Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Leviticus 24 / Basic English

1. And the Lord said to Moses,
2. Give orders to the children of Israel to give you clean olive oil for the light, so that a light may be burning at all times,
3. Outside the veil of the ark in the Tent of meeting; let Aaron see that it is burning from evening till morning at all times before the Lord: it is a rule for ever through all your generations.
4. Let Aaron put the lights in order on the support before the Lord at all times.
5. And take the best meal and make twelve cakes of it, a fifth part of an ephah in every cake.
6. And put them in two lines, six in a line, on the holy table before the Lord.
7. And on the lines of cakes put clean sweet-smelling spices, for a sign on the bread, an offering made by fire to the Lord.
8. Every Sabbath day regularly, the priest is to put it in order before the Lord: it is offered for the children of Israel, an agreement made for ever.
9. And it will be for Aaron and his sons; they are to take it for food in a holy place: it is the most holy of all the offerings made by fire to the Lord, a rule for ever.
10. And a son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel and had a fight with a man of Israel by the tents;
11. And the son of the Israelite woman said evil against the holy Name, with curses; and they took him to Moses. His mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.
12. And they kept him shut up, till a decision might be given by the mouth of the Lord.
13. And the Lord said to Moses,
14. Take the curser outside the tent-circle; and let all in whose hearing the words were said put their hands on his head, and let him be stoned by all the people.
15. And say to the children of Israel, As for any man cursing God, his sin will be on his head.
16. And he who says evil against the name of the Lord will certainly be put to death; he will be stoned by all the people; the man who is not of your nation and one who is an Israelite by birth, whoever says evil against the holy Name is to be put to death.
17. And anyone who takes another's life is certainly to be put to death.
18. And anyone wounding a beast and causing its death, will have to make payment for it: a life for a life.
19. And if a man does damage to his neighbour, as he has done, so let it be done to him;
20. Wound for wound, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever damage he has done, so let it be done to him.
21. He who puts a beast to death will have to make payment for it; he who puts a man to death will himself be put to death.
22. You are to have the same law for a man of another nation living among you as for an Israelite; for I am the Lord your God.
23. And Moses said these words to the children of Israel, and they took the man who had been cursing outside the tent-circle and had him stoned. The children of Israel did as the Lord gave orders to Moses.

Leviticus 25 / Basic English

1. And the Lord said to Moses on Mount Sinai,
2. Say to the children of Israel, When you come into the land which I will give you, let the land keep a Sabbath to the Lord.
3. For six years put seed into your land, and for six years give care to your vines and get in the produce of them;
4. But let the seventh year be a Sabbath of rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord; do not put seed into your land or have your vines cut.
5. That which comes to growth of itself may not be cut, and the grapes of your uncared-for vines may not be taken off; let it be a year of rest for the land.
6. And the Sabbath of the land will give food for you and your man-servant and your woman-servant and those working for payment, and for those of another country who are living among you;
7. And for your cattle and the beasts on the land; all the natural increase of the land will be for food.
8. And let seven Sabbaths of years be numbered to you, seven times seven years; even the days of seven Sabbaths of years, that is forty-nine years;
9. Then let the loud horn be sounded far and wide on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of taking away sin let the horn be sounded through all your land.
10. And let this fiftieth year be kept holy, and say publicly that everyone in the land is free from debt: it is the Jubilee, and every man may go back to his heritage and to his family.
11. Let this fiftieth year be the Jubilee: no seed may be planted, and that which comes to growth of itself may not be cut, and the grapes may not be taken from the uncared-for vines.
12. For it is the Jubilee, and it is holy to you; your food will be the natural increase of the field.
13. In this year of Jubilee, let every man go back to his heritage.
14. And in the business of trading goods for money, do no wrong to one another.
15. Let your exchange of goods with your neighbours have relation to the number of years after the year of Jubilee, and the number of times the earth has given her produce.
16. If the number of years is great, the price will be increased, and if the number of years is small, the price will be less, for it is the produce of a certain number of years which the man is giving you.
17. And do no wrong, one to another, but let the fear of your God be before you; for I am the Lord your God.
18. So keep my rules and my decisions and do them, and you will be safe in your land.
19. And the land will give her fruit, and you will have food in full measure and be safe in the land.
20. And if you say, Where will our food come from in the seventh year, when we may not put in seed, or get in the increase
21. Then I will send my blessing on you in the sixth year, and the land will give fruit enough for three years.
22. And in the eighth year you will put in your seed, and get your food from the old stores, till the fruit of the ninth year is ready.
23. No exchange of land may be for ever, for the land is mine, and you are as my guests, living with me for a time.
24. Wherever there is property in land, the owner is to have the right of getting it back.
25. If your brother becomes poor, and has to give up some of his land for money, his nearest relation may come and get back that which his brother has given up.
26. And if he has no one to get it back for him, and later he himself gets wealth and has enough money to get it back;
27. Then let him take into account the years from the time when he gave it up, and make up the loss for the rest of the years to him who took it, and so get back his property.
28. But if he is not able to get it back for himself, then it will be kept by him who gave a price for it, till the year of Jubilee; and in that year it will go back to its first owner and he will have his property again.
29. And if a man gives his house in a walled town for money, he has the right to get it back for the space of a full year after he has given it up.
30. And if he does not get it back by the end of the year, then the house in the town will become the property of him who gave the money for it, and of his children for ever; it will not go from him in the year of Jubilee.
31. But houses in small unwalled towns will be the same as property in the country; they may be got back, and they will go back to their owners in the year of Jubilee.
32. But the houses in the towns of the Levites may be got back by the Levites at any time.
33. And if a Levite does not give money to get back his property, his house in the town which was exchanged for money will come back to him in the year of Jubilee. For the houses of the towns of the Levites are their property among the children of Israel.
34. But the land on the outskirts of their towns may not be exchanged for money, for it is their property for ever.
35. And if your brother becomes poor and is not able to make a living, then you are to keep him with you, helping him as you would a man from another country who is living among you.
36. Take no interest from him, in money or in goods, but have the fear of your God before you, and let your brother make a living among you.
37. Do not take interest on the money which you let him have or on the food which you give him.
38. I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, that I might be your God.
39. And if your brother becomes poor and gives himself to you for money, do not make use of him like a servant who is your property;
40. But let him be with you as a servant working for payment, till the year of Jubilee;
41. Then he will go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his family and to the property of his fathers.
42. For they are my servants whom I took out from the land of Egypt; they may not become the property of another.
43. Do not be a hard master to him, but have the fear of God before you.
44. But you may get servants as property from among the nations round about; from them you may take men-servants and women-servants.
45. And in addition, you may get, for money, servants from among the children of other nations who are living with you, and from their families which have come to birth in your land; and these will be your property.
46. And they will be your children's heritage after you, to keep as their property; they will be your servants for ever; but you may not be hard masters to your countrymen, the children of Israel.
47. And if one from another nation living among you gets wealth, and your countryman, at his side, becomes poor and gives himself for money to the man from another nation or to one of his family;
48. After he has given himself he has the right to be made free, for a price, by one of his brothers,
49. Or his father's brother, or the son of his father's brother, or any near relation; or if he gets money, he may make himself free.
50. And let the years be numbered from the time when he gave himself to his owner till the year of Jubilee, and the price given for him will be in relation to the number of years, on the scale of the payment of a servant.
51. If there is still a long time, he will give back, on account of it, a part of the price which was given for him.
52. And if there is only a short time, he will take account of it with his master, and in relation to the number of years he will give back the price of making him free.
53. And he will be with him as a servant working for payment year by year; his master is not to be cruel to him before your eyes.
54. And if he is not made free in this way, he will go out in the year of Jubilee, he and his children with him.
55. For the children of Israel are servants to me; they are my servants whom I took out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Mark 8 / Basic English

1. In those days again, when there was a great mass of people and they had no food, he made his disciples come to him and said to them,
2. I have pity for these people because they have been with me now three days, and have no food;
3. If I send them away to their houses with no food, they will be overcome by weariness on the way; and some of them have come from far.
4. And his disciples said in answer, How will it be possible to get enough bread for these men here in a waste place?
5. And he put the question, How much bread have you? And they said, Seven cakes.
6. And he made the people be seated on the earth: and he took the seven cakes and, having given praise, he gave the broken bread to his disciples to put before them; and they put it before the people.
7. And they had some small fishes; and blessing them he had them put before the people in the same way.
8. And they took the food, and had enough; and they took up seven baskets full of the broken bits.
9. And there were about four thousand people: and he sent them away.
10. And he got into the boat with his disciples straight away, and came into the country of Dalmanutha.
11. And the Pharisees came out and put questions to him, requesting from him a sign from heaven, testing him.
12. And he was very sad in spirit, and said, Why is this generation looking for a sign? truly, I say to you, No sign will be given to this generation.
13. And he went away from them, and again got into the boat and went across to the other side.
14. And they had taken no thought to get bread; and they had only one cake of bread with them in the boat.
15. And he said to them, Take care to be on the watch against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.
16. And they said to one another, We have no bread.
17. And Jesus, hearing it, said to them, Why are you reasoning among yourselves because you have no bread? do you still not see, and is it still not clear to you? are your hearts so hard?
18. Having eyes, do you not see? and having ears, have you no hearing? and have you no memory?
19. When I made a division of the five cakes of bread among the five thousand, what number of baskets full of broken bits did you take up? They said to him, Twelve.
20. And when the seven among the four thousand, what number of baskets full of broken bits did you take up? And they said to him, Seven.
21. And he said to them, Is it still not clear to you?
22. And they came to Beth-saida. And they took a blind man to him, requesting him to put his hands on him.
23. And he took the blind man by the hand, and went with him out of the town; and when he had put water from his mouth on his eyes, and put his hands on him, he said, Do you see anything?
24. And looking up, he said, I see men; I see them like trees, walking.
25. Then again he put his hands on his eyes; and looking hard, he was able to see, and saw all things clearly.
26. And he sent him away to his house, saying, Do not even go into the town.
27. And Jesus went out, with his disciples, into the little towns round Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he put a question to his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I am?
28. And they made answer, John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but others, One of the prophets.
29. And he said to them, But who do you say I am? Peter said in answer, You are the Christ.
30. And he put them under orders not to say this of him to anyone.
31. And teaching them, he said that the Son of man would have to undergo much, and be hated by those in authority, and the chief priests, and the scribes, and be put to death, and after three days come back from the dead.
32. And he said this openly. And Peter took him, and was protesting.
33. But he, turning about, and seeing his disciples, said sharply to Peter, Get out of my way, Satan: for your mind is not on the things of God, but on the things of men.
34. And turning to the mass of people with his disciples, he said to them, If any man has the desire to come after me, let him give up all other desires, and take up his cross and come after me.
35. Whoever has a desire to keep his life, will have it taken from him; and whoever gives up his life because of me and the good news, will keep it.
36. What profit has a man if he gets all the world with the loss of his life?
37. And what would a man give in exchange for his life?
38. Whoever has a feeling of shame because of me and my words in this false and evil generation, the Son of man will have a feeling of shame because of him, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.