Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Ezekiel 30 / Basic English

1. The word of the Lord came to me again, saying,
2. Son of man, be a prophet, and say, These are the words of the Lord: Give a cry, Aha, for the day!
3. For the day is near, the day of the Lord is near, a day of cloud; it will be the time of the nations.
4. And a sword will come on Egypt, and cruel pain will be in Ethiopia, when they are falling by the sword in Egypt; and they will take away her wealth and her bases will be broken down.
5. Ethiopia and Put and Lud and all the mixed people and Libya and the children of the land of the Cherethites will all be put to death with them by the sword.
6. This is what the Lord has said: The supporters of Egypt will have a fall, and the pride of her power will come down: from Migdol to Syene they will be put to the sword in it, says the Lord.
7. And she will be made waste among the countries which have been made waste, and her towns will be among the towns which are unpeopled.
8. And they will be certain that I am the Lord, when I have put a fire in Egypt and all her helpers are broken.
9. In that day men will go out quickly to take the news, causing fear in untroubled Ethiopia; and bitter pain will come on them as in the day of Egypt; for see, it is coming.
10. This is what the Lord has said: I will put an end to great numbers of the people of Egypt by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon.
11. He and the people with him, causing fear among the nations, will be sent for the destruction of the land; their swords will be let loose against Egypt and the land will be full of dead.
12. And I will make the Nile streams dry, and will give the land into the hands of evil men, causing the land and everything in it to be wasted by the hands of men from a strange country: I the Lord have said it.
13. This is what the Lord has said: In addition to this, I will give up the images to destruction and put an end to the false gods in Noph; never again will there be a ruler in the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt.
14. And I will make Pathros a waste, and put a fire in Zoan, and send my punishments on No.
15. I will let loose my wrath on Sin, the strong place of Egypt, cutting off the mass of the people of No.
16. And I will put a fire in Egypt; Syene will be twisting in pain, and No will be broken into, as by the onrush of waters.
17. The young men of On and Pi-beseth will be put to the sword: and these towns will be taken away prisoners.
18. And at Tehaphnehes the day will become dark, when the yoke of Egypt is broken there, and the pride of her power comes to an end: as for her, she will be covered with a cloud, and her daughters will be taken away prisoners.
19. And I will send my punishments on Egypt: and they will be certain that I am the Lord.
20. Now in the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
21. Son of man, the arm of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, has been broken by me, and no band has been put round it to make it well, no band has been twisted round it to make it strong for gripping the sword.
22. For this cause the Lord has said: See, I am against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and by me his strong arm will be broken; and I will make the sword go out of his hand.
23. And I will send the Egyptians in flight among the nations and wandering through the countries.
24. And I will make the arms of the king of Babylon strong, and will put my sword in his hand: but Pharaoh's arms will be broken, and he will give cries of pain before him like the cries of a man wounded to death.
25. And I will make the arms of the king of Babylon strong, and the arms of Pharaoh will be hanging down; and they will be certain that I am the Lord, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and it is stretched out against the land of Egypt.
26. And I will send the Egyptians in flight among the nations and wandering through the countries; and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 31 / Basic English

1. Now in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
2. Son of man, say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to his people; Whom are you like in your great power?
3. See, a pine-tree with beautiful branches and thick growth, giving shade and very tall; and its top was among the clouds.
4. It got strength from the waters and the deep made it tall: its streams went round about its planted land and it sent out its waterways to all the trees of the field.
5. In this way it became taller than all the trees of the field; and its branches were increased and its arms became long because of the great waters.
6. In its branches all the birds of heaven came to rest, and under its arms all the beasts of the field gave birth to their young, and great nations were living in its shade.
7. So it was beautiful, being so tall and its branches so long, for its root was by great waters.
8. No cedars were equal to it in the garden of God; the fir-trees were not like its branches, and plane-trees were as nothing in comparison with its arms; no tree in the garden of God was so beautiful.
9. I made it beautiful with its mass of branches: so that all the trees in the garden of God were full of envy of it.
10. For this cause the Lord has said: Because he is tall, and has put his top among the clouds, and his heart is full of pride because he is so high,
11. I have given him up into the hands of a strong one of the nations; he will certainly give him the reward of his sin, driving him out.
12. And men from strange lands, who are to be feared among the nations, after cutting him off, have let him be: on the mountains and in all the valleys his branches have come down; his arms are broken by all the waterways of the land; all the peoples of the earth have gone from his shade, and have let him be.
13. All the birds of heaven have come to rest on his broken stem where it is stretched on the earth, and all the beasts of the field will be on his branches:
14. In order that no trees by the waters may be lifted up in their growth, putting their tops among the clouds; and that no trees which are watered may take their place on high: for they are all given up to death, to the lowest parts of the earth among the children of men, with those who go down to the underworld.
15. This is what the Lord has said: The day when he goes down to the underworld, I will make the deep full of grief for him; I will keep back her streams and the great waters will be stopped: I will make Lebanon dark for him, and all the trees of the field will be feeble because of him.
16. I will send shaking on the nations at the sound of his fall, when I send him down to the underworld with those who go down into the deep: and on earth they will be comforting themselves, all the trees of Eden, the best of Lebanon, even all the watered ones.
17. And they will go down with him to the underworld, to those who have been put to the sword; even those who were his helpers, living under his shade among the nations
18. Whom then are you like? for you will be sent down with the trees of Eden into the lowest parts of the earth: there you will be stretched out among those without circumcision, with those who were put to the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his people, says the Lord.

Hebrews 9 / Basic English

1. Now the first agreement had its rules of worship, and a holy order.
2. For the first Tent was made ready, having in it the vessels for the lights and the table and the ordering of the bread; and this is named the holy place.
3. And inside the second veil was the place which is named the Holy of holies;
4. Having a vessel of gold in it for burning perfumes, and the ark of the agreement, which was covered with gold and which had in it a pot made of gold for the manna, and Aaron's rod which put out buds, and the stones with the writing of the agreement;
5. And over it were the winged ones of glory with their wings covering the mercy-seat; about which it is not possible now to say anything in detail.
6. Now while these things were in existence, the priests went into the first Tent at all times, for prayer and the making of offerings.
7. But only the high priest went into the second, once a year, not without making an offering of blood for himself and for the errors of the people:
8. The Holy Spirit witnessing by this that the way into the holy place had not at that time been made open, while the first Tent was still in being;
9. And this is an image of the present time; when the offerings which are given are not able to make the heart of the worshipper completely clean,
10. Because they are only rules of the flesh, of meats and drinks and washings, which have their place till the time comes when things will be put right.
11. But now Christ has come as the high priest of the good things of the future, through this greater and better Tent, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this world,
12. And has gone once and for ever into the holy place, having got eternal salvation, not through the blood of goats and young oxen, but through his blood.
13. For if the blood of goats and oxen, and the dust from the burning of a young cow, being put on the unclean, make the flesh clean:
14. How much more will the blood of Christ, who, being without sin, made an offering of himself to God through the Holy Spirit, make your hearts clean from dead works to be servants of the living God?
15. And for this cause it is through him that a new agreement has come into being, so that after the errors under the first agreement had been taken away by his death, the word of God might have effect for those who were marked out for an eternal heritage.
16. Because where there is a testament, there has to be the death of the man who made it.
17. For a testament has effect after death; for what power has it while the man who made it is living?
18. So that even the first agreement was not made without blood.
19. For when Moses had given all the rules of the law to the people, he took the blood of goats and young oxen, with water and red wool and hyssop, and put it on the book itself and on all the people,
20. Saying, This blood is the sign of the agreement which God has made with you.
21. And the blood was put on the Tent and all the holy vessels in the same way.
22. And by the law almost all things are made clean with blood, and without blood there is no forgiveness.
23. For this cause it was necessary to make the copies of the things in heaven clean with these offerings; but the things themselves are made clean with better offerings than these.
24. For Christ did not go into a holy place which had been made by men's hands as the copy of the true one; but he went into heaven itself, and now takes his place before the face of God for us.
25. And he did not have to make an offering of himself again and again, as the high priest goes into the holy place every year with blood which is not his;
26. For then he would have undergone a number of deaths from the time of the making of the world: but now he has come to us at the end of the old order, to put away sin by the offering of himself.
27. And because by God's law death comes to men once, and after that they are judged;
28. So Christ, having at his first coming taken on himself the sins of men, will be seen a second time, without sin, by those who are waiting for him, for their salvation.