Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Jeremiah 35 / Basic English

1. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,
2. Go into the house of the Rechabites, and have talk with them, and take them into the house of the Lord, into one of the rooms, and give them wine.
3. Then I took Jaazaniah, the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons and all the Rechabites;
4. And I took them into the house of the Lord, into the room of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was near the rulers' room, which was over the room of Maaseiah, the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door;
5. And I put before the sons of the Rechabites basins full of wine and cups, and I said to them, Take some wine.
6. But they said, We will take no wine: for Jonadab, the son of Rechab our father, gave us orders, saying, You are to take no wine, you or your sons, for ever:
7. And you are to make no houses, or put in seed, or get vine-gardens planted, or have any: but all your days you are to go on living in tents, so that you may have a long life in the land where you are living as in a strange country.
8. And we have kept the rules of Jonadab, the son of Rechab our father, in everything which he gave us orders to do, drinking no wine all our days, we and our wives and our sons and our daughters;
9. Building no houses for ourselves, having no vine-gardens or fields or seed:
10. But we have been living in tents, and have done everything which Jonadab our father gave us orders to do.
11. But when Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, came up into the land, we said, Come, let us go to Jerusalem, away from the army of the Chaldaeans and from the army of the Aramaeans: and so we are living in Jerusalem.
12. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,
13. This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Go and say to the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, Is there no hope of teaching you to give ear to my words? says the Lord.
14. The orders which Jonadab, the son of Rechab, gave to his sons to take no wine, are done, and to this day they take no wine, for they do the orders of their father: but I have sent my words to you, getting up early and sending them, and you have not given ear to me.
15. And I have sent you all my servants the prophets, getting up early and sending them, saying, Come back, now, every man from his evil way, and do better, and go not after other gods to become their servants, and you will go on living in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but your ears have not been open, and you have not given attention to me.
16. Though the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have done the orders of their father which he gave them, this people has not given ear to me:
17. For this reason the Lord, the God of armies, the God of Israel, has said, See, I will send on Judah and on all the people of Jerusalem all the evil which I said I would do to them: because I sent my words to them, but they did not give ear; crying out to them, but they gave no answer.
18. But to the Rechabites Jeremiah said, This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Because you have done the orders of Jonadab your father, and have kept his rules, and done everything as he gave you orders to do it;
19. For this reason the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, Jonadab, the son of Rechab, will never be without a man to take his place before me.

Jeremiah 36 / Basic English

1. Now it came about in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
2. Take a book and put down in it all the words I have said to you against Israel and against Judah and against all the nations, from the day when my word came to you in the days of Josiah till this day.
3. It may be that the people of Judah, hearing of all the evil which it is my purpose to do to them, will be turned, every man from his evil ways; so that they may have my forgiveness for their evil-doing and their sin.
4. Then Jeremiah sent for Baruch, the son of Neriah; and Baruch took down from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord which he had said to him, writing them in a book.
5. And Jeremiah gave orders to Baruch, saying, I am shut up, and am not able to go into the house of the Lord:
6. So you are to go, reading there from the book, which you have taken down from my mouth, the words of the Lord, in the hearing of the people in the Lord's house, on a day when they go without food, and in the hearing of all the men of Judah who have come out from their towns.
7. It may be that their prayer for grace will go up to the Lord, and that every man will be turned from his evil ways: for great is the wrath and the passion made clear by the Lord against this people.
8. And Baruch, the son of Neriah, did as Jeremiah the prophet gave him orders to do, reading from the book the words of the Lord in the Lord's house.
9. Now it came about in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that it was given out publicly that all the people in Jerusalem, and all the people who came from the towns of Judah to Jerusalem, were to keep from food before the Lord.
10. Then Baruch gave a public reading of the words of Jeremiah from the book, in the house of the Lord, in the room of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the higher square, as one goes in by the new doorway of the Lord's house, in the hearing of all the people.
11. And Micaiah, the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, after hearing all the words of the Lord from the book,
12. Went down to the king's house, to the scribe's room: and all the rulers were seated there, Elishama the scribe and Delaiah, the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan, the son of Achbor, and Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah, the son of Hananiah, and all the rulers.
13. Then Micaiah gave them an account of all the words which had come to his ears when Baruch was reading the book to the people.
14. So all the rulers sent Jehudi, the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, Take in your hand the book from which you have been reading to the people and come. So Baruch, the son of Neriah, took the book in his hand and came down to them.
15. Then they said to him, Be seated now, and give us a reading from it. So Baruch did so, reading it to them.
16. Now it came about that, after hearing all the words, they said to one another in fear, We will certainly give the king an account of all these words.
17. And questioning Baruch, they said, Say now, how did you put all these words down in writing from his mouth?
18. Then Baruch, answering, said, He said all these things to me by word of mouth, and I put them down with ink in the book.
19. Then the rulers said to Baruch, Go and put yourself in a safe place, you and Jeremiah, and let no man have knowledge of where you are.
20. Then they went into the open square to the king; but the book they put away in the room of Elishama the scribe; and they gave the king an account of all the words.
21. So the king sent Jehudi to get the book, and he took it from the room of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi gave a reading of it in the hearing of the king and all the rulers who were by the king's side.
22. Now the king was seated in the winter house, and a fire was burning in the fireplace in front of him.
23. And it came about that whenever Jehudi, in his reading, had got through three or four divisions, the king, cutting them with his penknife, put them into the fire, till all the book was burned up in the fire which was burning in the fireplace.
24. But they had no fear and gave no signs of grief, not the king or any of his servants, after hearing all these words.
25. And Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made a strong request to the king not to let the book be burned, but he would not give ear to them.
26. And the king gave orders to Jerahmeel, the king's son, and Seraiah, the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah, the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet: but the Lord kept them safe.
27. Then after the book, in which Baruch had put down the words of Jeremiah, had been burned by the king, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,
28. Take another book and put down in it all the words which were in the first book, which Jehoiakim, king of Judah, put into the fire.
29. And about Jehoiakim, king of Judah, you are to say, This is what the Lord has said: You have put this book into the fire, saying, Why have you put in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come, causing the destruction of this land and putting an end to every man and beast in it?
30. For this reason the Lord has said of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, He will have no son to take his place on the seat of David: his dead body will be put out to undergo the heat of the day and the cold of the night.
31. And I will send punishment on him and on his seed and on his servants for their evil-doing; I will send on them and on the people of Jerusalem and the men of Judah, all the evil which I said against them, but they did not give ear.
32. Then Jeremiah took another book, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who put down in it, from the mouth of Jeremiah, all the words of the book which had been burned in the fire by Jehoiakim, king of Judah: and in addition a number of other words of the same sort.

2 Thessalonians 1 / Basic English

1. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
2. Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. It is right for us to give praise to God at all times for you, brothers, because of the great increase of your faith, and the wealth of your love for one another;
4. So that we ourselves take pride in you in the churches of God for your untroubled mind and your faith in all the troubles and sorrows which you are going through;
5. Which is a clear sign of the decision which God in his righteousness has made; to give you a part in his kingdom, for which you have undergone this pain;
6. For it is an act of righteousness on God's part to give trouble as their reward to those who are troubling you,
7. And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus comes from heaven with the angels of his power in flames of fire,
8. To give punishment to those who have no knowledge of God, and to those who do not give ear to the good news of our Lord Jesus:
9. Whose reward will be eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his strength,
10. At his coming, when he will have glory in his saints, and will be a cause of wonder in all those who had faith (because our witness among you had effect) in that day.
11. For this reason, you are ever in our prayers, that you may seem to our God such as may have a part in his purpose and that by his power he will make all his good purpose, and the work of faith, complete;
12. So that glory may be given to the name of our Lord Jesus through you, and you may have glory in him, by the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.