Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Deuteronomy 9 / Basic English

1. Give ear, O Israel: today you are to go over Jordan, to take the heritage of nations greater and stronger than yourselves, and towns of great size with walls as high as heaven;
2. A people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, of whom you have knowledge and of whom it has been said, All are forced to give way before the sons of Anak.
3. Be certain then today that it is the Lord your God who goes over before you like an all-burning fire; he will send destruction on them, crushing them before you; and you will send them in flight, putting an end to them quickly, as the Lord has said.
4. And after the Lord has sent them in flight from before you, say not in your heart, Because of my righteousness the Lord has given me this land; when it is because of their evil-doing that the Lord is driving these nations out before you.
5. Not for your righteousness or because your hearts are upright are you going in to take their land; but because of the evil-doing of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and to give effect to his oath to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
6. Be certain then that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land as a reward for your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people.
7. Keep well in mind how you made the Lord your God angry in the waste land; from the day when you went out of Egypt till you came to this place, you have gone against the orders of the Lord.
8. Again in Horeb you made the Lord angry, and in his wrath he would have put an end to you.
9. When I had gone up into the mountain to be given the stones on which was recorded the agreement which the Lord made with you, I was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights without taking food or drinking water.
10. And the Lord gave me the two stones with writing on them done by the finger of God: on them were recorded all the words which the Lord said to you on the mountain out of the heart of the fire, on the day of the great meeting.
11. Then at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me those stones, the stones of the agreement.
12. And the Lord said to me, Get up now, and go down quickly from this place; for the people you have taken out of Egypt have given themselves over to evil; they have quickly been turned from the way in which I gave them orders to go; they have made themselves a metal image.
13. And then the Lord said to me, I have seen that this people is stiff-necked:
14. Let me send destruction on them till their very name is cut off; and I will make of you a nation greater and stronger than they.
15. So turning round I came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire; and the two stones of the agreement were in my hands.
16. And I saw that you had done evil against the Lord, and had made for yourselves a metal image of a young ox: you had quickly been turned from the way in which the Lord had given you orders to go.
17. And I let the stones go from my hands, and they were broken before your eyes.
18. And I went down on my face before the Lord, as at the first, for forty days and forty nights, without taking food or drinking water, because of all your sin, in doing evil in the eyes of the Lord and moving him to wrath.
19. For I was full of fear because of the wrath of the Lord which was burning against you, with your destruction in view. But again the Lord's ear was open to my prayer.
20. And the Lord, in his wrath, would have put Aaron to death: and I made prayer for Aaron at the same time.
21. And I took your sin, the image which you had made, and put it in the fire and had it hammered and crushed very small till it was only dust: and the dust I put in the stream flowing down from the mountain.
22. Again at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you made the Lord angry.
23. And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and take the land which I have given you; you went against the orders of the Lord your God, and had no faith in him, and would not give ear to his voice.
24. From the day when I first had knowledge of you, you have gone against the word of the Lord.
25. So I went down on my face in prayer before the Lord for forty days and forty nights as I did at first; because the Lord had said that he would put an end to you.
26. And I made prayer to the Lord and said, O Lord God, do not send destruction on your people and your heritage, to whom, by your great power, you have given salvation, whom you have taken out of Egypt by the strength of your hand.
27. Keep in mind your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not looking at the hard heart of this people, or their evil-doing and their sin:
28. Or it may be said in the land from which you have taken them, Because the Lord was not able to take them into the land which he said he would give them, and because of his hate for them, he has taken them out to put them to death in the waste land.
29. But still they are your people and your heritage, whom you took out by your great power and by your stretched-out arm.

Deuteronomy 10 / Basic English

1. At that time the Lord said to me, Make two other stones, cut like the first two, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood.
2. And I will put on the stones the words which were on the first stones which were broken by you, and you are to put them into the ark.
3. So I made an ark of hard wood, and had two stones cut like the others, and went up the mountain with the stones in my hands.
4. And he put on the stones, as in the first writing, the ten rules which the Lord gave you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the great meeting: and the Lord gave the stones to me.
5. And turning round I came down from the mountain and put the stones in the ark which I had made; and there they are as the Lord gave me orders.
6. (And the children of Israel went on from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah: there death came to Aaron and he was put to rest in the earth; and Eleazar, his son, took his place as priest.
7. From there they went on to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of streams of water.
8. At that time the Lord had the tribe of Levi marked out to take up the ark of the Lord's agreement, to be before the Lord and to do his work and to give blessings in his name, to this day.
9. For this reason Levi has no part or heritage for himself among his brothers: the Lord is his heritage, as the Lord your God said to him.)
10. And I was in the mountain, as at the first time, for forty days and forty nights; and again the ears of the Lord were open to my prayer, and he did not send destruction on you.
11. Then the Lord said to me, Get up and go on your journey before the people, so that they may go in and take the land which I said in my oath to their fathers that I would give them.
12. And now, Israel, what would the Lord your God have you do, but to go in the fear of the Lord your God, walking in all his ways and loving him and doing his pleasure with all your heart and all your soul,
13. Doing the orders of the Lord and keeping his laws which I give you this day for your good?
14. The Lord your God is ruler of heaven, of the heaven of heavens, and of the earth with everything in it.
15. But the Lord had delight in your fathers and love for them, marking out for himself their seed after them, even you, from all peoples, as at this day.
16. Let your circumcision be of the heart, and put away your pride.
17. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, strong in power and greatly to be feared, who has no respect for any man's position and takes no rewards:
18. Judging uprightly in the cause of the widow and of the child who has no father, and giving food and clothing in his mercy to the man from a strange country.
19. So be kind to the man from a strange country who is living among you, for you yourselves were living in a strange country in the land of Egypt.
20. Let the fear of the Lord your God be before you, give him worship and be true to him at all times, taking your oaths in his name.
21. He is your God, the God of your praise, your God who has done for you all these works of power which your eyes have seen.
22. Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now the Lord your God has made you like the stars of heaven in number.

Psalms 83 / Basic English

1. <A Song. A Psalm. Of Asaph.> O God, do not keep quiet: let your lips be open and take no rest, O God.
2. For see! those who make war on you are out of control; your haters are lifting up their heads.
3. They have made wise designs against your people, talking together against those whom you keep in a secret place.
4. They have said, Come, let us put an end to them as a nation; so that the name of Israel may go out of man's memory.
5. For they have all come to an agreement; they are all joined together against you:
6. The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab and the Hagarites;
7. Gebal and Ammon and Amalek; the Philistines and the people of Tyre;
8. Assur is joined with them; they have become the support of the children of Lot. (Selah.)
9. Do to them what you did to the Midianites; what you did to Sisera and Jabin, at the stream of Kishon:
10. Who came to destruction at En-dor; their bodies became dust and waste.
11. Make their chiefs like Oreb and Zeeb; and all their rulers like Zebah and Zalmunna:
12. Who have said, Let us take for our heritage the resting-place of God.
13. O my God, make them like the rolling dust; like dry stems before the wind.
14. As fire burning a wood, and as a flame causing fire on the mountains,
15. So go after them with your strong wind, and let them be full of fear because of your storm.
16. Let their faces be full of shame; so that they may give honour to your name, O Lord.
17. Let them be overcome and troubled for ever; let them be put to shame and come to destruction;
18. So that men may see that you only, whose name is Yahweh, are Most High over all the earth.