Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Isaiah 53 / Basic English

1. Who would have had faith in the word which has come to our ears, and to whom had the arm of the Lord been unveiled?
2. For his growth was like that of a delicate plant before him, and like a root out of a dry place: he had no grace of form, to give us pleasure;
3. Men made sport of him, turning away from him; he was a man of sorrows, marked by disease; and like one from whom men's faces are turned away, he was looked down on, and we put no value on him.
4. But it was our pain he took, and our diseases were put on him: while to us he seemed as one diseased, on whom God's punishment had come.
5. But it was for our sins he was wounded, and for our evil doings he was crushed: he took the punishment by which we have peace, and by his wounds we are made well.
6. We all went wandering like sheep; going every one of us after his desire; and the Lord put on him the punishment of us all.
7. Men were cruel to him, but he was gentle and quiet; as a lamb taken to its death, and as a sheep before those who take her wool makes no sound, so he said not a word.
8. They took away from him help and right, and who gave a thought to his fate? for he was cut off from the land of the living: he came to his death for the sin of my people.
9. And they put his body into the earth with sinners, and his last resting-place was with the evil-doers, though he had done no wrong, and no deceit was in his mouth.
10. And the Lord was pleased ... see a seed, long life, ... will do well in his hand. ...
11. ... made clear his righteousness before men ... had taken their sins on himself.
12. For this cause he will have a heritage with the great, and he will have a part in the goods of war with the strong, because he gave up his life, and was numbered with the evil-doers; taking on himself the sins of the people, and making prayer for the wrongdoers.

Isaiah 54 / Basic English

1. Let your voice be loud in song, O woman without children; make melody and sounds of joy, you who did not give birth: for the children of her who had no husband are more than those of the married wife, says the Lord.
2. Make wide the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your house be stretched out without limit: make your cords long, and your tent-pins strong.
3. For I will make wide your limits on the right hand and on the left; and your seed will take the nations for a heritage, and make the waste towns full of people.
4. Have no fear; for you will not be shamed or without hope: you will not be put to shame, for the shame of your earlier days will go out of your memory, and you will no longer keep in mind the sorrows of your widowed years.
5. For your Maker is your husband; the Lord of armies is his name: and the Holy One of Israel is he who takes up your cause; he will be named the God of all the earth.
6. For the Lord has made you come back to him, like a wife who has been sent away in grief of spirit; for one may not give up the wife of one's early days.
7. For a short time I gave you up; but with great mercies I will take you back again.
8. In overflowing wrath my face was veiled from you for a minute, but I will have pity on you for ever, says the Lord who takes up your cause.
9. For this is like the days of Noah to me: for as I took an oath that the waters of Noah would never again go over the earth, so have I taken an oath that I will not again be angry with you, or say bitter words to you.
10. For the mountains may be taken away, and the hills be moved out of their places, but my love will not be taken from you, or my agreement of peace broken, says the Lord, who has had mercy on you.
11. O troubled one, storm-crushed, uncomforted! see, your stones will be framed in fair colours, and your bases will be sapphires.
12. I will make your towers of rubies, and your doors of carbuncles, and the wall round you will be of all sorts of beautiful stones.
13. And all your builders will be made wise by the Lord; and great will be the peace of your children.
14. All your rights will be made certain to you: have no fear of evil, and destruction will not come near you.
15. See, they may be moved to war, but not by my authority: all those who come together to make an attack on you, will be broken against you.
16. See, I have made the iron-worker, blowing on the burning coals, and making the instrument of war by his work; and I have made the waster for destruction.
17. No instrument of war which is formed against you will be of any use; and every tongue which says evil against you will be judged false. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness comes from me, says the Lord.

Isaiah 55 / Basic English

1. Ho! everyone in need, come to the waters, and he who has no strength, let him get food: come, get bread without money; wine and milk without price.
2. Why do you give your money for what is not bread, and the fruit of your work for what will not give you pleasure? Give ear to me, so that your food may be good, and you may have the best in full measure.
3. Give ear, and come to me, take note with care, so that your souls may have life: and I will make an eternal agreement with you, even the certain mercies of David.
4. See, I have given him as a witness to the peoples, a ruler and a guide to the nations.
5. See, you will send for a nation of which you had no knowledge, and those who had no knowledge of you will come running to you, because of the Lord your God, and because of the Holy One of Israel, for he has given you glory.
6. Make search for the Lord while he is there, make prayer to him while he is near:
7. Let the sinner give up his way, and the evil-doer his purpose: and let him come back to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for there is full forgiveness with him.
8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, or your ways my ways, says the Lord.
9. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10. For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and does not go back again, but gives water to the earth, and makes it fertile, giving seed to the planter, and bread for food;
11. So will my word be which goes out of my mouth: it will not come back to me with nothing done, but it will give effect to my purpose, and do that for which I have sent it.
12. For you will go out with joy, and be guided in peace: the mountains and the hills will make melody before you, and all the trees of the fields will make sounds of joy.
13. In place of the thorn will come up the fir-tree, and in place of the blackberry the myrtle: and it will be to the Lord for a name, for an eternal sign which will not be cut off.

Galatians 4 / Basic English

1. But I say that as long as the son is a child, he is in no way different from a servant, though he is lord of all;
2. But is under keepers and managers till the time fixed by the father.
3. So we, when we were young, were kept under the first rules of the world;
4. But when the time had come, God sent out his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
5. That he might make them free who were under the law, and that we might be given the place of sons.
6. And because you are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, saying, Abba, Father.
7. So that you are no longer a servant, but a son; and if a son, then the heritage of God is yours.
8. But at that time, having no knowledge of God, you were servants to those who by right are no gods:
9. But now that you have come to have knowledge of God, or more truly, God has knowledge of you, how is it that you go back again to the poor and feeble first things, desiring to be servants to them again?
10. You keep days, and months, and fixed times, and years.
11. I am in fear of you, that I may have been working for you to no purpose.
12. My desire for you, brothers, is that you may be as I am, because I am as you are. You have done me no wrong;
13. But you have knowledge that with a feeble body I was preaching the good news to you the first time;
14. And you did not have a poor opinion of me because of the trouble in my flesh, or put shame on it; but you took me to your hearts as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
15. Where then is that happy condition of yours? because I give you witness, that, if possible, you would have taken out your eyes and given them to me.
16. So then am I no longer your friend, because I give you true words?
17. Their interest in you is not good; but their desire is that you may be shut out, so that you may go after them.
18. But it is good to have an interest in a good cause at all times, and not only when I am present with you.
19. My children, of whom I am again in birth-pains till Christ is formed in you,
20. Truly my desire is to be present with you now, using a changed voice; for I am troubled about you.
21. Say, you whose desire it is to be under the law, do you not give ear to the law?
22. Because it is in the Writings, that Abraham had two sons, one by the servant-woman, and one by the free woman.
23. Now the son by the servant-woman has his birth after the flesh; but the son by the free woman has his birth through the undertaking of God.
24. Which things have a secret sense; because these women are the two agreements; one from the mountain of Sinai, giving birth to servants, which is Hagar.
25. Now this Hagar is the mountain Sinai in Arabia, and is the image of the Jerusalem which now is: which is a servant with her children.
26. But the Jerusalem on high is free, which is our mother.
27. For it is in the Writings, You who have never given birth, be glad; give cries of joy, you who have had no birth-pains; for the children of her who has been given up by her husband are more than those of the woman who has a husband.
28. Now we, brothers, as Isaac was, are the children of the undertaking of God.
29. But as in those days he who had birth after the flesh was cruel to him who had birth after the Spirit, even so it is now.
30. What then do the Writings say? Send away the servant-woman and her son; for the son of the servant-woman will not have a part in the heritage with the son of the free woman.
31. So, brothers, we are not children of the servant-woman, but of the free woman.