Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Amos 2 / Basic English

1. These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Moab, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because he had the bones of the king of Edom burned to dust.
2. And I will send a fire on Moab, burning up the great houses of Kerioth: and death will come on Moab with noise and outcries and the sound of the horn:
3. And I will have the judge cut off from among them, and all their captains I will put to death with him, says the Lord.
4. These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Judah, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they have given up the law of the Lord, and have not kept his rules; and their false ways, in which their fathers went, have made them go out of the right way.
5. And I will send a fire on Judah, burning up the great houses of Jerusalem.
6. These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Israel, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they have given the upright man for silver, and the poor for the price of two shoes;
7. Crushing the head of the poor, and turning the steps of the gentle out of the way: and a man and his father go in to the same young woman, putting shame on my holy name:
8. By every altar they are stretched on clothing taken from those who are in their debt, drinking in the house of their god the wine of those who have made payment for wrongdoing.
9. Though I sent destruction on the Amorite before them, who was tall as the cedar and strong as the oak-tree, cutting off his fruit from on high and his roots from under the earth.
10. And I took you up out of the land of Egypt, guiding you for forty years in the waste land, so that you might take for your heritage the land of the Amorite.
11. And some of your sons I made prophets, and some of your young men I made separate for myself. Is it not even so, O children of Israel? says the Lord.
12. But to those who were separate you gave wine for drink; and to the prophets you said, Be prophets no longer.
13. See, I am crushing you down, as one is crushed under a cart full of grain.
14. And flight will be impossible for the quick-footed, and the force of the strong will become feeble, and the man of war will not get away safely:
15. And the bowman will not keep his place; he who is quick-footed will not get away safely: and the horseman will not keep his life.
16. And he who is without fear among the fighting men will go in flight without his clothing in that day, says the Lord.

Amos 3 / Basic English

1. Give ear to this word which the Lord has said against you, O children of Israel, against all the family which I took up out of the land of Egypt, saying,
2. You only of all the families of the earth have I taken care of: for this reason I will send punishment on you for all your sins.
3. Is it possible for two to go walking together, if not by agreement?
4. Will a lion give his loud cry in the woodland when no food is there? will the voice of the young lion be sounding from his hole if he has taken nothing?
5. Is it possible for a bird to be taken in a net on the earth where no net has been put for him? will the net come up from the earth if it has taken nothing at all?
6. If the horn is sounded in the town will the people not be full of fear? will evil come on a town if the Lord has not done it?
7. Certainly the Lord will do nothing without making clear his secret to his servants, the prophets.
8. The cry of the lion is sounding; who will not have fear? The Lord God has said the word; is it possible for the prophet to keep quiet?
9. Give out the news in the great houses of Assyria and in the land of Egypt, and say, Come together on the mountains of Samaria, and see what great outcries are there, and what cruel acts are done in it.
10. For they have no knowledge of how to do what is right, says the Lord, who are storing up violent acts and destruction in their great houses.
11. For this reason, says the Lord, an attacker will come, shutting in the land on every side; and your strength will come down and your great houses will be made waste.
12. These are the words of the Lord: As the keeper of sheep takes out of the mouth of the lion two legs or part of an ear; so will the children of Israel be made safe, who are resting in Samaria on seats of honour or on the silk cushions of a bed.
13. Give ear now, and give witness against the family of Jacob, says the Lord God, the God of armies;
14. For in the day when I give Israel punishment for his sins, I will send punishment on the altars of Beth-el, and the horns of the altar will be cut off and come down to the earth.
15. And I will send destruction on the winter house with the summer house; the ivory houses will be falling down and the great houses will come to an end, says the Lord.

Amos 4 / Basic English

1. Give ear to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are in the hill of Samaria, by whom the poor are kept down, and those in need are crushed; who say to their lords, Get out the wine and give us drink.
2. The Lord God has taken an oath by his holy name, that the days are coming when they will take you away with hooks, and the rest of you with fish-hooks.
3. And you will go out through the broken places, every one going straight before her, and you will be sent into Harmon, says the Lord.
4. Come to Beth-el and do evil; to Gilgal, increasing the number of your sins; come with your offerings every morning and your tenths every three days:
5. Let that which is leavened be burned as a praise-offering, let the news of your free offerings be given out publicly; for this is pleasing to you, O children of Israel, says the Lord.
6. But in all your towns I have kept food from your teeth, and in all your places there has been need of bread: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord.
7. And I have kept back the rain from you, when it was still three months before the grain-cutting: I sent rain on one town and kept it back from another: one part was rained on, and the part where there was no rain became a waste.
8. So two or three towns went wandering to one town looking for water, and did not get enough: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord.
9. I have sent destruction on your fields by burning and disease: the increase of your gardens and your vine-gardens, your fig-trees and your olive-trees, has been food for worms: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord.
10. I have sent disease among you, as it was in Egypt: I have put your young men to the sword, and have taken away your horses; I have made the evil smell from your tents come up to your noses: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord.
11. And I have sent destruction among you, as when God sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick pulled out of the fire: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord.
12. So this is what I will do to you, O Israel: and because I will do this to you, be ready for a meeting with your God, O Israel.
13. For see, he who gave form to the mountains and made the wind, giving knowledge of his purpose to man, who makes the morning dark, and is walking on the high places of the earth: the Lord, the God of armies, is his name.

Jude 1 / Basic English

1. Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James, to those of God's selection who have been made holy by God the Father and are kept safe for Jesus Christ:
2. May mercy and peace and love be increased in you.
3. My loved ones, while my thoughts were full of a letter which I was going to send you about our common salvation, it was necessary for me to send you one requesting you with all my heart to go on fighting strongly for the faith which has been given to the saints once and for ever.
4. For certain men have come among you secretly, marked out before in the holy Writings for this evil fate, men without the fear of God, turning his grace into an unclean thing, and false to our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
5. Now it is my purpose to put you in mind, though you once had knowledge of all these things, of how the Lord, having taken a people safely out of Egypt, later sent destruction on those who had no faith;
6. And the angels who did not keep to their kingdom but went out from the place which was theirs, he has put in eternal chains and in dark night till the great day of the judging.
7. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the towns near them, having like these, given themselves up to unclean desires and gone after strange flesh, have been made an example, undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
8. In the same way these dreamers make the flesh unclean, having no respect for authorities, and say evil of rulers.
9. Now when Michael, one of the chief angels, was fighting against the Evil One for the body of Moses, fearing to make use of violent words against him, he only said, May the Lord be your judge.
10. But these men say evil about such things as they have no knowledge of; and the things of which they have natural knowledge, like beasts without reason, are the cause of their destruction.
11. A curse on them! They have gone in the way of Cain, running uncontrolled into the error of Balaam for reward, and have come to destruction by saying evil against the Lord, like Korah.
12. These men are unseen rocks at your love-feasts, when they take part in them with you, keepers of sheep who without fear take the food of the sheep; clouds without water rushing before the wind, wasted trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots,
13. Violent waves of the sea, streaming with their shame, wandering stars for whom the darkest night is kept in store for ever.
14. The prophet Enoch, who was the seventh after Adam, said of these men, The Lord came with tens of thousands of his saints,
15. To be the judge of all, and to give a decision against all those whose lives are unpleasing to him, because of the evil acts which they have done, and because of all the hard things which sinners without fear of God have said against him.
16. These are the men who make trouble, ever desiring change, going after evil pleasures, using high-sounding words, respecting men's position in the hope of reward.
17. But you, my loved ones, keep in memory the words which were said before by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,
18. How they said to you, In the last days there will be men who, guided by their evil desires, will make sport of holy things.
19. These are the men who make divisions, natural men, not having the Spirit.
20. But you, my loved ones, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, and making prayers in the Holy Spirit,
21. Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for life eternal through the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.
22. And have pity on those who are in doubt;
23. And to some give salvation, pulling them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the clothing which is made unclean by the flesh.
24. Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to give you a place in his glory, free from all evil, with great joy,
25. To the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, let us give glory and honour and authority and power, before all time and now and for ever. So be it.