Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Genesis 18 / Basic English

1. Now the Lord came to him by the holy tree of Mamre, when he was seated in the doorway of his tent in the middle of the day;
2. And lifting up his eyes, he saw three men before him; and seeing them, he went quickly to them from the door of the tent, and went down on his face to the earth;
3. And said, My Lord, if now I have grace in your eyes, do not go away from your servant:
4. Let me get water for washing your feet, and take your rest under the tree:
5. And let me get a bit of bread to keep up your strength, and after that you may go on your way: for this is why you have come to your servant. And they said, Let it be so.
6. Then Abraham went quickly into the tent, and said to Sarah, Get three measures of meal straight away and make cakes.
7. And running to the herd, he took a young ox, soft and fat, and gave it to the servant and he quickly made it ready;
8. And he took butter and milk and the young ox which he had made ready and put it before them, waiting by them under the tree while they took food.
9. And they said to him, Where is Sarah your wife? And he said, She is in the tent.
10. And he said, I will certainly come back to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife will have a son. And his words came to the ears of Sarah who was at the back of the tent-door.
11. Now Abraham and Sarah were very old, and Sarah was past the time for giving birth.
12. And Sarah, laughing to herself, said, Now that I am used up am I still to have pleasure, my husband himself being old?
13. And the Lord said, Why was Sarah laughing and saying, Is it possible for me, being old, to give birth to a child?
14. Is there any wonder which the Lord is not able to do? At the time I said, in the spring, I will come back to you, and Sarah will have a child.
15. Then Sarah said, I was not laughing; for she was full of fear. And he said, No, but you were laughing.
16. And the men went on from there in the direction of Sodom; and Abraham went with them on their way.
17. And the Lord said, Am I to keep back from Abraham the knowledge of what I do;
18. Seeing that Abraham will certainly become a great and strong nation, and his name will be used by all the nations of the earth as a blessing?
19. For I have made him mine so that he may give orders to his children and those of his line after him, to keep the ways of the Lord, to do what is good and right: so that the Lord may do to Abraham as he has said.
20. And the Lord said, Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is very great, and their sin is very evil,
21. I will go down now, and see if their acts are as bad as they seem from the outcry which has come to me; and if they are not, I will see.
22. And the men, turning from that place, went on to Sodom: but Abraham was still waiting before the Lord.
23. And Abraham came near, and said, Will you let destruction come on the upright with the sinners?
24. If by chance there are fifty upright men in the town, will you give the place to destruction and not have mercy on it because of the fifty upright men?
25. Let such a thing be far from you, to put the upright to death with the sinner: will not the judge of all the earth do right?
26. And the Lord said, If there are fifty upright men in the town, I will have mercy on it because of them.
27. And Abraham answering said, Truly, I who am only dust, have undertaken to put my thoughts before the Lord:
28. If by chance there are five less than fifty upright men, will you give up all the town to destruction because of these five? And he said, I will not give it to destruction if there are forty-five.
29. And again he said to him, By chance there may be forty there. And he said, I will not do it if there are forty.
30. And he said, Let not the Lord be angry with me if I say, What if there are thirty there? And he said, I will not do it if there are thirty.
31. And he said, See now, I have undertaken to put my thoughts before the Lord: what if there are twenty there? And he said, I will have mercy because of the twenty.
32. And he said, O let not the Lord be angry and I will say only one word more: by chance there may be ten there. And he said, I will have mercy because of the ten.
33. And the Lord went on his way when his talk with Abraham was ended, and Abraham went back to his place.

Genesis 19 / Basic English

1. And at nightfall the two angels came to Sodom; and Lot was seated at the way into the town: and when he saw them he got up and came before them, falling down on his face to the earth.
2. And he said, My masters, come now into your servant's house and take your rest there for the night, and let your feet be washed; and early in the morning you may go on your way. And they said, Not so, but we will take our night's rest in the street.
3. But he made his request more strongly, so they went with him into his house; and he got food ready for them, and made unleavened bread, of which they took.
4. But before they had gone to bed, the men of the town, all the men of Sodom, came round the house, young and old, from every part of the town;
5. And crying out to Lot, they said, Where are the men who came to your house this night? Send them out to us, so that we may take our pleasure with them.
6. And Lot went out to them in the doorway, shutting the door after him.
7. And he said, My brothers, do not this evil.
8. See now, I have two unmarried daughters; I will send them out to you so that you may do to them whatever seems good to you: only do nothing to these men, for this is why they have come under the shade of my roof.
9. And they said, Give way there. This one man, they said, came here from a strange country, and will he now be our judge? now we will do worse to you than to them; and pushing violently against Lot, they came near to get the door broken in.
10. But the men put out their hands and took Lot into the house to them, shutting the door again.
11. But the men who were outside the door they made blind, all of them, small and great, so that they were tired out with looking for the door.
12. Then the men said to Lot, Are there any others of your family here? sons-in-law or sons or daughters, take them all out of this place;
13. For we are about to send destruction on this place, because a great outcry against them has come to the ears of the Lord; and the Lord has sent us to put an end to the town.
14. And Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were married to his daughters, Come, let us go out of this place, for the Lord is about to send destruction on the town. But his sons-in-law did not take him seriously.
15. And when morning came, the angels did all in their power to make Lot go, saying, Get up quickly and take your wife and your two daughters who are here, and go, for fear that you come to destruction in the punishment of the town.
16. But while he was waiting, the men took him and his wife and his daughters by the hand, for the Lord had mercy on them, and put them outside the town.
17. And when they had put them out, he said, Go for your life, without looking back or waiting in the lowland; go quickly to the mountain or you will come to destruction.
18. And Lot said to them, Not so, O my Lord;
19. See now, your servant has had grace in your eyes and great is your mercy in keeping my life from destruction, but I am not able to get as far as the mountain before evil overtakes me and death;
20. This town, now, is near, and it is a little one: O, let me go there (is it not a little one?) so that my life may be safe.
21. And he said, See, I have given you your request in this one thing more: I will not send destruction on this town.
22. Go there quickly, for I am not able to do anything till you have come there. For this reason, the town was named Zoar.
23. The sun was up when Lot came to Zoar.
24. Then the Lord sent fire and flaming smoke raining down from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah.
25. And he sent destruction on those towns, with all the lowland and all the people of those towns and every green thing in the land.
26. But Lot's wife, looking back, became a pillar of salt.
27. And Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had been talking with the Lord:
28. And looking in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the lowland, he saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of an oven.
29. So it came about that when God sent destruction on the towns of the lowland, he kept his word to Abraham, and sent Lot safely away when he put an end to the towns where he was living.
30. Then Lot went up out of Zoar to the mountain, and was living there with his two daughters, for fear kept him from living in Zoar: and he and his daughters made their living-place in a hole in the rock.
31. And the older daughter said to her sister, Our father is old, and there is no man to be a husband to us in the natural way:
32. Come, let us give our father much wine, and we will go into his bed, so that we may have offspring by our father,
33. And that night they made their father take much wine; and the older daughter went into his bed; and he had no knowledge of when she went in or when she went away.
34. And on the day after, the older daughter said to the younger, Last night I was with my father; let us make him take much wine this night again, and do you go to him, so that we may have offspring by our father.
35. And that night again they made their father take much wine; and the younger daughter went into his bed; and he had no knowledge of when she went in or when she went away.
36. And so the two daughters of Lot were with child by their father.
37. And the older daughter had a son, and she gave him the name Moab: he is the father of the Moabites to this day.
38. And the younger had a son and gave him the name Ben-ammi: from him come the children of Ammon to this day.

Matthew 10 / Basic English

1. And he got together his twelve disciples and gave them the power of driving out unclean spirits, and of making well all sorts of disease and pain.
2. Now the names of the twelve are these: The first, Simon, who is named Peter, and Andrew, his brother; James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother;
3. Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew, the tax-farmer; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;
4. Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who was false to him.
5. These twelve Jesus sent out and gave them orders, saying, Do not go among the Gentiles, or into any town of Samaria,
6. But go to the wandering sheep of the house of Israel,
7. And, on your way, say, The kingdom of heaven is near.
8. Make well those who are ill, give life to the dead, make lepers clean, send evil spirits out of men; freely it has been given to you, freely give.
9. Take no gold or silver or copper in your pockets;
10. Take no bag for your journey and do not take two coats or shoes or a stick: for the workman has a right to his food.
11. And into whatever town or small place you go, make search there for someone who is respected, and make his house your resting-place till you go away.
12. And when you go in, say, May peace be on this house.
13. And if the house is good enough, let your peace come on it: but if not, let your peace come back to you.
14. And whoever will not take you in, or give ear to your words, when you go out from that house or that town, put off its dust from your feet.
15. Truly I say to you, It will be better for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of God's judging than for that town.
16. See, I send you out as sheep among wolves. Be then as wise as snakes, and as gentle as doves.
17. But be on the watch against men: for they will give you up to the Sanhedrins, and in their Synagogues they will give you blows;
18. And you will come before rulers and kings because of me, for a witness to them and to the Gentiles.
19. But when you are given up into their hands, do not be troubled about what to say or how to say it: for in that hour what you are to say will be given to you;
20. Because it is not you who say the words, but the Spirit of your Father in you.
21. And brother will give up brother to death, and the father his child: and children will go against their fathers and mothers, and put them to death.
22. And you will be hated by all men because of my name: but he who is strong to the end will have salvation.
23. But when they are cruel to you in one town, go in flight to another: for truly, I say to you, You will not have gone through the towns of Israel before the Son of man comes.
24. A disciple is not greater than his master, or a servant than his lord.
25. It is enough for the disciple that he may be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have given the name Beelzebub to the master of the house, how much more to those of his house!
26. Have, then, no fear of them: because nothing is covered which will not come to light, or secret which will not be made clear.
27. What I say to you in the dark, say in the light: and what comes to your ear secretly, say publicly from the house-tops.
28. And have no fear of those who put to death the body, but are not able to put to death the soul. But have fear of him who has power to give soul and body to destruction in hell.
29. Are not sparrows two a farthing? and not one of them comes to an end without your Father:
30. But the hairs of your head are all numbered.
31. Then have no fear; you are of more value than a flock of sparrows.
32. To everyone, then, who gives witness to me before men, I will give witness before my Father in heaven.
33. But if anyone says before men that he has no knowledge of me, I will say that I have no knowledge of him before my Father in heaven.
34. Do not have the thought that I have come to send peace on the earth; I came not to send peace but a sword.
35. For I have come to put a man against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law:
36. And a man will be hated by those of his house.
37. He who has more love for his father or mother than for me is not good enough for me; he who has more love for son or daughter than for me is not good enough for me.
38. And he who does not take his cross and come after me is not good enough for me.
39. He who has the desire to keep his life will have it taken from him, and he who gives up his life because of me will have it given back to him.
40. He who gives honour to you gives honour to me; and he who gives honour to me gives honour to him who sent me.
41. He who gives honour to a prophet, in the name of a prophet, will be given a prophet's reward; and he who gives honour to an upright man, in the name of an upright man, will be given an upright man's reward.
42. And whoever gives to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, he will not go without his reward.