Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Deuteronomy 7 / Basic English

1. When the Lord your God takes you into the land where you are going, which is to be your heritage, and has sent out the nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you;
2. And when the Lord has given them up into your hands and you have overcome them, give them up to complete destruction: make no agreement with them, and have no mercy on them:
3. Do not take wives or husbands from among them; do not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons.
4. For through them your sons will be turned from me to the worship of other gods: and the Lord will be moved to wrath against you and send destruction on you quickly.
5. But this is what you are to do to them: their altars are to be pulled down and their pillars broken, and their holy trees cut down and their images burned with fire.
6. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God: marked out by the Lord your God to be his special people out of all the nations on the face of the earth.
7. The Lord did not give you his love or take you for himself because you were more in number than any other people; for you were the smallest of the nations:
8. But because of his love for you, and in order to keep his oath to your fathers, the Lord took you out with the strength of his hand, making you free from the prison-house and from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
9. Be certain, then, that the Lord your God is God; whose faith and mercy are unchanging, who keeps his word through a thousand generations to those who have love for him and keep his laws;
10. Rewarding his haters to their face with destruction; he will have no mercy on his hater, but will give him open punishment.
11. So keep the orders and the laws and the decisions which I give you today and do them.
12. And it will be, that if you give attention to these decisions and keep and do them, then the Lord will keep his agreement with you and his mercy, as he said in his oath to your fathers.
13. And he will give you his love, blessing you and increasing you: he will send his blessing on the offspring of your body and the fruit of your land, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock, in the land which by his oath to your fathers he undertook to give you.
14. You will have greater blessings than any other people: no male or female among you or among your cattle will be without offspring.
15. And the Lord will take away from you all disease, and will not put on you any of the evil diseases of Egypt which you have seen, but will put them on your haters.
16. And you are to send destruction on all the peoples which the Lord your God gives into your hands; have no pity on them, and do not give worship to their gods; for that will be a cause of sin to you.
17. If you say in your hearts, These nations are greater in number than we are: how are we to take their land from them?
18. Have no fear of them, but keep well in mind what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt;
19. The great punishments which your eyes saw, and the signs and the wonders and the strong hand and the stretched-out arm, by which the Lord your God took you out: so will the Lord your God do to all the peoples who are the cause of your fears.
20. And the Lord will send a hornet among them, till all the rest who have kept themselves safe from you in secret places have been cut off.
21. Have no fear of them: for the Lord your God is with you, a great God greatly to be feared.
22. The Lord your God will send out the nations before you little by little; they are not to be rooted out quickly, for fear that the beasts of the field may be increased overmuch against you.
23. But the Lord your God will give them up into your hands, overpowering them till their destruction is complete.
24. He will give their kings into your hands, and you will put their names out of existence under heaven; there is not one of them who will not give way before you, till their destruction is complete.
25. The images of their gods are to be burned with fire: have no desire for the gold and silver on them, and do not take it for yourselves, for it will be a danger to you: it is a thing disgusting to the Lord your God:
26. And you may not take a disgusting thing into your house, and so become cursed with its curse: but keep yourselves from it, turning from it with fear and hate, for it is a cursed thing.

Deuteronomy 8 / Basic English

1. Take care to keep all the orders which I give you today, so that you may have life and be increased and go in and take as a heritage the land which the Lord, by his oath to your fathers, undertook to give you.
2. And keep in mind the way by which the Lord your God has taken you through the waste land these forty years, so that he might make low your pride and put you to the test, to see what was in your heart and if you would keep his orders or not.
3. And he made low your pride and let you be without food and gave you manna for your food, a thing new to you, which your fathers never saw; so that he might make it clear to you that bread is not man's only need, but his life is in every word which comes out of the mouth of the Lord.
4. Through all these forty years your clothing did not get old or your feet become tired.
5. Keep in mind this thought, that as a son is trained by his father, so you have been trained by the Lord your God.
6. Then keep the orders of the Lord your God, fearing him and walking in his ways.
7. For the Lord your God is guiding you into a good land, a land of water-springs, of fountains, and deep streams flowing out from the valleys and the hills;
8. A land of grain and vines and fig-trees and fair fruits; a land of oil-giving olive-trees and honey;
9. Where there will be bread for you in full measure and you will be in need of nothing; a land where the very stones are iron and from whose hills you may get copper.
10. And you will have food enough and be full, praising the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
11. Then take care that you are not turned away from the Lord your God and from keeping his orders and decisions and laws which I give you this day:
12. And when you have taken food and are full, and have made fair houses for yourselves and are living in them;
13. And when your herds and your flocks are increased, and your stores of silver and gold, and you have wealth of every sort;
14. Take care that your hearts are not lifted up in pride, giving no thought to the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house;
15. Who was your guide through that great and cruel waste, where there were poison-snakes and scorpions and a dry land without water; who made water come out of the hard rock for you;
16. Who gave you manna for your food in the waste land, a food which your fathers had never seen; so that your pride might be broken and your hearts tested for your good in the end;
17. Say not then, in your hearts, My power and the strength of my hands have got me this wealth.
18. But keep in mind the Lord your God: for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth, so that he may give effect to the agreement which he made by his oath with your fathers, as at this day.
19. And it is certain that if at any time you are turned away from the Lord your God, and go after other gods, to be their servants and to give them worship, destruction will overtake you.
20. Like the nations which the Lord is cutting off before you, so you will be cut off; because you would not give ear to the voice of the Lord your God.

Psalms 81 / Basic English

1. <To the chief music-maker; put to the Gittith. Of Asaph.> Make a song to God our strength: make a glad cry to the God of Jacob.
2. Take up the melody, playing on an instrument of music, even on corded instruments.
3. Let the horn be sounded in the time of the new moon, at the full moon, on our holy feast-day:
4. For this is a rule for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.
5. He gave it to Joseph as a witness, when he went out over the land of Egypt; then the words of a strange tongue were sounding in my ears.
6. I took the weight from his back; his hands were made free from the baskets.
7. You gave a cry in your trouble, and I made you free; I gave you an answer in the secret place of the thunder; I put you to the test at the waters of Meribah. (Selah.)
8. Give ear, O my people, and I will give you my word, O Israel, if you will only do as I say!
9. There is to be no strange god among you; you are not to give worship to any other god.
10. I am the Lord your God, who took you up from the land of Egypt: let your mouth be open wide, so that I may give you food.
11. But my people did not give ear to my voice; Israel would have nothing to do with me.
12. So I gave them up to the desires of their hearts; that they might go after their evil purposes.
13. If only my people would give ear to me, walking in my ways!
14. I would quickly overcome their haters: my hand would be turned against those who make war on them.
15. The haters of the Lord would be broken, and their destruction would be eternal.
16. I would give them the best grain for food; you would be full of honey from the rock.

Psalms 82 / Basic English

1. <A Psalm. Of Asaph.> God is in the meeting-place of God; he is judging among the gods.
2. How long will you go on judging falsely, having respect for the persons of evil-doers? (Selah.)
3. Give ear to the cause of the poor and the children without fathers; let those who are troubled and in need have their rights.
4. Be the saviour of the poor and those who have nothing: take them out of the hand of the evil-doers.
5. They have no knowledge or sense; they go about in the dark: all the bases of the earth are moved.
6. I said, You are gods; all of you are the sons of the Most High:
7. But you will come to death like men, falling like one of the rulers of the earth.
8. Up! O God, come as judge of the earth; for all the nations are your heritage.