest of the Jews went after him, so that even Barnabas was overcome by their false ways.
14. But when I saw that they were not living uprightly in agreement with the true words of the good news, I said to Cephas before them all, If you, being a Jew, are living like the Gentiles, and not like the Jews, how will you make the Gentiles do the same as the Jews?
15. We being Jews by birth, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
16. Being conscious that a man does not get righteousness by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, we had faith in Christ Jesus, so that we might get righteousness by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law: because by the works of the law will no flesh get righteousness.
17. But if, while we were desiring to get righteousness through Christ, we ourselves were seen to be sinners, is Christ a servant of sin? In no way!
18. For if I put up again those things which I gave to destruction, I am seen to be a wrongdoer.
19. For I, through the law, have become dead to the law, so that I might be living to God.
20. I have been put to death on the cross with Christ; still I am living; no longer I, but Christ is living in me; and that life which I now am living in the flesh I am living by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who in love for me, gave himself up for me.
21. I do not make the grace of God of no effect: because if righteousness is through the law, then Christ was put to death for nothing.