Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Deuteronomy 5 / Basic English

1. And Moses sent for all Israel, and said to them, Give ear, O Israel, to the laws and the decisions which I give you today, and give attention to them so that you may keep and do them.
2. The Lord our God made an agreement with us in Horeb.
3. The Lord did not make this agreement with our fathers but with us, who are all living and present here today.
4. The word of the Lord came to you face to face on the mountain, out of the heart of the fire,
5. (I was between the Lord and you at that time, to make clear to you the word of the Lord: because, through fear of the fire, you did not go up the mountain;) saying,
6. I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house.
7. You are to have no other gods but me.
8. You may not make for yourselves an image in the form of anything in heaven or on earth or in the waters under the earth:
9. You may not go down on your faces before them or give them worship: for I, the Lord your God, am a God who will not give his honour to another; and I will send punishment on the children for the wrongdoing of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation of my haters;
10. And I will have mercy through a thousand generations on those who have love for me and keep my laws.
11. You are not to make use of the name of the Lord your God for an evil purpose; whoever takes the Lord's name on his lips for an evil purpose will be judged as a sinner by the Lord.
12. Keep the Sabbath day as a holy day, as you have been ordered by the Lord your God.
13. On six days do all your work:
14. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on that day do no work, you or your son or your daughter, or your man-servant or your woman-servant, or your ox or your ass or any of your cattle, or the man from a strange country who is living among you; so that your man-servant and your woman-servant may have rest as well as you.
15. And keep in mind that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God took you out of that land by his strong hand and his stretched-out arm: for this reason the Lord has given you orders to keep the Sabbath day.
16. Give honour to your father and your mother, as you have been ordered by the Lord your God; so that your life may be long and all may be well for you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
17. Do not put anyone to death without cause.
18. Do not be false to the married relation.
19. Do not take the property of another.
20. Do not give false witness against your neighbour;
21. Or let your desire be turned to your neighbour's wife, or his house or his field or his man-servant or his woman-servant or his ox or his ass or anything which is your neighbour's.
22. These words the Lord said to all of you together on the mountain, out of the heart of the fire, out of the cloud and the dark, with a great voice: and he said no more; he put them in writing on the two stones of the law and gave them to me.
23. And after hearing the voice which came out of the dark while the mountain was burning with fire, all the heads of your tribes and your chiefs came to me,
24. And said, The Lord has let us see his glory and his power, and his voice has come to us out of the fire: today we have seen that a man may go on living even after hearing the voice of God.
25. Why then is death to be our fate? For if the voice of the Lord our God comes to us any more, death will overtake us, and we will be burned up in this great fire.
26. For what man is there in all the earth, who, hearing the voice of the living God as we have, out of the heart of the fire, has been kept from death?
27. Do you go near: and after hearing everything which the Lord our God has to say, give us an account of all he has said to you, and we will give ear, and do it.
28. Then the Lord, hearing your words to me, said to me, The words which this people have said to you have come to my ears: what they have said is well said.
29. If only they had such a heart in them at all times, so that they might go in fear of me and keep my orders and that it might be well for them and for their children for ever!
30. Now say to them, Go back to your tents.
31. But as for you, keep your place here by me, and I will give you all the orders and the laws and the decisions which you are to make clear to them, so that they may do them in the land which I am giving them for their heritage.
32. Take care, then, to do whatever the Lord your God has given you orders to do; let there be no turning away to the right hand or to the left.
33. Go on walking in the way ordered for you by the Lord your God, so that life may be yours and it may be well for you, and your days may be long in the land of your heritage.

Deuteronomy 6 / Basic English

1. Now these are the orders and the laws and the decisions which the Lord your God gave me for your teaching, so that you might do them in the land of your heritage to which you are going:
2. So that living in the fear of the Lord your God, you may keep all his laws and his orders, which I give you: you and your son and your son's son, all the days of your life; and so that your life may be long.
3. So give ear, O Israel, and take care to do this; so that it may be well for you, and you may be greatly increased, as the Lord the God of your fathers has given you his word, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
4. Give ear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord:
5. And the Lord your God is to be loved with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
6. Keep these words, which I say to you this day, deep in your hearts;
7. Teaching them to your children with all care, talking of them when you are at rest in your house or walking by the way, when you go to sleep and when you get up.
8. Let them be fixed as a sign on your hand, and marked on your brow;
9. Have them lettered on the pillars of your houses and over the doors of your towns.
10. And when the Lord your God has taken you into the land which he gave his oath to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, that he would give you; with great and fair towns which were not of your building;
11. And houses full of good things not stored up by you, and places for storing water which you did not make, and vine-gardens and olive-trees not of your planting; and you have taken food and are full;
12. Then take care that you keep your hearts true to the Lord, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house.
13. Let the fear of the Lord your God be in your hearts, and be his servants, taking your oaths by his name.
14. Do not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples round about you;
15. For the Lord your God who is with you is a God who will not let his honour be given to another; or the wrath of the Lord will be burning against you, causing your destruction from the face of the earth.
16. Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did in Massah.
17. Keep with care the orders of the Lord your God, and his rules and his laws which he has given you;
18. And do what is upright and good in the eyes of the Lord your God, so that it may be well for you and you may go in and take for your heritage that good land from which the Lord undertook by an oath to your fathers,
19. To send out from before you all those who are against you.
20. And when your son says to you in time to come, What is the reason for these rules and laws and decisions which the Lord our God has given you?
21. Then you will say to your son, We were servants under Pharaoh's yoke in Egypt; and the Lord took us out of Egypt with a strong hand:
22. And the Lord did great signs and wonders against Egypt, and against Pharaoh and all his house, before our eyes:
23. And he took us out from that place, guiding us here to give us this land, as he said in his oath to our fathers.
24. And the Lord gave us orders to keep all these laws, in the fear of the Lord our God, so that it might be well for us for ever, and that he might keep us from death, as he has done to this day.
25. And it will be our righteousness if we take care to keep all this order before the Lord our God as he has given it to us.

Psalms 79 / Basic English

1. <A Psalm. Of Asaph.> O God, the nations have come into your heritage; they have made your holy Temple unclean; they have made Jerusalem a mass of broken walls.
2. They have given the bodies of your servants as food to the birds of the air, and the flesh of your saints to the beasts of the earth.
3. Their blood has been flowing like water round about Jerusalem; there was no one to put them in their last resting-place.
4. We are looked down on by our neighbours, we are laughed at and made sport of by those who are round us.
5. How long, O Lord? will you be angry for ever? will your wrath go on burning like fire?
6. Let your wrath be on the nations who have no knowledge of you, and on the kingdoms who have not made prayer to your name.
7. For they have taken Jacob for their meat, and made waste his house.
8. Do not keep in mind against us the sins of our fathers; let your mercy come to us quickly, for we have been made very low.
9. Give us help, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; take us out of danger and give us forgiveness for our sins, because of your name.
10. Why may the nations say, Where is their God? Let payment for the blood of your servants be made openly among the nations before our eyes.
11. Let the cry of the prisoner come before you; with your strong arm make free the children of death;
12. And give punishment seven times over into the breast of our neighbours for the bitter words which they have said against you, O Lord.
13. So we your people, and the sheep of your flock, will give you glory for ever: we will go on praising you through all generations.

Psalms 80 / Basic English

1. <To the chief music-maker; put to Shoshannim-eduth. Of Asaph. A Psalm.> Give ear, O Keeper of Israel, guiding Joseph like a flock; you who have your seat on the winged ones, let your glory be seen.
2. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, let your strength be awake from sleep, and come as our salvation.
3. Take us back again, O God; let us see the shining of your face, and let us be safe.
4. O Lord God of armies, how long will your wrath be burning against the rest of your people?
5. You have given them the bread of weeping for food; for their drink you have given them sorrow in great measure.
6. You make us a cause of war among our neighbours; our haters are laughing at us among themselves.
7. Take us back again, O God of armies; let us see the shining of your face, and let us be safe.
8. You took a vine out of Egypt: driving out the nations, and planting it in their land.
9. You made ready a place for it, so that it might take deep root, and it sent out its branches over all the land.
10. The mountains were covered with its shade, and the great trees with its branches.
11. It sent out its arms to the Sea, and its branches to the River.
12. Why are its walls broken down by your hands, so that all who go by may take its fruit?
13. It is uprooted by the pigs from the woods, the beasts of the field get their food from it.
14. Come back, O God of armies: from heaven let your eyes be turned to this vine, and give your mind to it,
15. Even to the tree which was planted by your right hand, and to the branch which you made strong for yourself.
16. It is burned with fire; it is cut down: they are made waste by the wrath of your face.
17. Let your hand be on the man of your right hand, on the son of man whom you made strong for yourself.
18. So will we not be turned back from you; keep us in life, and we will give praise to your name.
19. Take us back, O Lord God of armies; let us see the shining of your face, and let us be safe.