Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Exodus 4 / Basic English

1. And Moses, answering, said, It is certain that they will not have faith in me or give ear to my voice; for they will say, You have not seen the Lord.
2. And the Lord said to him, What is that in your hand? And he said, A rod.
3. And he said, Put it down on the earth. And he put it down on the earth and it became a snake; and Moses went running from it.
4. And the Lord said to Moses, Put out your hand and take it by the tail: (and he put out his hand and took a grip of it and it became a rod in his hand:)
5. So that they may be certain that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has been seen by you.
6. Then the Lord said to him again, Put your hand inside your clothing. And he put his hand inside his robe: and when he took it out it was like the hand of a leper, as white as snow.
7. And he said, Put your hand inside your robe again. (And he put his hand into his robe again, and when he took it out he saw that it had become like his other flesh.)
8. And if they do not have faith in you or give ear to the voice of the first sign, they will have faith in the second sign.
9. And if they have no faith even in these two signs and will not give ear to your voice, then you are to take the water of the Nile and put it on the dry land: and the water you take out of the river will become blood on the dry land.
10. And Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, I am not a man of words; I have never been so, and am not now, even after what you have said to your servant: for talking is hard for me, and I am slow of tongue.
11. And the Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth? who takes away a man's voice or hearing, or makes him seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
12. So go now, and I will be with your mouth, teaching you what to say.
13. And he said, O Lord, send, if you will, by the hand of anyone whom it seems good to you to send.
14. And the Lord was angry with Moses, and said, Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? To my knowledge he is good at talking. And now he is coming out to you: and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart.
15. Let him give ear to your voice, and you will put my words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his, teaching you what you have to do.
16. And he will do the talking for you to the people: he will be to you as a mouth and you will be to him as God.
17. And take in your hand this rod with which you will do the signs.
18. And Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, Let me go back now to my relations in Egypt and see if they are still living. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.
19. And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, Go back to Egypt, for all the men are dead who were attempting to take your life.
20. And Moses took his wife and his sons and put them on an ass and went back to the land of Egypt: and he took the rod of God in his hand.
21. And the Lord said to Moses, When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have given you power to do: but I will make his heart hard and he will not let the people go.
22. And you are to say to Pharaoh, The Lord says, Israel is the first of my sons:
23. And I said to you, Let my son go, so that he may give me worship; and you did not let him go: so now I will put the first of your sons to death.
24. Now on the journey, at the night's resting-place, the Lord came in his way and would have put him to death.
25. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cutting off the skin of her son's private parts, and touching his feet with it, she said, Truly you are a husband of blood to me.
26. So he let him go. Then she said, You are a husband of blood because of the circumcision.
27. And the Lord said to Aaron, Go into the waste land and you will see Moses. So he went and came across Moses at the mountain of God, and gave him a kiss.
28. And Moses gave Aaron an account of all the words of the Lord which he had sent him to say, and of all the signs which he had given him orders to do.
29. Then Moses and Aaron went and got together all the chiefs of the children of Israel:
30. And Aaron said to them all the words the Lord had said to Moses, and did the signs before all the people.
31. And the people had faith in them; and hearing that the Lord had taken up the cause of the children of Israel and had seen their troubles, with bent heads they gave him worship.

Exodus 5 / Basic English

1. And after that, Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and said, The Lord, the God of Israel, says, Let my people go so that they may keep a feast to me in the waste land.
2. And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, to whose voice I am to give ear and let Israel go? I have no knowledge of the Lord and I will not let Israel go.
3. And they said, The God of the Hebrews has come to us: let us then go three days' journey into the waste land to make an offering to the Lord our God, so that he may not send death on us by disease or the sword.
4. And the king of Egypt said to them, Why do you, Moses and Aaron, take the people away from their work? get back to your work.
5. And Pharaoh said, Truly, the people of the land are increasing in number, and you are keeping them back from their work.
6. The same day Pharaoh gave orders to the overseers and those who were responsible for the work, saying,
7. Give these men no more dry stems for their brick-making as you have been doing; let them go and get the material for themselves.
8. But see that they make the same number of bricks as before, and no less: for they have no love for work; and so they are crying out and saying, Let us go and make an offering to our God.
9. Give the men harder work, and see that they do it; let them not give attention to false words.
10. And the overseers of the people and their responsible men went out and said to the people, Pharaoh says, I will give you no more dry stems.
11. Go yourselves and get dry stems wherever you are able; for your work is not to be any less.
12. So the people were sent in all directions through the land of Egypt to get dry grass for stems.
13. And the overseers went on driving them and saying, Do your full day's work as before when there were dry stems for you.
14. And the responsible men of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's overseers had put over them, were given blows, and they said to them, Why have you not done your regular work, in making bricks as before?
15. Then the responsible men of the children of Israel came to Pharaoh, protesting and saying, Why are you acting in this way to your servants?
16. They give us no dry stems and they say to us, Make bricks: and they give your servants blows; but it is your people who are in the wrong.
17. But he said, You have no love for work: that is why you say, Let us go and make an offering to the Lord.
18. Go now, get back to your work; no dry stems will be given to you, but you are to make the full number of bricks.
19. Then the responsible men of the children of Israel saw that they were purposing evil when they said, The number of bricks which you have to make every day will be no less than before.
20. And they came face to face with Moses and Aaron, who were in their way when they came out from Pharaoh:
21. And they said to them, May the Lord take note of you and be your judge; for you have given Pharaoh and his servants a bad opinion of us, putting a sword in their hands for our destruction.
22. And Moses went back to the Lord and said, Lord, why have you done evil to this people? why have you sent me?
23. For from the time when I came to Pharaoh to put your words before him, he has done evil to this people, and you have given them no help.

Psalms 6 / Basic English

1. <To the chief music-maker on corded instruments, on the Sheminith. A Psalm. Of David.> O Lord, do not be bitter with me in your wrath; do not send punishment on me in the heat of your passion.
2. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am wasted away: make me well, for even my bones are troubled.
3. My soul is in bitter trouble; and you, O Lord, how long?
4. Come back, O Lord, make my soul free; O give me salvation because of your mercy.
5. For in death there is no memory of you; in the underworld who will give you praise?
6. The voice of my sorrow is a weariness to me; all the night I make my bed wet with weeping; it is watered by the drops flowing from my eyes.
7. My eyes are wasting away with trouble; they are becoming old because of all those who are against me.
8. Go from me, all you workers of evil; for the Lord has given ear to the voice of my weeping.
9. The Lord has given ear to my request; the Lord has let my prayer come before him.
10. Let all those who are against me be shamed and deeply troubled; let them be turned back and suddenly put to shame.

Psalms 7 / Basic English

1. <Shiggaion of David; a song which he made to the Lord, about the words of Cush the Benjamite.> O Lord my God, I put my faith in you; take me out of the hands of him who is cruel to me, and make me free;
2. So that he may not come rushing on my soul like a lion, wounding it, while there is no one to be my saviour.
3. O Lord my God, if I have done this; if my hands have done any wrong;
4. If I have given back evil to him who did evil to me, or have taken anything from him who was against me without cause;
5. Let my hater go after my soul and take it; let my life be crushed to the earth, and my honour into the dust. (Selah.)
6. Come up, Lord, in your wrath; be lifted up against my haters; be awake, my God, give orders for the judging.
7. The meeting of the nations will be round you; take your seat, then, over them, on high.
8. The Lord will be judge of the peoples; give a decision for me, O Lord, because of my righteousness, and let my virtue have its reward.
9. O let the evil of the evil-doer come to an end, but give strength to the upright: for men's minds and hearts are tested by the God of righteousness.
10. God, who is the saviour of the upright in heart, is my breastplate.
11. God is the judge of the upright, and is angry with the evil-doers every day.
12. If a man is not turned from his evil, he will make his sword sharp; his bow is bent and ready.
13. He has made ready for him the instruments of death; he makes his arrows flames of fire.
14. That man is a worker of evil; the seed of wrongdoing has given birth to deceit.
15. He has made a hole deep in the earth, and is falling into the hole which he has made
16. His wrongdoing will come back to him, and his violent behaviour will come down on his head.
17. I will give praise to the Lord for his righteousness; I will make a song to the name of the Lord Most High.