Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Jeremiah 9 / Basic English

1. If only my head was a stream of waters and my eyes fountains of weeping, so that I might go on weeping day and night for the dead of the daughter of my people!
2. If only I had in the waste land a night's resting-place for travellers, so that I might go away, far from my people! for they are all untrue, a band of false men.
3. Their tongues are bent like a bow to send out false words: they have become strong in the land, but not for good faith: they go on from evil to evil, and they have no knowledge of me, says the Lord.
4. Let everyone keep watch on his neighbour, and put no faith in any brother: for every brother will certainly be tricking his brother, and every neighbour will go about saying evil.
5. Everyone will make sport of his neighbour with deceit, not saying what is true: their tongues have been trained to say false words; they are twisted, hating to come back.
6. There is wrong on wrong, deceit on deceit; they have given up the knowledge of me, says the Lord.
7. So the Lord of armies has said, See, I will make them soft in the fire and put them to the test; this I will do because of their evil-doing.
8. His tongue is an arrow causing death; the words of his mouth are deceit: he says words of peace to his neighbour, but in his heart he is waiting secretly for him.
9. Am I not to send punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this?
10. Give yourselves to weeping, crying out in sorrow for the mountains; and for the fields of the waste land send up a song of grief, because they are burned up, so that no one goes through; there is no sound of cattle; the bird of the heavens and the beast are in flight and are gone.
11. And I will make Jerusalem a mass of broken stones, the living-place of jackals; and I will make the towns of Judah a waste, with no man living there.
12. Who is the wise man able to see this? who is he to whom the word of the Lord has come, so that he may make it clear? why is the land given to destruction and burned up like a waste place, so that no one goes through?
13. And the Lord said, Because they have given up my law which I put before them, giving no attention to my voice and not being guided by it;
14. But they have been walking in the pride of their hearts, going after the Baals, as their fathers gave them teaching.
15. So the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, I will give them, even this people, bitter plants for food and bitter water for drink.
16. And I will send them wandering among the nations, among people strange to them and to their fathers: and I will send the sword after them till I have put an end to them.
17. This is what the Lord of armies has said: Take thought and send for the weeping women, so that they may come; and send for the wise women, so that they may come:
18. Let them quickly make cries of sorrow for us, so that drops may be flowing from our eyes till they are streaming with water.
19. For a sound of weeping goes up from Zion, a cry, How has destruction come on us? we are overcome with shame because we have gone away from our land; he has sent us out from our house.
20. But even now, give ear to the word of the Lord, O you women; let your ears be open to the word of his mouth, training your daughters to give cries of sorrow, everyone teaching her neighbour a song of grief.
21. For death has come up into our windows, forcing its way into our great houses; cutting off the children in the streets and the young men in the wide places.
22. The bodies of men will be falling like waste on the open fields, and like grain dropped by the grain-cutter, and no one will take them up.
23. This is the word of the Lord: Let not the wise man take pride in his wisdom, or the strong man in his strength, or the man of wealth in his wealth:
24. But if any man has pride, let it be in this, that he has the wisdom to have knowledge of me, that I am the Lord, working mercy, giving true decisions, and doing righteousness in the earth: for in these things I have delight, says the Lord.
25. See, the day is coming, says the Lord, when I will send punishment on all those who have circumcision in the flesh;
26. On Egypt and on Judah and on Edom and on the children of Ammon and on Moab and on all who have the ends of their hair cut, who are living in the waste land: for all these nations and all the people of Israel are without circumcision in their hearts.

Jeremiah 10 / Basic English

1. Give ear to the word which the Lord says to you, O people of Israel:
2. This is what the Lord has said: Do not go in the way of the nations; have no fear of the signs of heaven, for the nations go in fear of them.
3. For that which is feared by the people is foolish: it is the work of the hands of the workman; for a tree is cut down by him out of the woods with his axe.
4. They make it beautiful with silver and gold; they make it strong with nails and hammers, so that it may not be moved.
5. It is like a pillar in a garden of plants, and has no voice: it has to be lifted, for it has no power of walking. Have no fear of it; for it has no power of doing evil and it is not able to do any good.
6. There is no one like you, O Lord; you are great and your name is great in power.
7. Who would not have fear of you, O King of the nations? for it is your right: for among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you.
8. But they are together like beasts and foolish: the teaching of false gods is wood.
9. Silver hammered into plates is sent from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the expert workman and of the hands of the gold-worker; blue and purple is their clothing, all the work of expert men.
10. But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and an eternal king: when he is angry, the earth is shaking with fear, and the nations give way before his wrath.
11. This is what you are to say to them: The gods who have not made the heavens and the earth will be cut off from the earth and from under the heavens.
12. He has made the earth by his power, he has made the world strong in its place by his wisdom, and by his wise design the heavens have been stretched out.
13. At the sound of his voice there is a massing of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mists go up from the ends of the earth; he makes the thunder-flames for the rain, and sends out the wind from his store-houses.
14. Then every man becomes like a beast without knowledge; every gold-worker is put to shame by the image he has made: for his metal image is deceit, and there is no breath in them.
15. They are nothing, a work of error: in the time of their punishment, destruction will overtake them.
16. The heritage of Jacob is not like these; for the maker of all things is his heritage: the Lord of armies is his name.
17. Get your goods together and go out of the land, O you who are shut up in the walled town.
18. For the Lord has said, I will send the people in flight like a stone from the land at this time, troubling them so that they will be conscious of it.
19. Sorrow is mine for I am wounded! my wound may not be made well; and I said, Cruel is my disease, I may not be free from it.
20. My tent is pulled down and all my cords are broken: my children have gone from me, and they are not: no longer is there anyone to give help in stretching out my tent and hanging up my curtains.
21. For the keepers of the sheep have become like beasts, not looking to the Lord for directions: so they have not done wisely and all their flocks have been put to flight.
22. News is going about, see, it is coming, a great shaking is coming from the north country, so that the towns of Judah may be made waste and become the living-place of jackals.
23. O Lord, I am conscious that a man's way is not in himself: man has no power of guiding his steps.
24. O Lord, put me right, but with wise purpose; not in your wrath, or you will make me small.
25. Let your wrath be let loose on the nations which have no knowledge of you, and on the families who give no worship to your name: for they have made a meal of Jacob, truly they have made a meal of him and put an end to him and made his fields a waste.

Philippians 1 / Basic English

1. Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, with the Bishops and Deacons of the church:
2. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. I give praise to my God at every memory of you,
4. And in all my prayers for you all, making my request with joy,
5. Because of your help in giving the good news from the first day till now;
6. For I am certain of this very thing, that he by whom the good work was started in you will make it complete till the day of Jesus Christ:
7. So it is right for me to take thought for you all in this way, because I have you in my heart; for in my chains, and in my arguments before the judges in support of the good news, making clear that it is true, you all have your part with me in grace.
8. For God is my witness, how my love goes out to you all in the loving mercies of Christ Jesus.
9. And my prayer is that you may be increased more and more in knowledge and experience;
10. So that you may give your approval to the best things; that you may be true and without wrongdoing till the day of Christ;
11. Being full of the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
12. Now it is my purpose to make clear to you, brothers, that the cause of the good news has been helped by my experiences;
13. So that it became clear through all the Praetorium, and to all the rest, that I was a prisoner on account of Christ;
14. And most of the brothers in the Lord, taking heart because of my chains, are all the stronger to give the word of God without fear.
15. Though some are preaching Christ out of envy and competition, others do it out of a good heart:
16. These do it from love, conscious that I am responsible for the cause of the good news:
17. But those are preaching Christ in a spirit of competition, not from their hearts, but with the purpose of giving me pain in my prison.
18. What then? only that in every way, falsely or truly, the preaching of Christ goes on; and in this I am glad, and will be glad.
19. For I am conscious that this will be for my salvation, through your prayer and the giving out of the stored wealth of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
20. In the measure of my strong hope and belief that in nothing will I be put to shame, but that without fear, as at all times, so now will Christ have glory in my body, by life or by death.
21. For to me life is Christ and death is profit.
22. But if I go on living in the flesh--if this is the fruit of my work--then I do not see what decision to make.
23. I am in a hard position between the two, having a desire to go away and be with Christ, which is very much better:
24. Still, to go on in the flesh is more necessary because of you.
25. And being certain of this, I am conscious that I will go on, yes, and go on with you all, for your growth and joy in the faith;
26. So that your pride in me may be increased in Christ Jesus through my being present with you again.
27. Only let your behaviour do credit to the good news of Christ, so that if I come and see you or if I am away from you, I may have news of you that you are strong in one spirit, working together with one soul for the faith of the good news;
28. Having no fear of those who are against you; which is a clear sign of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God;
29. Because to you it has been given in the cause of Christ not only to have faith in him, but to undergo pain on his account:
30. Fighting the same fight which you saw in me, and now have word of in me.