Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Amos 5 / Basic English

1. Give ear to this word, my song of sorrow over you, O children of Israel.
2. The virgin of Israel has been made low, never again to be lifted up: she is stretched out by herself on her land; there is no one to put her on her feet again.
3. For these are the words of the Lord God: The town which was able to send out a thousand, will have only a hundred; and that which sent out a hundred, will have only ten, in Israel.
4. For these are the words of the Lord to the children of Israel: Let your hearts be turned to me, so that you may have life:
5. Do not be looking for help to Beth-el, and do not go to Gilgal, or make your way to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal will certainly be taken prisoner, and Beth-el will come to nothing.
6. Go to the Lord for help so that you may have life; for fear that he may come like fire bursting out in the family of Joseph, causing destruction, and there will be no one to put it out in Beth-el.
7. You who make the work of judging a bitter thing, crushing down righteousness to the earth;
8. Go for help to him who makes Orion and the Pleiades, by whom the deep dark is turned into morning, who makes the day black with night; whose voice goes out to the waters of the sea, sending them out over the face of the earth: the Lord is his name;
9. Who sends sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the walled town.
10. They have hate for him who makes protest against evil in the public place, and he whose words are upright is disgusting to them.
11. So because the poor man is crushed under your feet, and you take taxes from him of grain: you have made for yourselves houses of cut stone, but you will not take your rest in them; the fair vine-gardens planted by your hands will not give you wine.
12. For I have seen how your evil-doing is increased and how strong are your sins, you troublers of the upright, who take rewards and do wrong to the cause of the poor in the public place.
13. So the wise will say nothing in that time; for it is an evil time.
14. Go after good and not evil, so that life may be yours: and so the Lord, the God of armies, will be with you, as you say.
15. Be haters of evil and lovers of good, and let right be done in the public place: it may be that the Lord, the God of armies, will have mercy on the rest of Joseph.
16. So these are the words of the Lord, the God of armies, the Lord: There will be weeping in all the open spaces; and in all the streets they will say, Sorrow! sorrow! and they will get in the farmer to the weeping, and the makers of sad songs to give cries of grief.
17. In all the vine-gardens there will be cries of grief: for I will go through among you, says the Lord.
18. Sorrow to you who are looking for the day of the Lord! what is the day of the Lord to you? it is dark and not light.
19. As if a man, running away from a lion, came face to face with a bear; or went into the house and put his hand on the wall and got a bite from a snake.
20. Will not the day of the Lord be dark and not light? even very dark, with no light shining in it?
21. Your feasts are disgusting to me, I will have nothing to do with them; I will take no delight in your holy meetings.
22. Even if you give me your burned offerings and your meal offerings, I will not take pleasure in them: I will have nothing to do with the peace-offerings of your fat beasts.
23. Take away from me the noise of your songs; my ears are shut to the melody of your instruments.
24. But let the right go rolling on like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
25. Did you come to me with offerings of beasts and meal offerings in the waste land for forty years, O Israel?
26. Truly, you will take up Saccuth your king and Kaiwan your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves.
27. And I will send you away as prisoners farther than Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of armies.

Amos 6 / Basic English

1. Sorrow to those who are resting in comfort in Zion, and to those who have no fear of danger in the mountain of Samaria, the noted men of the chief of the nations, to whom the people of Israel come!
2. Go on to Calneh and see; and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines: are you better than these kingdoms? or is your land wider than theirs?
3. You who put far away the evil day, causing the rule of the violent to come near;
4. Who are resting on beds of ivory, stretched out on soft seats, feasting on lambs from the flock and young oxen from the cattle-house;
5. Making foolish songs to the sound of corded instruments, and designing for themselves instruments of music, like David;
6. Drinking wine in basins, rubbing themselves with the best oils; but they have no grief for the destruction of Joseph.
7. So now they will go away prisoners with the first of those who are made prisoners, and the loud cry of those who were stretched out will come to an end.
8. The Lord God has taken an oath by himself, says the Lord, the God of armies: the pride of Jacob is disgusting to me, and I have hate for his great houses: so I will give up the town with everything in it.
9. Then it will come about that if there are still ten men in a house, death will overtake them.
10. And when a man's relation, even the one who is responsible for burning his body, lifting him up to take his bones out of the house, says to him who is in the inmost part of the house, Is there still anyone with you? and he says, No; then he will say, Keep quiet, for the name of the Lord may not be named.
11. For see, at the order of the Lord the great house will be full of cracks and the little house will be broken.
12. Is it possible for horses to go running on the rock? may the sea be ploughed with oxen? for the right to be turned by you into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into a bitter plant?
13. You whose joy is in a thing of no value, who say, Have we not taken for ourselves horns by the strength which is ours?
14. For see, I will send against you a nation, O Israel, says the Lord, the God of armies, ruling you cruelly from the way into Hamath as far as the stream of the Arabah.

Revelation 1 / Basic English

1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him so that his servants might have knowledge of the things which will quickly take place: and he sent and made it clear by his angel to his servant John;
2. Who gave witness of the word of God, and of the witness of Jesus Christ, even of all the things which he saw.
3. A blessing be on the reader, and on those who give ear to the prophet's words, and keep the things which he has put in the book: for the time is near.
4. John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from him who is and was and is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his high seat;
5. And from Jesus Christ, the true witness, the first to come back from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who had love for us and has made us clean from our sins by his blood;
6. And has made us to be a kingdom and priests to his God and Father; to him let glory and power be given for ever and ever. So be it.
7. See, he comes with the clouds, and every eye will see him, and those by whom he was wounded; and all the tribes of the earth will be sorrowing because of him. Yes, so be it.
8. I am the First and the Last, says the Lord God who is and was and is to come, the Ruler of all.
9. I, John, your brother, who have a part with you in the trouble and the kingdom and the quiet strength of Jesus, was in the island which is named Patmos, for the word of God and the witness of Jesus.
10. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and a great voice at my back, as of a horn, came to my ears,
11. Saying, What you see, put in a book, and send it to the seven churches; to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamos and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.
12. And turning to see the voice which said these words to me, I saw seven gold vessels with lights burning in them;
13. And in the middle of them one like a son of man, clothed with a robe down to his feet, and with a band of gold round his breasts.
14. And his head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;
15. And his feet like polished brass, as if it had been burned in a fire; and his voice was as the sound of great waters.
16. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword: and his face was like the sun shining in its strength.
17. And when I saw him, I went down on my face at his feet as one dead. And he put his right hand on me, saying, Have no fear; I am the first and the last and the Living one;
18. And I was dead, and see, I am living for ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hell.
19. Put in writing, then, the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will be after these;
20. The secret of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and of the seven gold vessels with burning lights. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven lights are the seven churches.