Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Numbers 8 / Basic English

1. And the Lord said to Moses,
2. Say to Aaron, When you put the lights in their places, the seven lights will give light in front of the support.
3. And Aaron did so; he put the lights in their places so that they gave light in front of the support, as the Lord gave orders to Moses.
4. The support for the lights was of hammered gold work, from its base to its flowers it was of hammered work; from the design which the Lord had given to Moses, he made the support for the lights.
5. And the Lord said to Moses,
6. Take the Levites out from among the children of Israel and make them clean.
7. And this is how you are to make them clean: let the holy water which takes away sin be put on them, and let the hair all over their bodies be cut off with a sharp blade, and let their clothing be washed and their bodies made clean.
8. Then let them take a young ox and its meal offering, crushed grain mixed with oil, and take another ox for a sin-offering.
9. And make the Levites come forward in front of the Tent of meeting, and let all the children of Israel come together:
10. And you are to take the Levites before the Lord: and the children of Israel are to put their hands on them:
11. And Aaron is to give the Levites to the Lord as a wave offering from the children of Israel, so that they may do the Lord's work.
12. And the Levites are to put their hands on the heads of the oxen, and one of the oxen is to be offered for a sin-offering and the other for a burned offering to the Lord to take away the sin of the Levites.
13. Then the Levites are to be put before Aaron and his sons, to be offered as a wave offering to the Lord.
14. So you are to make the Levites separate from the children of Israel, and the Levites will be mine.
15. After that, the Levites will go in to do whatever has to be done in the Tent of meeting; you are to make them clean and give them as a wave offering.
16. For they have been given to me from among the children of Israel; in place of every mother's first son, the first to come to birth in Israel, I have taken them for myself.
17. For every mother's first son among the children of Israel is mine, the first male birth of man or beast: on the day when I sent death on all the first sons in the land of Egypt, I made them mine.
18. And in place of the first sons among the children of Israel, I have taken the Levites.
19. And I have given them to Aaron and to his sons, from among the children of Israel, to undertake for them all the work of the Tent of meeting, and to take away sin from the children of Israel so that no evil may come on them when they come near the holy place.
20. All these things Moses and Aaron and the children of Israel did to the Levites; as the Lord gave orders to Moses about the Levites, so the children of Israel did.
21. And the Levites were made clean from sin, and their clothing was washed, and Aaron gave them for a wave offering before the Lord; and Aaron took away their sin and made them clean.
22. And then the Levites went in to do their work in the Tent of meeting before Aaron and his sons: all the orders which the Lord had given Moses about the Levites were put into effect.
23. And the Lord said to Moses,
24. This is the rule for the Levites: those of twenty-five years old and over are to go in and do the work of the Tent of meeting;
25. But after they are fifty years old, they are to give up their work and do no more;
26. But be with their brothers in the Tent of meeting, taking care of it but doing no work. This is what you are to do in connection with the Levites and their work.

Numbers 9 / Basic English

1. And the Lord said to Moses, in the waste land of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt,
2. Let the children of Israel keep the Passover at its regular time.
3. In the fourteenth day of this month, at evening, you are to keep it at the regular time, and in the way ordered in the law.
4. And Moses gave orders to the children of Israel to keep the Passover.
5. So they kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, in the waste land of Sinai: as the Lord gave orders to Moses, so the children of Israel did.
6. And there were certain men who were unclean because of a dead body, so that they were not able to keep the Passover on that day; and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day:
7. And these men said to him, We have been made unclean by the dead body of a man; why may we not make the offering of the Lord at the regular time among the children of Israel?
8. And Moses said to them, Do nothing till the Lord gives me directions about you.
9. And the Lord said to Moses,
10. Say to the children of Israel, If any one of you or of your families is unclean because of a dead body, or is on a journey far away, still he is to keep the Passover to the Lord:
11. In the second month, on the fourteenth day, in the evening, they are to keep it, taking it with unleavened bread and bitter-tasting plants;
12. Nothing of it is to be kept till the morning, and no bone of it is to be broken: they are to keep it by the rules of the Passover.
13. But the man who, not being unclean or on a journey, does not keep the Passover, will be cut off from his people: because he did not make the offering of the Lord at the regular time, his sin will be on him.
14. And if a man from another country is among you and has a desire to keep the Passover to the Lord, let him do as is ordered in the law of the Passover: there is to be the same rule for the man from another nation and for him who had his birth in the land.
15. And on the day when the House was put up, the cloud came down on it, on the Tent of witness; and in the evening there was a light like fire over the House till the morning.
16. And so it was at all times: it was covered by the cloud, and by a light as of fire by night.
17. And whenever the cloud was taken up from over the House, then the children of Israel went journeying on; and in the place where the cloud came to rest, there the children of Israel put up their tents.
18. At the order of the Lord the children of Israel went forward, and at the order of the Lord they put up their tents: as long as the cloud was resting on the House, they did not go away from that place.
19. When the cloud was resting on the House for a long time the children of Israel, waiting for the order of the Lord, did not go on.
20. Sometimes the cloud was resting on the House for two or three days; then, by the order of the Lord, they kept their tents in that place, and when the Lord gave the order they went on.
21. And sometimes the cloud was there only from evening to morning; and when the cloud was taken up in the morning they went on their journey again: or if it was resting there by day and by night, whenever the cloud was taken up they went forward.
22. Or if the cloud came to rest on the House for two days or a month or a year without moving, the children of Israel went on waiting there and did not go on; but whenever it was taken up they went forward on their journey.
23. At the word of the Lord they put up their tents, and at the word of the Lord they went forward on their journey: they kept the orders of the Lord as he gave them by Moses.

Mark 15 / Basic English

1. And the first thing in the morning the chief priests, with those in authority and the scribes and all the Sanhedrin, had a meeting, and put cords round Jesus, and took him away, and gave him up to Pilate.
2. And Pilate put a question to him, Are you the King of the Jews? And he, answering, said to him, You say so.
3. And the chief priests said a number of things against him.
4. And Pilate again put a question, Do you say nothing in answer? see how much evil they say you have done.
5. But Jesus gave no more answers, so that Pilate was full of wonder.
6. Now at the feast every year he let one prisoner go free at their request.
7. And there was one named Barabbas, in prison with those who had gone against the government and in the fight had taken life.
8. And the people went up, requesting him to do as he had done for them in other years.
9. And Pilate said in answer to them, Is it your desire that I let the King of the Jews go free?
10. For he saw that the chief priests had given him up through envy.
11. But the people were moved by the chief priests to make him let Barabbas go free.
12. And Pilate again said in answer to them, What then am I to do to him to whom you give the name of the King of the Jews?
13. And they said again loudly, To the cross with him!
14. And Pilate said to them, Why, what evil has he done? But their cry was the louder, To the cross!
15. And Pilate, desiring to do what was pleasing to the people, let Barabbas go free, and gave up Jesus, when he had been whipped, to be put to death on the cross.
16. And the men of the army took him away into the square in front of the building which is the Praetorium, and they got together all the band.
17. And they put a purple robe on him, and twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on him;
18. And, as if honouring him, they said, Long life to the King of the Jews!
19. And they gave him blows on the head with a stick and put shame on him and, going down on their knees, gave him worship.
20. And when they had made sport of him, they took the purple robe off him and put his clothing on him. And they took him out to put him to death on the cross.
21. And they made one, Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, who was going by, coming from the country, go with them, so that he might take his cross.
22. And they took him to the place named Golgotha, which is, Dead Man's Head.
23. And they gave him wine mixed with myrrh; but he did not take it.
24. And he was nailed to the cross; and they made a division of his clothing among them, putting to the decision of chance what everyone was to take.
25. And it was the third hour when they put him on the cross.
26. And the statement of his crime was put in writing on the cross, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
27. And they put two thieves on crosses with him, one on his right side, and one on his left.
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29. And those who went by made sport of him, shaking their heads, and saying, Ha! you who give the Temple to destruction, and put it up again in three days,
30. Keep yourself from death, and come down from the cross.
31. In the same way the chief priests, laughing at him among themselves with the scribes, said, A saviour of others, he has no salvation for himself.
32. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, so that we may see and have belief. And those who were put on crosses with him said evil things against him.
33. And when the sixth hour had come, it was dark over all the land till the ninth hour.
34. And at the ninth hour, Jesus said in a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, My God, my God, why are you turned away from me?
35. And some of those who were near, hearing it, said, See, he is crying to Elijah.
36. And one of them went quickly and, getting a sponge full of bitter wine, put it on a rod, and gave it to him for drink, saying, Let be; let us see if Elijah will come to take him down.
37. And Jesus gave a loud cry, and gave up his spirit.
38. And the curtain of the Temple was parted in two from end to end.
39. And when the captain, who was near, saw how he gave up his spirit, he said, Truly this man was a son of God.
40. And there were women watching from a distance: among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome,
41. Who went with him when he was in Galilee and took care of him; and a number of other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.
42. And when it was evening, because it was the time of getting ready, that is, the day before the Sabbath,
43. There came Joseph of Arimathaea, a responsible man in high honour, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God; and he went in to Pilate without fear, and made a request for the body of Jesus.
44. And Pilate was surprised that he was dead; and, sending for the captain, he put a question to see if he had been dead for long.
45. And when he had news of it from the captain, he let Joseph have the body.
46. And he got a linen cloth and, taking him down, put the linen cloth round him, and put him in a place for the dead which had been cut out of a rock; and a stone was rolled against the door.
47. And Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joses, saw where he was put.