Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Isaiah 64 / Basic English

1. O let the heavens be broken open and come down, so that the mountains may be shaking before you,
2. As when fire puts the brushwood in flames, or as when water is boiling from the heat of the fire: to make your name feared by your haters, so that the nations may be shaking before you;
3. While you do acts of power for which we are not looking, and which have not come to the ears of men in the past.
4. The ear has not had news of, or the eye seen, ... any God but you, working for the man who is waiting for him.
5. Will you not have mercy on him who takes pleasure in doing righteousness, even on those who keep in mind your ways? Truly you were angry, and we went on doing evil, and sinning against you in the past.
6. For we have all become like an unclean person, and all our good acts are like a dirty robe: and we have all become old like a dead leaf, and our sins, like the wind, take us away.
7. And there is no one who makes prayer to your name, or who is moved to keep true to you: for your face is veiled from us, and you have given us into the power of our sins.
8. But now, O Lord, you are our father; we are the earth, and you are our maker; and we are all the work of your hand.
9. Be not very angry, O Lord, and do not keep our sins in mind for ever: give ear to our prayer, for we are all your people.
10. Your holy towns have become a waste, Zion has become a waste, Jerusalem is a mass of broken walls.
11. Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers gave praise to you, is burned with fire; and all the things of our desire have come to destruction.
12. In view of all this, will you still do nothing, O Lord? will you keep quiet, and go on increasing our punishment?

Isaiah 65 / Basic English

1. I have been ready to give an answer to those who did not make prayer to me; I have been offering myself to those who were not searching for me; I said, Here am I, here am I, to a nation which gave no respect to my name.
2. All day my hands have been stretched out to an uncontrolled people, who go in an evil way, after the purposes of their hearts;
3. A people who make me angry every day, making offerings in gardens, and burning perfumes on bricks.
4. Who are seated in the resting-places of the dead, and by night are in the secret places; who take pig's flesh for food, and have the liquid of disgusting things in their vessels.
5. Who say, Keep away, do not come near me, for fear that I make you holy: these are a smoke in my nose, a fire burning all day.
6. See, it is recorded before me, says the Lord: I will not keep back my hand, till I have sent punishment,
7. For their sins and the sins of their fathers, who were burning perfumes on the mountains, and saying evil things against me on the hills: so I will take the measure of their sins, and will send the punishment for them into their breast.
8. This is the word of the Lord: As the new wine is seen in the grapes, and they say, Do not send destruction on it, for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants, in order that I may not put an end to them all.
9. And I will take a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah one who will have my mountains for a heritage: and the people I have taken to be mine will have it for themselves, and my servants will have their resting-place there.
10. And Sharon will be a grass-land for the flocks, and the valley of Achor a resting-place for the herds: for my people whose hearts have been turned back to me.
11. But as for you who have given up the Lord, who have no care for my holy mountain, who get ready a table for Chance, and make offerings of mixed wine to Fate;
12. Your fate will be the sword, and you will all go down to death: because when my voice came to you, you made no answer; you did not give ear to my word; but you did what was evil in my eyes, desiring what was not pleasing to me.
13. For this cause says the Lord God, My servants will have food, but you will be in need of food: my servants will have drink, but you will be dry: my servants will have joy, but you will be shamed:
14. My servants will make songs in the joy of their hearts, but you will be crying for sorrow, and making sounds of grief from a broken spirit.
15. And your name will become a curse to my people, and the Lord God will put you to death, and give his servants another name:
16. So that he who is requesting a blessing will make use of the name of the true God, and he who takes an oath will do so by the true God; because the past troubles are gone out of mind, and because they are covered from my eyes.
17. For see, I am making a new heaven and a new earth: and the past things will be gone completely out of mind.
18. But men will be glad and have joy for ever in what I am making; for I am making Jerusalem a delight, and her people a joy.
19. And I will be glad over Jerusalem, and have joy in my people: and the voice of weeping will no longer be sounding in her, or the voice of grief.
20. No longer will there be there a child whose days are cut short, or an old man whose days have not come to their full measure: for the young man at his death will be a hundred years old, and he whose life is shorter than a hundred years will seem as one cursed.
21. And they will be building houses and living in them; planting vine-gardens and getting the fruit of them.
22. They will no longer be building for the use of others, or planting for others to have the fruit: for the days of my people will be like the days of a tree, and my loved ones will have joy in full measure in the work of their hands.
23. Their work will not be for nothing, and they will not give birth to children for destruction; for they are a seed to whom the Lord has given his blessing, and their offspring will be with them.
24. And before they make their request I will give an answer, and while they are still making prayer to me, I will give ear.
25. The wolf and the lamb will take their food together, and the lion will make a meal of grass like the ox: but dust will be the snake's food. There will be no cause of pain or destruction in all my holy mountain, says the Lord.

Isaiah 66 / Basic English

1. The Lord says, Heaven is the seat of my power, and earth is the resting-place for my feet: what sort of house will you make for me, and what place will be my resting-place?
2. For all these things my hand has made, and they are mine, says the Lord; but to this man only will I give attention, to him who is poor and broken in spirit, fearing my word.
3. He who puts an ox to death puts a man to death; he who makes an offering of a lamb puts a dog to death; he who makes a meal offering makes an offering of pig's blood; he who makes an offering of perfumes for a sign gives worship to an image: as they have gone after their desires, and their soul takes pleasure in their disgusting things;
4. So I will go after trouble for them, and will send on them what they are fearing: because no one made answer to my voice, or gave ear to my word; but they did what was evil in my eyes, going after that in which I took no pleasure.
5. Give ear to the word of the Lord, you who are in fear at his word: your countrymen, hating you, and driving you out because of my name, have said, Let the Lord's glory be made clear, so that we may see your joy; but they will be put to shame.
6. There is a noise of war from the town, a sound from the Temple, the voice of the Lord giving punishment to his haters.
7. Before her pains came, she gave birth; before her pains, she gave birth to a man-child.
8. When has such a story come to men's ears? who has seen such things? will a land come to birth in one day? will a nation be given birth in a minute? For when Zion's pains came on her, she gave birth to her children straight away.
9. Will I by whom the birth was started, not make it complete? says the Lord. Will I who make children come to birth, let them be kept back? says your God.
10. Have joy with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you her lovers: take part in her joy, all you who are sorrowing for her:
11. So that you may take of the comfort flowing from her breasts, and be delighted with the full measure of her glory.
12. For the Lord says, See, I will make her peace like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream, and she will take her children in her arms, gently caring for them on her knees.
13. As to one who is comforted by his mother, so will I give you comfort: and you will be comforted in Jerusalem.
14. And you will see it and your heart will be glad, and your bones will get new strength, like young grass: and the hand of the Lord will be seen at work for his servants, and his wrath against his haters.
15. For the Lord is coming with fire, and his war-carriages will be like the storm-wind; to give punishment in the heat of his wrath, and his passion is like flames of fire.
16. For with fire and sword will the Lord come, judging all the earth, and his sword will be on all flesh: and great numbers will be put to death by him.
17. As for those who keep themselves separate, and make themselves clean in the gardens, going after one in the middle, taking pig's flesh for food, and other disgusting things, such as the mouse: their works and their thoughts will come to an end together, says the Lord.
18. And I am coming to get together all nations and tongues: and they will come and will see my glory.
19. And I will put a sign among them, and I will send those who are still living to the nations, to Tarshish, Put, and Lud, Meshech and Rosh, Tubal and Javan, to the sea-lands far away, who have not had word of me, or seen my glory; and they will give the knowledge of my glory to the nations.
20. And they will take your countrymen out of all the nations for an offering to the Lord, on horses, and in carriages, and in carts, and on asses, and on camels, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, as the children of Israel take their offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord.
21. And some of them will I take for priests and Levites, says the Lord.
22. For as the new heaven and the new earth which I will make will be for ever before me, says the Lord, so will your seed and your name be for ever.
23. And it will be, that from new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh will come to give worship before me, says the Lord.
24. And they will go out to see the dead bodies of the men who have done evil against me: for their worm will ever be living, and their fire will never be put out, and they will be a thing of fear to all flesh.

Ephesians 2 / Basic English

1. And to you did he give life, when you were dead through your wrongdoing and sins,
2. In which you were living in the past, after the ways of this present world, doing the pleasure of the lord of the power of the air, the spirit who is now working in those who go against the purpose of God;
3. Among whom we all at one time were living in the pleasures of our flesh, giving way to the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and the punishment of God was waiting for us even as for the rest.
4. But God, being full of mercy, through the great love which he had for us,
5. Even when we were dead through our sins, gave us life together with Christ (by grace you have salvation),
6. So that we came back from death with him, and are seated with him in the heavens, in Christ Jesus;
7. That in the time to come he might make clear the full wealth of his grace in his mercy to us in Christ Jesus:
8. Because by grace you have salvation through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is given by God:
9. Not by works, so that no man may take glory to himself.
10. For by his act we were given existence in Christ Jesus to do those good works which God before made ready for us so that we might do them.
11. For this reason keep it in mind that in the past you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are looked on as being outside the circumcision by those who have circumcision, in the flesh, made by hands;
12. That you were at that time without Christ, being cut off from any part in Israel's rights as a nation, having no part in God's agreement, having no hope, and without God in the world.
13. But now in Christ Jesus you who at one time were far off are made near in the blood of Christ.
14. For he is our peace, who has made the two into one, and by whom the middle wall of division has been broken down,
15. Having in his flesh put an end to that which made the division between us, even the law with its rules and orders, so that he might make in himself, of the two, one new man, so making peace;
16. And that the two might come into agreement with God in one body through the cross, so putting an end to that division.
17. And he came preaching peace to you who were far off, and to those who were near;
18. Because through him the two of us are able to come near in one Spirit to the Father.
19. So then you are no longer as those who have no part or place in the kingdom of God, but you are numbered among the saints, and of the family of God,
20. Resting on the base of the Apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief keystone,
21. In whom all the building, rightly joined together, comes to be a holy house of God in the Lord;
22. In whom you, with the rest, are united together as a living-place of God in the Spirit.