Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Deuteronomy 4 / Basic English

1. And now give ear, O Israel, to the laws and the decisions which I am teaching you, and do them; so that life may be yours, and you may go in and take for yourselves the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
2. Make no addition to the orders which I give you, and take nothing from them, but keep the orders of the Lord your God which I give you.
3. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-peor: for destruction came from the Lord on all those among you who went after Baal-peor.
4. But you who kept faith with the Lord are living, every one of you, today.
5. I have been teaching you laws and decisions, as I was ordered to do by the Lord my God, so that you might keep them in the land to which you are going to take it for your heritage.
6. So keep these laws and do them; for so will your wisdom and good sense be clear in the eyes of the peoples, who hearing all these laws will say, Truly, this great nation is a wise and far-seeing people.
7. For what great nation has a god so near to them as the Lord our God is, whenever we are turned to him in prayer?
8. And what great nation has laws and decisions so right as all this law which I put before you today?
9. Only take care, and keep watch on your soul, for fear that the things which your eyes have seen go from your memory and from your heart all the days of your life; but let the knowledge of them be given to your children and to your children's children;
10. That day when you were waiting before the Lord your God in Horeb, and the Lord said to me, Make all the people come together, so that hearing my words they may go in fear of me all the days of their life on earth and give this teaching to their children.
11. And you came near, waiting at the foot of the mountain; and flames of fire went up from the mountain to the heart of heaven, with dark clouds, and all was black as night.
12. And the voice of the Lord came to you out of the fire: the sound of his words came to your ears but you saw no form; there was nothing but a voice.
13. And he gave you his agreement with you, the ten rules which you were to keep, which he put in writing on the two stones of the law.
14. And the Lord gave me orders at that time to make clear to you these laws and decisions, so that you might do them in the land to which you are going, and which is to be your heritage.
15. So keep watch on yourselves with care; for you saw no form of any sort on the day when the voice of the Lord came to you in Horeb out of the heart of the fire:
16. So that you may not be turned to evil ways and make for yourselves an image in the form of any living thing, male or female,
17. Or any beast of the earth, or winged bird of the air,
18. Or of anything which goes flat on the earth, or any fish in the water under the earth.
19. And when your eyes are lifted up to heaven, and you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the army of heaven, do not let yourselves be moved to give them worship, or become the servants of what the Lord has given equally to all peoples under heaven.
20. But the Lord has taken you out of the flaming fire, out of Egypt, to be to him the people of his heritage, as you are today.
21. And the Lord was angry with me because of you, and made an oath that I was not to go over Jordan into the good land which the Lord is giving you for your heritage:
22. But death is to come to me in this land, I may not go over Jordan: but you will go over and take that good land for your heritage.
23. Take care that you do not let the agreement of the Lord your God, which he has made with you, go out of your mind, or make for yourselves images of any sort, against the orders which the Lord your God has given you.
24. For the Lord your God is an all-burning fire, and he will not let the honour which is his be given to any other.
25. If, when you have had children and children's children, and have been living a long time in the land, you are turned to evil ways, and make an image of any sort, and do evil in the eyes of the Lord your God, moving him to wrath:
26. May heaven and earth be my witnesses against you today, that destruction will quickly overtake you, cutting you off from that land which you are going over Jordan to take; your days will not be long in that land, but you will come to a complete end.
27. And the Lord will send you wandering among the peoples; only a small band of you will be kept from death among the nations where the Lord will send you.
28. There you will be the servants of gods, made by men's hands, of wood and stone, having no power of seeing or hearing or taking food or smelling.
29. But if in those lands you are turned again to the Lord your God, searching for him with all your heart and soul, he will not keep himself from you.
30. When you are in trouble and all these things have come on you, if, in the future, you are turned again to the Lord your God, and give ear to his voice:
31. Because the Lord your God is a God of mercy, he will not take away his help from you or let destruction overtake you, or be false to the agreement which he made by an oath with your fathers.
32. Give thought now to the days which are past, before your time, from the day when God first gave life to man on the earth, and searching from one end of heaven to the other, see if such a great thing as this has ever been, or if anything like it has been talked of in story.
33. Has any people ever gone on living after hearing the voice of God out of the heart of the fire as you did?
34. Has God ever before taken a nation for himself from out of another nation, by punishments and signs and wonders, by war and by a strong hand and a stretched-out arm and great acts of wonder and fear, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes?
35. All this he let you see, so that you might be certain that the Lord is God and there is no other.
36. Out of heaven itself his voice came to you, teaching you; and on earth he let you see his great fire; and his words came to your ears out of the heart of the fire.
37. And because of his love for your fathers, he took their seed and made it his, and he himself, present among you, took you out of Egypt by his great power;
38. Driving out before you nations greater and stronger than you, to take you into their land and give it to you for your heritage, as at this day.
39. So today be certain, and keep the knowledge deep in your hearts, that the Lord is God, in heaven on high and here on earth; there is no other God.
40. Then keep his laws and his orders which I give you today, so that it may be well for you and for your children after you, and that your lives may be long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for ever.
41. Then Moses had three towns marked out on the far side of Jordan looking to the east;
42. To which anyone causing the death of his neighbour in error and not through hate, might go in flight; so that in one of these towns he might be kept from death:
43. The names of the towns were Bezer in the waste land, in the table-land, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for Manasseh.
44. This is the law which Moses put before the children of Israel:
45. These are the rules and the laws and the decisions which Moses gave to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt;
46. On the far side of Jordan, in the valley facing Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who was ruling in Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel overcame after they had come out of Egypt:
47. And they took his land for a heritage, and the land of Og, king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, whose lands were on the other side of Jordan to the east;
48. From Aroer on the edge of the valley of the Arnon as far as Mount Sion, which is Hermon,
49. And all the Arabah on the far side of Jordan to the east, as far as the sea of the Arabah under the slopes of Pisgah.

Psalms 78 / Basic English

1. <Maschil. Of Asaph.> Give ear, O my people, to my law; let your ears be bent down to the words of my mouth.
2. Opening my mouth I will give out a story, even the dark sayings of old times;
3. Which have come to our hearing and our knowledge, as they were given to us by our fathers.
4. We will not keep them secret from our children; we will make clear to the coming generation the praises of the Lord and his strength, and the great works of wonder which he has done.
5. He put up a witness in Jacob, and made a law in Israel; which he gave to our fathers so that they might give knowledge of them to their children;
6. So that the generation to come might have knowledge of them, even the children of the future, who would give word of them to their children;
7. So that they might put their hope in God, and not let God's works go out of their minds, but keep his laws;
8. And not be like their fathers, a stiff-necked and uncontrolled generation; a generation whose heart was hard, whose spirit was not true to God.
9. The children of Ephraim, armed with bows, were turned back on the day of the fight.
10. They were not ruled by God's word, and they would not go in the way of his law;
11. They let his works go out of their memory, and the wonders which he had made them see.
12. He did great works before the eyes of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
13. The sea was cut in two so that they might go through; the waters were massed together on this side and on that.
14. In the daytime he was guiding them in the cloud, and all through the night with a light of fire.
15. The rocks of the waste land were broken by his power, and he gave them drink as out of the deep waters.
16. He made streams come out of the rock; and waters came flowing down like rivers.
17. And they went on sinning against him even more, turning away from the Most High in the waste land;
18. Testing God in their hearts, requesting meat for their desire.
19. They said bitter words against God, saying, Is God able to make ready a table in the waste land?
20. See, the rock was cut open by his power, so that the water came rushing out, and overflowing streams; is he able to give us bread? is he able to get meat for his people?
21. So these things came to the Lord's ears, and he was angry; and a fire was lighted against Jacob, and wrath came up against Israel;
22. Because they had no faith in God, and no hope in his salvation.
23. And he gave orders to the clouds on high, and the doors of heaven were open;
24. And he sent down manna like rain for their food, and gave them the grain of heaven.
25. Man took part in the food of strong ones; he sent them meat in full measure.
26. He sent an east wind from heaven, driving on the south wind by his power.
27. He sent down meat on them like dust, and feathered birds like the sand of the sea,
28. And he let it come down into their resting-place, round about their tents.
29. So they had food and were full; for he gave them their desire;
30. But they were not turned from their desires; and while the food was still in their mouths,
31. The wrath of God came on them, and put to death the fattest of them, and put an end to the young men of Israel.
32. For all this they went on sinning even more, and had no faith in his great wonders.
33. So their days were wasted like a breath, and their years in trouble.
34. When he sent death on them, then they made search for him; turning to him and looking for him with care;
35. In the memory that God was their Rock, and the Most High God their saviour.
36. But their lips were false to him, and their tongues were untrue to him;
37. And their hearts were not right with him, and they did not keep their agreement with him.
38. But he, being full of pity, has forgiveness for sin, and does not put an end to man: frequently turning back his wrath, and not being violently angry.
39. So he kept in mind that they were only flesh; a breath which is quickly gone, and will not come again.
40. How frequently did they go against him in the waste land, and give him cause for grief in the dry places!
41. Again they put God to the test, and gave pain to the Holy One of Israel.
42. They did not keep in mind the work of his hand, or the day when he took them from the power of their haters;
43. How he had done his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan;
44. So that their rivers were turned to blood, and they were not able to get drink from their streams.
45. He sent different sorts of flies among them, poisoning their flesh; and frogs for their destruction.
46. He gave the increase of their fields to worms, the fruits of their industry to the locusts.
47. He sent ice for the destruction of their vines; their trees were damaged by the bitter cold.
48. Ice was rained down on their cattle; thunderstorms sent destruction among the flocks.
49. He sent on them the heat of his wrath, his bitter disgust, letting loose evil angels among them.
50. He let his wrath have its way; he did not keep back their soul from death, but gave their life to disease.
51. He gave to destruction all the first sons of Egypt; the first-fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham;
52. But he took his people out like sheep, guiding them in the waste land like a flock.
53. He took them on safely so that they had no fear; but their haters were covered by the sea.
54. And he was their guide to his holy land, even to the mountain, which his right hand had made his;
55. Driving out nations before them, marking out the line of their heritage, and giving the people of Israel their tents for a resting-place.
56. But they were bitter against the Most High God, testing him, and not keeping his laws;
57. Their hearts were turned back and untrue like their fathers; they were turned to one side like a twisted bow.
58. They made him angry with their high places; moving him to wrath with their images.
59. When this came to God's ears he was very angry, and gave up Israel completely;
60. So that he went away from the holy place in Shiloh, the tent which he had put among men;
61. And he let his strength be taken prisoner, and gave his glory into the hands of his hater.
62. He gave his people up to the sword, and was angry with his heritage.
63. Their young men were burned in the fire; and their virgins were not praised in the bride-song.
64. Their priests were put to death by the sword, and their widows made no weeping for them.
65. Then was the Lord like one awaking from sleep, and like a strong man crying out because of wine.
66. His haters were turned back by his blows and shamed for ever.
67. And he put the tent of Joseph on one side, and took not the tribe of Ephraim;
68. But he took the tribe of Judah for himself, and the mountain of Zion, in which he had pleasure.
69. And he made his holy place like the high heaven, like the earth which is fixed by him for ever.
70. He took David to be his servant, taking him from the place of the flocks;
71. From looking after the sheep which were giving milk, he took him to give food to Jacob his people, and to Israel his heritage.
72. So he gave them food with an upright heart, guiding them by the wisdom of his hands.