Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Jeremiah 17 / Basic English

1. The sin of Judah is recorded with a pen of iron, and with the sharp point of a jewel it is cut on their hearts of stone, and on the horns of their altars for a sign to them:
2. Their altars and their wood pillars under every branching tree, on the high hills and the mountains in the field.
3. I will give your wealth and all your stores to be taken away in war without a price, because of your sins in every part of your land.
4. And your hand will have to let go your heritage which I gave you; and I will make you a servant to your haters in a land which is strange to you: for you have put my wrath on fire with a flame which will go on burning for ever.
5. This is what the Lord has said: Cursed is the man who puts his faith in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart is turned away from the Lord.
6. For he will be like the brushwood in the upland, and will not see when good comes; but his living-place will be in the dry places in the waste land, in a salt and unpeopled land.
7. A blessing is on the man who puts his faith in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.
8. For he will be like a tree planted by the waters, pushing out its roots by the stream; he will have no fear when the heat comes, but his leaf will be green; in a dry year he will have no care, and will go on giving fruit.
9. The heart is a twisted thing, not to be searched out by man: who is able to have knowledge of it?
10. I the Lord am the searcher of the heart, the tester of the thoughts, so that I may give to every man the reward of his ways, in keeping with the fruit of his doings.
11. Like the partridge, getting eggs together but not producing young, is a man who gets wealth but not by right; before half his days are ended, it will go from him, and at his end he will be foolish.
12. A seat of glory, placed on high from the first, is our holy place.
13. O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who give you up will be put to shame; those who go away from you will be cut off from the earth, because they have given up the Lord, the fountain of living waters.
14. Make me well, O Lord, and I will be well; be my saviour, and I will be safe: for you are my hope.
15. See, they say to me, Where is the word of the Lord? let it come now.
16. As for me, I have not said; Let the day of trouble come to them quickly; and I have not been hoping for the death-giving day; you have knowledge of what came from my lips; it was open before you.
17. Be not a cause of fear to me: you are my safe place in the day of evil.
18. Let them be put to shame who are attacking me, but let me not be shamed; let them be overcome with fear, but let me not be overcome: send on them the day of evil, and put them to destruction twice over.
19. This is what the Lord has said to me: Go and take your place in the doorway of Benjamin, where the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the doorways of Jerusalem;
20. And say to them, Give ear to the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all the people of Jerusalem who come in by these doors:
21. This is what the Lord has said: See to yourselves, that you take up no weight on the Sabbath day, or take it in through the doors of Jerusalem;
22. And take no weight out of your houses on the Sabbath day, or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I gave orders to your fathers;
23. But they gave no attention and would not give ear, but they made their necks stiff so that they might not give ear and might not get teaching.
24. And it will be, that if with all care you give ear to me, says the Lord, and take no weight through the doorways of this town on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work in it;
25. Then through the doors of this town there will come kings and princes, seated on the seat of David, going in carriages and on horseback, they and their princes, and the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem: and this town will keep its place for ever.
26. And they will come from the towns of Judah, and from the places round about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowlands, and from the mountains, and from the South, with burned offerings and offerings of beasts and meal offerings and perfume and offerings of praise, to the house of the Lord.
27. But if you do not give ear to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and to let no weight be lifted and taken through the doors of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day: then I will put a fire in its doorways, burning up the great houses of Jerusalem, and it will never be put out.

Jeremiah 18 / Basic English

1. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
2. Up! go down to the potter's house, and there I will let my words come to your ears.
3. Then I went down to the potter's house, and he was doing his work on the stones.
4. And when the vessel, which he was forming out of earth, got damaged in the hand of the potter, he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it.
5. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
6. O Israel, am I not able to do with you as this potter does? says the Lord. See, like earth in the potter's hand are you in my hands, O Israel.
7. Whenever I say anything about uprooting a nation or a kingdom, and smashing it and sending destruction on it;
8. If, in that very minute, that nation of which I was talking is turned away from its evil, my purpose of doing evil to them will be changed.
9. And whenever I say anything about building up a nation or a kingdom, and planting it;
10. If, in that very minute, it does evil in my eyes, going against my orders, then my good purpose, which I said I would do for them, will be changed.
11. Now, then, say to the men of Judah and to the people of Jerusalem, This is what the Lord has said: See, I am forming an evil thing against you, and designing a design against you: let every man come back now from his evil way, and let your ways and your doings be changed for the better.
12. But they will say, There is no hope: we will go on in our designs, and every one of us will do what he is moved by the pride of his evil heart to do.
13. So this is what the Lord has said: Make search among the nations and see who has had word of such things; the virgin of Israel has done a very shocking thing.
14. Will the white snow go away from the top of Sirion? will the cold waters flowing from the mountains become dry?
15. For my people have put me out of their memory, burning perfumes to that which is nothing; and because of this, I will put a cause of falling in their ways, even in the old roads, and will make them go on side-roads, in a way not lifted up;
16. Making their land a thing of wonder, causing sounds of surprise for ever; everyone who goes by will be overcome with wonder, shaking his head.
17. I will send them in flight, as from an east wind, before the attacker; I will let them see my back and not my face on the day of their downfall.
18. Then they said, Come, let us make a design against Jeremiah; for teaching will never be cut off from the priest, or wisdom from the wise, or the word from the prophet. Come, let us make use of his words for an attack on him, and let us give attention with care to what he says.
19. Give thought to me, O Lord, and give ear to the voice of those who put forward a cause against me.
20. Is evil to be the reward of good? for they have made a deep hole for my soul. Keep in mind how I took my place before you, to say a good word for them so that your wrath might be turned away from them.
21. For this cause, let their children be without food, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives be without children and become widows; let their men be overtaken by death, and their young men be put to the sword in the fight.
22. Let a cry for help go up from their houses, when you send an armed band on them suddenly: for they have made a hole in which to take me, and have put nets for my feet secretly.
23. But you, Lord, have knowledge of all the designs which they have made against my life; let not their evil-doing be covered or their sin be washed away from before your eyes: but let it be a cause of falling before you: so do to them in the time of your wrath.

Colossians 1 / Basic English

1. Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, by the purpose of God, and Timothy our brother,
2. To the saints and true brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
3. We give praise to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, making prayer for you at all times,
4. After hearing of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have for all the saints,
5. Through the hope which is in store for you in heaven; knowledge of which was given to you before in the true word of the good news,
6. Which has come to you; and which in all the world is giving fruit and increase, as it has done in you from the day when it came to your ears and you had true knowledge of the grace of God;
7. As it was given to you by Epaphras, our well-loved helper, who is a true servant of Christ for us,
8. And who, himself, made clear to us your love in the Spirit.
9. For this reason, we, from the day when we had word of it, keep on in prayer for you, that you may be full of the knowledge of his purpose, with all wisdom and experience of the Spirit,
10. Living uprightly in the approval of the Lord, giving fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11. Full of strength in the measure of the great power of his glory, so that you may undergo all troubles with joy;
12. Giving praise to the Father who has given us a part in the heritage of the saints in light;
13. Who has made us free from the power of evil and given us a place in the kingdom of the Son of his love;
14. In whom we have our salvation, the forgiveness of sins:
15. Who is the image of the unseen God coming into existence before all living things;
16. For by him all things were made, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, authorities, lords, rulers, and powers; all things were made by him and for him;
17. He is before all things, and in him all things have being.
18. And he is the head of the body, the church: the starting point of all things, the first to come again from the dead; so that in all things he might have the chief place.
19. For God in full measure was pleased to be in him;
20. Through him uniting all things with himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say, uniting all things which are on earth or in heaven.
21. And you, who in the past were cut off and at war with God in your minds through evil works, he has now made one
22. In the body of his flesh through death, so that you might be holy and without sin and free from all evil before him:
23. If you keep yourselves safely based in the faith, not moved from the hope of the good news which came to you, and which was given to every living being under heaven; of which I, Paul, was made a servant.
24. Now I have joy in my pain because of you, and in my flesh I undergo whatever is still needed to make the sorrows of Christ complete, for the salvation of his body, the church;
25. Of which I became a servant by the purpose of God which was given to me for you, to give effect to the word of God,
26. The secret which has been kept from all times and generations, but has now been made clear to his saints,
27. To whom God was pleased to give knowledge of the wealth of the glory of this secret among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
28. Whom we are preaching; guiding and teaching every man in all wisdom, so that every man may be complete in Christ;
29. And for this purpose I am working, using all my strength by the help of his power which is working in me strongly.