Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Lamentations 2 / Basic English

1. How has the daughter of Zion been covered with a cloud by the Lord in his wrath! he has sent down from heaven to earth the glory of Israel, and has not kept in memory the resting-place of his feet in the day of his wrath.
2. The Lord has given up to destruction all the living-places of Jacob without pity; pulling down in his wrath the strong places of the daughter of Judah, stretching out on the earth the wounded, even her king and her rulers.
3. In his burning wrath every horn of Israel has been cut off; his right hand has been turned back before the attacker: he has put a fire in Jacob, causing destruction round about.
4. His bow has been bent for the attack, he has taken his place with his hand ready, in his hate he has put to death all who were pleasing to the eye: on the tent of the daughter of Zion he has let loose his passion like fire.
5. The Lord has become like one fighting against her, sending destruction on Israel; he has sent destruction on all her great houses, making waste his strong places: increasing the grief and the sorrow of the daughter of Judah.
6. And he has violently taken away his tent, as from a garden; he has made waste his meeting-place: the Lord has taken away the memory of feast and Sabbath in Zion, and in the passion of his wrath he is against king and priest.
7. The Lord has given up his altar and has been turned in hate from his holy place; he has given up into the hands of the attacker the walls of her great houses: their voices have been loud in the house of the Lord as in the day of a holy meeting.
8. It is the Lord's purpose to make waste the wall of the daughter of Zion; his line has been stretched out, he has not kept back his hand from destruction: he has sent sorrow on tower and wall, they have become feeble together.
9. Her doors have gone down into the earth; he has sent destruction on her locks: her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not; even her prophets have had no vision from the Lord.
10. The responsible men of the daughter of Zion are seated on the earth without a word; they have put dust on their heads, they are clothed in haircloth: the heads of the virgins of Jerusalem are bent down to the earth.
11. My eyes are wasted with weeping, the inmost parts of my body are deeply moved, my inner parts are drained out on the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because of the young children and babies at the breast who are falling without strength in the open squares of the town.
12. They say to their mothers, Where is grain and wine? when they are falling like the wounded in the open squares of the town, when their life is drained out on their mother's breast.
13. What example am I to give you? what comparison am I to make for you, O daughter of Jerusalem? what am I to make equal to you, so that I may give you comfort, O virgin daughter of Zion? for your destruction is great like the sea: who is able to make you well?
14. The visions which your prophets have seen for you are false and foolish; they have not made clear to you your sin so that your fate might be changed: but they have seen for you false words, driving you away.
15. All who go by make a noise with their hands at you; they make hisses, shaking their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem, and saying, Is this the town which was the crown of everything beautiful, the joy of all the earth?
16. All your haters are opening their mouths wide against you; making hisses and whistling through their teeth, they say, We have made a meal of her: certainly this is the day we have been looking for; it has come, we have seen it.
17. The Lord has done that which was his purpose; he has put into force the orders which he gave in the days which are past; pulling down without pity, he has made your hater glad over you, lifting up the horn of those who were against you.
18. Let your cry go up to the Lord: O wall of the daughter of Zion, let your weeping be flowing down like a stream day and night; give yourself no rest, let not your eyes keep back the drops of sorrow.
19. Up! give cries in the night, at the starting of the night-watches; let your heart be flowing out like water before the face of the Lord, lifting up your hands to him for the life of your young children who are falling down, feeble for need of food, at the top of every street.
20. Look! O Lord, see to whom you have done this! Are the women to take as their food the fruit of their bodies, the children who are folded in their arms? are the priest and the prophet to be put to death in the holy place of the Lord?
21. The young men and the old are stretched on the earth in the streets; my virgins and my young men have been put to the sword: you have sent death on them in the day of your wrath, causing death without pity.
22. As in the day of a holy meeting you have made fears come round me on every side, and no one got away or was kept safe in the day of the Lord's wrath: those who were folded in my arms, whom I took care of, have been sent to their destruction by my hater.

Lamentations 3 / Basic English

1. I am the man who has seen trouble by the rod of his wrath.
2. By him I have been made to go in the dark where there is no light.
3. Truly against me his hand has been turned again and again all the day.
4. My flesh and my skin have been used up by him and my bones broken.
5. He has put up a wall against me, shutting me in with bitter sorrow.
6. He has kept me in dark places, like those who have been long dead.
7. He has put a wall round me, so that I am not able to go out; he has made great the weight of my chain.
8. Even when I send up a cry for help, he keeps my prayer shut out.
9. He has put up a wall of cut stones about my ways, he has made my roads twisted.
10. He is like a bear waiting for me, like a lion in secret places.
11. By him my ways have been turned on one side and I have been pulled in bits; he has made me waste.
12. With his bow bent, he has made me the mark for his arrows.
13. He has let loose his arrows into the inmost parts of my body.
14. I have become the sport of all the peoples; I am their song all the day.
15. He has made my life nothing but pain, he has given me the bitter root in full measure.
16. By him my teeth have been broken with crushed stones, and I am bent low in the dust.
17. My soul is sent far away from peace, I have no more memory of good.
18. And I said, My strength is cut off, and my hope from the Lord.
19. Keep in mind my trouble and my wandering, the bitter root and the poison.
20. My soul still keeps the memory of them; and is bent down in me.
21. This I keep in mind, and because of this I have hope.
22. It is through the Lord's love that we have not come to destruction, because his mercies have no limit.
23. They are new every morning; great is your good faith.
24. I said to myself, The Lord is my heritage; and because of this I will have hope in him.
25. The Lord is good to those who are waiting for him, to the soul which is looking for him.
26. It is good to go on hoping and quietly waiting for the salvation of the Lord.
27. It is good for a man to undergo the yoke when he is young.
28. Let him be seated by himself, saying nothing, because he has put it on him.
29. Let him put his mouth in the dust, if by chance there may be hope.
30. Let his face be turned to him who gives him blows; let him be full of shame.
31. For the Lord does not give a man up for ever.
32. For though he sends grief, still he will have pity in the full measure of his love.
33. For he has no pleasure in troubling and causing grief to the children of men.
34. In a man's crushing under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
35. In his turning away the right of a man before the face of the Most High.
36. In his doing wrong to a man in his cause, the Lord has no pleasure.
37. Who is able to say a thing, and give effect to it, if it has not been ordered by the Lord?
38. Do not evil and good come from the mouth of the Most High?
39. What protest may a living man make, even a man about the punishment of his sin?
40. Let us make search and put our ways to the test, turning again to the Lord;
41. Lifting up our hearts with our hands to God in the heavens.
42. We have done wrong and gone against your law; we have not had your forgiveness.
43. Covering yourself with wrath you have gone after us, cutting us off without pity;
44. Covering yourself with a cloud, so that prayer may not get through.
45. You have made us like waste and that for which there is no use, among the peoples.
46. The mouths of all our haters are open wide against us.
47. Fear and deep waters have come on us, wasting and destruction.
48. Rivers of water are running down from my eyes, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49. My eyes are streaming without stopping, they have no rest,
50. Till the Lord's eye is turned on me, till he sees my trouble from heaven.
51. The Lord is unkind to my soul, more than all the daughters of my town.
52. They who are against me without cause have gone hard after me as if I was a bird;
53. They have put an end to my life in the prison, stoning me with stones.
54. Waters were flowing over my head; I said, I am cut off.
55. I was making prayer to your name, O Lord, out of the lowest prison.
56. My voice came to you; let not your ear be shut to my breathing, to my cry.
57. You came near in the day when I made my prayer to you: you said, Have no fear.
58. O Lord, you have taken up the cause of my soul, you have made my life safe.
59. O Lord, you have seen my wrong; be judge in my cause.
60. You have seen all the evil rewards they have sent on me, and all their designs against me.
61. Their bitter words have come to your ears, O Lord, and all their designs against me;
62. The lips of those who came up against me, and their thoughts against me all the day.
63. Take note of them when they are seated, and when they get up; I am their song.
64. You will give them their reward, O Lord, answering to the work of their hands.
65. You will let their hearts be covered over with your curse on them.
66. You will go after them in wrath, and put an end to them from under the heavens of the Lord.

2 Timothy 1 / Basic English

1. Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the purpose of God, in the hope of the life which is in Christ Jesus,
2. To Timothy, my well-loved child: Grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
3. I give praise to God, whose servant I have been, with a heart free from sin, from the time of my fathers, because in my prayers at all times the thought of you is with me, night and day
4. Desiring to see you, keeping in my memory your weeping, so that I may be full of joy;
5. Having in mind your true faith, which first was in your mother's mother Lois, and in your mother Eunice, and, I am certain, is now in you.
6. For this reason I say to you, Let that grace of God which is in you, given to you by my hands, have living power.
7. For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self-control.
8. Have no feeling of shame, then, for the witness of our Lord or for me, his prisoner: but undergo all things for the good news in the measure of the power of God;
9. Who gave us salvation, marking us out for his purpose, not on account of our works, but in the measure of his purpose and his grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal,
10. But has now been made clear by the revelation of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who put an end to death and made life unending come to light through the good news,
11. Of which I was made a preacher and an Apostle and a teacher;
12. And for which I undergo these things: but I have no feeling of shame. For I have knowledge of him in whom I have faith, and I am certain that he is able to keep that which I have given into his care till that day.
13. Keep the form of those true words which you had from me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
14. That good thing which was given to you keep safe, through the Holy Spirit which is in us.
15. You have had news that all those in Asia went away from me; among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes:
16. May the Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus because he frequently gave me help, and had no feeling of shame because I was in chains;
17. But when he was in Rome, he went in search of me everywhere, and came to me
18. (May he have the Lord's mercy in that day); and of all he did for me at Ephesus you have full knowledge.