Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Exodus 23 / Basic English

1. Do not let a false statement go further; do not make an agreement with evil-doers to be a false witness.
2. Do not be moved to do wrong by the general opinion, or give the support of your words to a wrong decision:
3. But, on the other hand, do not be turned from what is right in order to give support to a poor man's cause.
4. If you come across the ox or the ass of one who is no friend to you wandering from its way, you are to take it back to him.
5. If you see the ass of one who has no love for you bent down to the earth under the weight which is put on it, you are to come to its help, even against your desire.
6. Let no wrong decisions be given in the poor man's cause.
7. Keep yourselves far from any false business; never let the upright or him who has done no wrong be put to death: for I will make the evil-doer responsible for his sin.
8. Take no rewards in a cause: for rewards make blind those who have eyes to see, and make the decisions of the upright false.
9. Do not be hard on the man from a strange country who is living among you; for you have had experience of the feelings of one who is far from the land of his birth, because you yourselves were living in Egypt, in a strange land.
10. For six years put seed into your fields and get in the increase;
11. But in the seventh year let the land have a rest and be unplanted; so that the poor may have food from it: and let the beasts of the field take the rest. Do the same with your vine-gardens and your olive-trees.
12. For six days do your work, and on the seventh day keep the Sabbath; so that your ox and your ass may have rest, together with the son of your servant and the man from a strange land living among you.
13. Take note of all these things which I have said to you, and let not the names of other gods come into your minds or from your lips.
14. Three times in the year you are to keep a feast to me.
15. You are to keep the feast of unleavened bread; for seven days let your bread be without leaven, as I gave you orders, at the regular time in the month Abib (for in it you came out of Egypt); and let no one come before me without an offering:
16. And the feast of the grain-cutting, the first-fruits of your planted fields: and the feast at the start of the year, when you have got in all the fruit from your fields.
17. Three times in the year let all your males come before the Lord God.
18. Do not give the blood of my offering with leavened bread; and do not let the fat of my feast be kept all night till the morning.
19. The best of the first-fruits of your land are to be taken into the house of the Lord your God. The young goat is not to be cooked in its mother's milk.
20. See, I am sending an angel before you, to keep you on your way and to be your guide into the place which I have made ready for you.
21. Give attention to him and give ear to his voice; do not go against him; for your wrongdoing will not be overlooked by him, because my name is in him.
22. But if you truly give ear to his voice, and do whatever I say, then I will be against those who are against you, fighting those who are fighting you.
23. And my angel will go before you, guiding you into the land of the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Canaanite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, and they will be cut off by my hand.
24. Do not go down on your faces and give worship to their gods, or do as they do; but overcome them completely, and let their pillars be broken down.
25. And give worship to the Lord your God, who will send his blessing on your bread and on your water; and I will take all disease away from among you.
26. All your animals will give birth without loss, not one will be without young in all your land; I will give you a full measure of life.
27. I will send my fear before you, putting to flight all the people to whom you come; all those who are against you will go in flight, turning their backs before you.
28. I will send hornets before you, driving out the Hivite and the Canaanite and the Hittite before your face.
29. I will not send them all out in one year, for fear that their land may become waste, and the beasts of the field be increased overmuch against you.
30. Little by little I will send them away before you, till your numbers are increased and you take up your heritage in the land.
31. I will let the limits of your land be from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the waste land to the river Euphrates: for I will give the people of those lands into your power; and you will send them out before you.
32. Make no agreement with them or with their gods.
33. Let them not go on living in your land, or they will make you do evil against me: for if you give worship to their gods, it will certainly be a cause of sin to you.

Exodus 24 / Basic English

1. And he said to Moses, Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, and Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the chiefs of Israel; and give me worship from a distance.
2. And Moses only may come near to the Lord; but the others are not to come near, and the people may not come up with them.
3. Then Moses came and put before the people all the words of the Lord and his laws: and all the people, answering with one voice, said, Whatever the Lord has said we will do.
4. Then Moses put down in writing all the words of the Lord, and he got up early in the morning and made an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.
5. And he sent some of the young men of the children of Israel to make burned offerings and peace-offerings of oxen to the Lord.
6. And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins; draining out half of the blood over the altar.
7. And he took the book of the agreement, reading it in the hearing of the people: and they said, Everything which the Lord has said we will do, and we will keep his laws.
8. Then Moses took the blood and let it come on the people, and said, This blood is the sign of the agreement which the Lord has made with you in these words.
9. Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the chiefs of Israel went up:
10. And they saw the God of Israel; and under his feet there was, as it seemed, a jewelled floor, clear as the heavens.
11. And he put not his hand on the chiefs of the children of Israel: they saw God, and took food and drink.
12. And the Lord said to Moses, Come up to me on the mountain, and take your place there: and I will give you the stones on which I have put in writing the law and the orders, so that you may give the people knowledge of them.
13. Then Moses and Joshua his servant got up; and Moses went up into the mountain of God.
14. And he said to the chiefs, Keep your places here till we come back to you: Aaron and Hur are with you; if anyone has any cause let him go to them.
15. And Moses went up into the mountain, and it was covered by the cloud.
16. And the glory of the Lord was resting on Mount Sinai, and the cloud was over it for six days; and on the seventh day he said Moses' name out of the cloud.
17. And the glory of the Lord was like a flame on the top of the mountain before the eyes of the children of Israel.
18. And Moses went up the mountain, into the cloud, and was there for forty days and forty nights.

Psalms 26 / Basic English

1. <Of David.> O Lord, be my judge, for my behaviour has been upright: I have put my faith in the Lord, I am not in danger of slipping.
2. Put me in the scales, O Lord, so that I may be tested; let the fire make clean my thoughts and my heart.
3. For your mercy is before my eyes; and I have gone in the way of your good faith.
4. I have not taken my seat with foolish persons, and I do not go with false men.
5. I have been a hater of the band of wrongdoers, and I will not be seated among sinners.
6. I will make my hands clean from sin; so will I go round your altar, O Lord;
7. That I may give out the voice of praise, and make public all the wonders which you have done.
8. Lord, your house has been dear to me, and the resting-place of your glory.
9. Let not my soul be numbered among sinners, or my life among men of blood;
10. In whose hands are evil designs, and whose right hands take money for judging falsely.
11. But as for me, I will go on in my upright ways: be my saviour, and have mercy on me.
12. I have a safe resting-place for my feet; I will give praise to the Lord in the meetings of the people.

Psalms 27 / Basic English

1. <Of David.> The Lord is my light and my salvation; who is then a cause of fear to me? the Lord is the strength of my life; who is a danger to me?
2. When evil-doers, even my haters, came on me to put an end to me, they were broken and put to shame.
3. Even if an army came against me with its tents, my heart would have no fear: if war was made on me, my faith would not be moved.
4. One prayer have I made to the Lord, and this is my heart's desire; that I may have a place in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, looking on his glory, and getting wisdom in his Temple.
5. For in the time of trouble he will keep me safe in his tent: in the secret place of his tent he will keep me from men's eyes; high on a rock he will put me.
6. And now my head will be lifted up higher than my haters who are round me: because of this I will make offerings of joy in his tent; I will make a song, truly I will make a song of praise to the Lord.
7. O Lord, let the voice of my cry come to your ears: have mercy on me, and give me an answer.
8. When you said, Make search for my face, my heart said to you, For your face will I make my search.
9. Let not your face be covered from me; do not put away your servant in wrath; you have been my help: do not give me up or take your support from me, O God of my salvation.
10. When my father and my mother are turned away from me, then the Lord will be my support.
11. Make your way clear to me, O Lord, guiding me by the right way, because of my haters.
12. Do not give me into their hands, because false witnesses have come out against me, and men breathing destruction.
13. I had almost given up my hope of seeing the blessing of the Lord in the land of the living.
14. Let your hope be in the Lord: take heart and be strong; yes, let your hope be in the Lord.