Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Hosea 9 / Basic English

1. Have no joy, O Israel, and do not be glad like the nations; for you have been untrue to your God; your desire has been for the loose woman's reward on every grain-floor.
2. The grain-floor and the place where the grapes are crushed will not give them food; there will be no new wine for them.
3. They will have no resting-place in the Lord's land, but Ephraim will go back to Egypt, and they will take unclean food in Assyria.
4. They will give no wine offering to the Lord, they will not make offerings ready for him; their bread will be like the bread of those in sorrow; all who take it will be unclean, because their bread will be only for their desire, it will not come into the house of the Lord.
5. What will you do on the day of worship, and on the day of the feast of the Lord?
6. For see, they are going away into Assyria; Egypt will get them together, Memphis will be their last resting-place; their fair silver vessels will be covered over with field plants, and thorns will come up in their tents.
7. The days of punishment, the days of reward are come; Israel will be put to shame; the prophet is foolish, the man who has the spirit is off his head, because of your great sin.
8. There is great hate against the watchman of Ephraim, the people of my God; as for the prophet, there is a net in all his ways, and hate in the house of his God.
9. They have gone deep in evil as in the days of Gibeah; he will keep in mind their wrongdoing, he will give them punishment for their sins.
10. I made discovery of Israel as of grapes in the waste land; I saw your fathers as the first-fruits of the fig-tree in her early fruit time; but they came to Baal-peor, and made themselves holy to the thing of shame, and became disgusting like that to which they gave their love.
11. As for Ephraim, their glory will go in flight like a bird: there will be no birth and no one with child and no giving of life.
12. Even though their children have come to growth I will take them away, so that not a man will be there; for their evil-doing will be complete and they will be put to shame because of it.
13. As I have seen a beast whose young have been taken from her, so Ephraim will give birth to children only for them to be put to death.
14. O Lord, what will you give them? Give them bodies which may not give birth and breasts without milk.
15. All their evil-doing is in Gilgal; there I had hate for them; because of their evil-doing I will send them out of my house; they will no longer be dear to me; all their rulers are uncontrolled.
16. The rod has come on Ephraim, their root is dry, let them have no fruit; even though they give birth, I will put to death the dearest fruit of their bodies.
17. My God will give them up because they did not give ear to him; they will be wandering among the nations.

Hosea 10 / Basic English

1. Israel is a branching vine, full of fruit; as his fruit is increased, so the number of his altars is increased; as the land is fair, so they have made fair pillars.
2. Their mind is taken away; now they will be made waste: he will have their altars broken down, he will give their pillars to destruction.
3. Now, truly, they will say, We have no king, we have no fear of the Lord; and the king, what is he able to do for us?
4. Their words are foolish; they make agreements with false oaths, so punishment will come up like a poison-plant in a ploughed field.
5. The people of Samaria will be full of fear because of the ox of Beth-aven; its people will have sorrow for it, and its priests will give cries of grief for its glory, for the glory has gone in flight.
6. And they will take it to Assyria and give it to the great king; shame will come on Ephraim, and Israel will be shamed because of its image.
7. As for Samaria, her king is cut off, like mist on the water.
8. And the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will come to destruction; thorns and waste plants will come up on their altars; they will say to the mountains, Be a cover over us; and to the hills, Come down on us.
9. O Israel, you have done evil from the days of Gibeah; there they took up their position, so that the fighting against the children of evil might not overtake them in Gibeah.
10. I will come and give them punishment; and the peoples will come together against them when I give them the reward of their two sins.
11. And Ephraim is a trained cow, taking pleasure in crushing the grain; but I have put a yoke on her fair neck; I will put a horseman on the back of Ephraim; Judah will be working the plough, Jacob will be turning up the earth.
12. Put in the seed of righteousness, get in your grain in mercy, let your unploughed earth be turned up: for it is time to make search for the Lord, till he comes and sends righteousness on you like rain.
13. You have been ploughing sin, you have got in a store of evil, the fruit of deceit has been your food: for you put faith in your way, in the number of your men of war.
14. So a great outcry will go up from among your people, and all your strong places will be broken, as Beth-arbel was broken by Shalman in the day of war, as the mother was broken on the rocks with her children.
15. So will Beth-el do to you because of your evil-doing; at dawn will the king of Israel be cut off completely.

Hosea 11 / Basic English

1. When Israel was a child he was dear to me; and I took my son out of Egypt.
2. When I sent for them, then they went away from me; they made offerings to the Baals, burning perfumes to images.
3. But I was guiding Ephraim's footsteps; I took them up in my arms, but they were not conscious that I was ready to make them well.
4. I made them come after me with the cords of a man, with the bands of love; I was to them as one who took the yoke from off their mouths, putting meat before them.
5. He will go back to the land of Egypt and the Assyrian will be his king, because they would not come back to me.
6. And the sword will go through his towns, wasting his children and causing destruction because of their evil designs.
7. My people are given up to sinning against me; though their voice goes up on high, no one will be lifting them up.
8. How may I give you up, O Ephraim? how may I be your saviour, O Israel? how may I make you like Admah? how may I do to you as I did to Zeboim? My heart is turned in me, it is soft with pity.
9. I will not put into effect the heat of my wrath; I will not again send destruction on Ephraim; for I am God and not man, the Holy One among you; I will not put an end to you.
10. They will go after the Lord; his cry will be like that of a lion; his cry will be loud, and the children will come from the west, shaking with fear;
11. Shaking with fear like a bird, they will come out of Egypt, like a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will give them rest in their houses, says the Lord.
12. The deceit of Ephraim and the false words of Israel are about me on every side. ...

1 John 3 / Basic English

1. See what great love the Father has given us in naming us the children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not see who we are, because it did not see who he was.
2. My loved ones, now we are children of God, and at present it is not clear what we are to be. We are certain that at his revelation we will be like him; for we will see him as he is.
3. And everyone who has this hope in him makes himself holy, even as he is holy.
4. Everyone who is a sinner goes against the law, for sin is going against the law.
5. And you have knowledge that he came to take away sin: and in him there is no sin.
6. Anyone who is in him does no sin; anyone who is a sinner has not seen him and has no knowledge of him.
7. My little children, let no man take you out of the true way: he who does righteousness is upright, even as he is upright;
8. The sinner is a child of the Evil One; for the Evil One has been a sinner from the first. And the Son of God was seen on earth so that he might put an end to the works of the Evil One.
9. Anyone who is a child of God does no sin, because he still has God's seed in him; he is not able to be a sinner, because God is his Father.
10. In this way it is clear who are the children of God and who are the children of the Evil One; anyone who does not do righteousness or who has no love for his brother, is not a child of God.
11. Because this is the word which was given to you from the first, that we are to have love for one another;
12. Not being of the Evil One like Cain, who put his brother to death. And why did he put him to death? Because his works were evil and his brother's works were good.
13. Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world has no love for you.
14. We are conscious that we have come out of death into life because of our love for the brothers. He who has no love is still in death.
15. Anyone who has hate for his brother is a taker of life, and you may be certain that no taker of life has eternal life in him.
16. In this we see what love is, because he gave his life for us; and it is right for us to give our lives for the brothers.
17. But if a man has this world's goods, and sees that his brother is in need, and keeps his heart shut against his brother, how is it possible for the love of God to be in him?
18. My little children, do not let our love be in word and in tongue, but let it be in act and in good faith.
19. In this way we may be certain that we are true, and may give our heart comfort before him,
20. When our heart says that we have done wrong; because God is greater than our heart, and has knowledge of all things.
21. My loved ones, if our heart does not say that we have done wrong, we have no fear before him;
22. And he gives us all our requests, because we keep his laws and do the things which are pleasing in his eyes.
23. And this is his law, that we have faith in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love for one another, even as he said to us.
24. He who keeps his laws is in God and God is in him. And the Spirit which he gave us is our witness that he is in us.