Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Jeremiah 3 / Basic English

1. They say, If a man puts away his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's, will he go back to her again? will not that land have been made unclean? but though you have been acting like a loose woman with a number of lovers, will you now come back to me? says the Lord.
2. Let your eyes be lifted up to the open hilltops, and see; where have you not been taken by your lovers? You have been seated waiting for them by the wayside like an Arabian in the waste land; you have made the land unclean with your loose ways and your evil-doing.
3. So the showers have been kept back, and there has been no spring rain; still your brow is the brow of a loose woman, you will not let yourself be shamed.
4. Will you not, from this time, make your prayer to me, crying, My father, you are the friend of my early years?
5. Will he be angry for ever? will he keep his wrath to the end? These things you have said, and have done evil and have had your way.
6. And the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen what Israel, turning away from me, has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every branching tree, acting like a loose woman there.
7. And I said, After she has done all these things she will come back to me; but she did not. And her false sister Judah saw it.
8. And though she saw that, because Israel, turning away from me, had been untrue to me, I had put her away and given her a statement in writing ending the relation between us, still Judah, her false sister, had no fear, but went and did the same.
9. So that through all her loose behaviour the land became unclean, and she was untrue, giving herself to stones and trees.
10. But for all this, her false sister Judah has not come back to me with all her heart, but with deceit, says the Lord.
11. And the Lord said to me, Israel in her turning away is seen to be more upright than false Judah.
12. Go, and give out these words to the north, and say, Come back, O Israel, though you have been turned away from me, says the Lord; my face will not be against you in wrath: for I am full of mercy, says the Lord, I will not be angry for ever.
13. Only be conscious of your sin, the evil you have done against the Lord your God; you have gone with strange men under every branching tree, giving no attention to my voice, says the Lord.
14. Come back, O children who are turned away, says the Lord; for I am a husband to you, and I will take you, one from a town and two from a family, and will make you come to Zion;
15. And I will give you keepers, pleasing to my heart, who will give you your food with knowledge and wisdom.
16. And it will come about, when your numbers are increased in the land, in those days, says the Lord, that they will no longer say, The ark of the agreement of the Lord: it will not come into their minds, they will not have any memory of it, or be conscious of the loss of it, and it will not be made again.
17. At that time Jerusalem will be named the seat of the Lord's kingdom; and all the nations will come together to it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: and no longer will their steps be guided by the purposes of their evil hearts.
18. In those days the family of Judah will go with the family of Israel, and they will come together out of the land of the north into the land which I gave for a heritage to your fathers.
19. But I said, How am I to put you among the children, and give you a desired land, a heritage of glory among the armies of the nations? and I said, You are to say to me, My father; and not be turned away from me.
20. Truly, as a wife is false to her husband, so have you been false to me, O Israel, says the Lord.
21. A voice is sounding on the open hilltops, the weeping and the prayers of the children of Israel; because their way is twisted, they have not kept the Lord their God in mind.
22. Come back, you children who have been turned away, and I will take away your desire for wandering. See, we have come to you, for you are the Lord our God.
23. Truly, the hills, and the noise of an army on the mountains, are a false hope: truly, in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.
24. But the Baal has taken all the work of our fathers from our earliest days; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
25. Let us be stretched on the earth in our downfall, covering ourselves with our shame: for we have been sinners against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our earliest years even till this day: and we have not given ear to the voice of the Lord our God.

Jeremiah 4 / Basic English

1. If you will come back, O Israel, says the Lord, you will come back to me: and if you will put away your disgusting ways, you will not be sent away from before me.
2. And you will take your oath, By the living Lord, in good faith and wisdom and righteousness; and the nations will make use of you as a blessing, and in you will they take a pride.
3. For this is what the Lord says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem: Get your unworked land ploughed up, do not put in your seeds among thorns.
4. Undergo a circumcision of the heart, you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem: or my wrath may come out like fire, burning so that no one is able to put it out, because of the evil of your doings.
5. Say openly in Judah, give it out in Jerusalem, and say, Let the horn be sounded in the land: crying out in a loud voice, Come together, and let us go into the walled towns.
6. Put up a flag for a sign to Zion: go in flight so that you may be safe, waiting no longer: for I will send evil from the north, and a great destruction.
7. A lion has gone up from his secret place in the woods, and one who makes waste the nations is on his way; he has gone out from his place, to make your land unpeopled, so that your towns will be made waste, with no man living in them.
8. For this put on haircloth, with weeping and loud crying: for the burning wrath of the Lord is not turned back from us.
9. And it will come about in that day, says the Lord, that the heart of the king will be dead in him, and the hearts of the rulers; and the priests will be overcome with fear, and the prophets with wonder.
10. Then said I, Ah, Lord God! your words were not true when you said to this people and to Jerusalem, You will have peace; when the sword has come even to the soul.
11. At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A burning wind from the open hilltops in the waste land is blowing on the daughter of my people, not for separating or cleaning the grain;
12. A full wind will come for me: and now I will give my decision against them.
13. See, he will come up like the clouds, and his war-carriages like the storm-wind: his horses are quicker than eagles. Sorrow is ours, for destruction has come on us.
14. O Jerusalem, make your heart clean from evil, so that you may have salvation. How long are evil purposes to have a resting-place in you?
15. For a voice is sounding from Dan, giving out evil from the hills of Ephraim:
16. Make this come to the minds of the nations, make a statement openly against Jerusalem, that attackers are coming from a far country and their voices will be loud against the towns of Judah.
17. Like keepers of a field they are against her on every side; because she has been fighting against me, says the Lord.
18. Your ways and your doings have made these things come on you; this is your sin; truly it is bitter, going deep into your heart.
19. My soul, my soul! I am pained to my inmost heart; my heart is troubled in me; I am not able to be quiet, because the sound of the horn, the note of war, has come to my ears.
20. News is given of destruction on destruction; all the land is made waste: suddenly my tents, straight away my curtains, are made waste.
21. How long will I go on seeing the flag and hearing the sound of the war-horn?
22. For my people are foolish, they have no knowledge of me; they are evil-minded children, without sense, all of them: they are wise in evil-doing, but have no knowledge of doing good.
23. Looking at the earth, I saw that it was waste and without form; and to the heavens, that they had no light.
24. Looking at the mountains, I saw them shaking, and all the hills were moved about.
25. Looking, I saw that there was no man, and all the birds of heaven had gone in flight.
26. Looking, I saw that the fertile field was a waste, and all its towns were broken down before the Lord and before his burning wrath.
27. For this is what the Lord has said: All the land will become a waste; I will make destruction complete.
28. The earth will be weeping for this, and the heavens on high will be black: because I have said it, and I will not go back from it; it is my purpose, and it will not be changed.
29. All the land is in flight because of the noise of the horsemen and the bowmen; they have taken cover in the woodland and up on the rocks: every town has been given up, not a man is living in them.
30. And you, when you are made waste, what will you do? Though you are clothed in red, though you make yourself beautiful with ornaments of gold, though you make your eyes wide with paint, it is for nothing that you make yourself fair; your lovers have no more desire for you, they have designs on your life.
31. A voice has come to my ears like the voice of a woman in birth-pains, the pain of one giving birth to her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, fighting for breath, stretching out her hands, saying, Now sorrow is mine! for my strength is gone from me before the takers of life.

Ephesians 4 / Basic English

1. I then, the prisoner in the Lord, make this request from my heart, that you will see that your behaviour is a credit to the position which God's purpose has given you,
2. With all gentle and quiet behaviour, taking whatever comes, putting up with one another in love;
3. Taking care to keep the harmony of the Spirit in the yoke of peace.
4. There is one body and one Spirit, even as you have been marked out by God in the one hope of his purpose for you;
5. One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6. One God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.
7. But to every one of us has grace been given in the measure of the giving of Christ.
8. For this reason he says, He went up on high, taking his prisoners with him, and gave freely to men.
9. (Now this, He went up, what is it but that he first went down into the lower parts of the earth?
10. He who went down is the same who went up far over all the heavens so that he might make all things complete.)
11. And he gave some as Apostles, and some, prophets; and some, preachers of the good news; and some to give care and teaching;
12. For the training of the saints as servants in the church, for the building up of the body of Christ:
13. Till we all come to the harmony of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to full growth, to the full measure of Christ:
14. So that we may be no longer children, sent this way and that, turned about by every wind of teaching, by the twisting and tricks of men, by the deceits of error;
15. But saying true words in love, may come to full growth in him, who is the head, even Christ;
16. Through whom all the body, being rightly formed and united together, by the full working of every part, is increased to the building up of itself in love.
17. This I say, then, and give witness in the Lord, that you are to go no longer in the way of the Gentiles whose minds are turned to that which has no profit,
18. Whose thoughts are dark, to whom the life of God is strange because they are without knowledge, and their hearts have been made hard;
19. Who having no more power of feeling, have given themselves up to evil passions, to do all unclean things with overmuch desire.
20. For this was not the teaching of Christ which was given to you;
21. If in fact you gave ear to him, and were given teaching in him, even as what is true is made clear in Jesus:
22. That you are to put away, in relation to your earlier way of life, the old man, which has become evil by love of deceit;
23. And be made new in the spirit of your mind,
24. And put on the new man, to which God has given life, in righteousness and a true and holy way of living.
25. And so, putting away false words, let everyone say what is true to his neighbour: for we are parts one of another.
26. Be angry without doing wrong; let not the sun go down on your wrath;
27. And do not give way to the Evil One.
28. Let him who was a thief be so no longer, but let him do good work with his hands, so that he may have something to give to him who is in need.
29. Let no evil talk come out of your mouth, but only what is good for giving necessary teaching, and for grace to those who give ear.
30. And do not give grief to the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were marked for the day of salvation.
31. Let all bitter, sharp and angry feeling, and noise, and evil words, be put away from you, with all unkind acts;
32. And be kind to one another, full of pity, having forgiveness for one another, even as God in Christ had forgiveness for you.