Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Deuteronomy 11 / Basic English

1. So have love for the Lord your God, and give him worship, and keep his laws and his decisions and his orders at all times.
2. And be certain in your minds this day; for these words are not said to your children, who have had no experience of the training of the Lord your God, and who have not seen his great power or his strong hand and his stretched-out arm,
3. Or his signs and wonders which he did in Egypt, to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all his land;
4. And what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their war-carriages; how he made the waters of the Red Sea come up over them when they went after you, and how the Lord put an end to them even to this day;
5. And what he did for you in the waste land, till you came to this place;
6. And what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben; when they went down into the open mouth of the earth, with their families and their tents and every living thing which was theirs, before the eyes of all Israel:
7. But your eyes have seen all the great works of the Lord which he has done.
8. So keep all the orders which I give you today, so that you may be strong, and go in and take the land which is to be your heritage;
9. And that your days may be long in the land which the Lord gave by an oath to your fathers and to their seed after them, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10. For the land where you are going is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you put in your seeds, watering them with your foot, like a planted garden:
11. But the land where you are going is a land of hills and valleys, drinking in the rain of heaven:
12. A land cared for by the Lord your God: the eyes of the Lord your God are on it at all times from one end of the year to the other.
13. And it will be that if you truly give ear to the orders which I put before you this day, loving the Lord your God and worshipping him with all your heart and all your soul,
14. Then I will send rain on your land at the right time, the early rains and the late rains, so that you may get in your grain and your wine and your oil.
15. And I will give grass in your fields for your cattle, so that you may have food in full measure.
16. But take care that your hearts are not turned to false ways so that you become servants and worshippers of other gods;
17. For if you do so, the wrath of the Lord will be burning against you, and the heaven will be shut up so that there is no rain and the land will give no fruit; and in a very little time you will be cut off from the good land which the Lord is giving you.
18. So keep these words deep in your heart and in your soul, and have them fixed on your hand for a sign and marked on your brow;
19. Teaching them to your children, and 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:
20. Writing them on the pillars of your houses and over the doors of your towns:
21. So that your days, and the days of your children, may be long in the land which the Lord by his oath to your fathers said he would give them, like the days of the eternal heavens.
22. For if you take care to keep all the orders which I give you, and to do them; loving the Lord your God and walking in all his ways and being true to him:
23. Then the Lord will send these nations in flight before you, and you will take the lands of nations greater and stronger than yourselves.
24. Every place where you put your foot will be yours: from the waste land and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates as far as the Great Sea, will be the limits of your land.
25. All people will give way before you: for the Lord your God will put the fear of you on all the land through which you go, as he has said.
26. Today I put before you a blessing and a curse:
27. The blessing if you give ear to the orders of the Lord your God, which I give you this day:
28. And the curse if you do not give ear to the orders of the Lord your God, but let yourselves be turned from the way which I have put before you this day, and go after other gods which are not yours.
29. And when the Lord your God has taken you into the land of your heritage, you are to put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.
30. Are they not on the other side of Jordan, looking west, in the land of the Canaanites living in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, by the holy tree of Moreh?
31. For you are about to go over Jordan to take the heritage which the Lord your God is giving you, and it will be your resting-place.
32. And you are to take care to keep all the laws and the decisions which I put before you today.

Deuteronomy 12 / Basic English

1. These are the laws and the decisions which you are to keep with care in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to be your heritage all the days of your life on earth.
2. You are to give up to the curse all those places where the nations, whom you are driving out, gave worship to their gods, on the high mountains and the hills and under every green tree:
3. Their altars and their pillars are to be broken down, and their holy trees burned with fire, and the images of their gods cut down; you are to take away their names out of that place.
4. Do not so to the Lord your God.
5. But let your hearts be turned to the place which will be marked out by the Lord your God, among your tribes, to put his name there;
6. And there you are to take your burned offerings and other offerings, and the tenth part of your goods, and the offerings to be lifted up to the Lord, and the offerings of your oaths, and those which you give freely from the impulse of your hearts, and the first births among your herds and your flocks;
7. There you and all your families are to make a feast before the Lord your God, with joy in everything to which you put your hand, because the Lord has given you his blessing.
8. You are not to do things then in the way in which we now do them here, every man as it seems right to him:
9. For you have not come to the rest and the heritage which the Lord your God is giving you.
10. But when you have gone over Jordan and are living in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as your heritage, and when he has given you rest from all those on every side who are fighting against you, and you are living there safely;
11. Then there will be a place marked out by the Lord your God as the resting-place for his name, and there you will take all the things which I give you orders to take: your burned offerings and other offerings, and the tenth part of your goods, and the offerings to be lifted up, and the offerings of your oaths which you make to the Lord;
12. And you will be glad before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, and your men-servants and your women-servants, and the Levite who is with you in your house, because he has no part or heritage among you.
13. Take care that you do not make your burned offerings in any place you see:
14. But in the place marked out by the Lord in one of your tribes, there let your burned offerings be offered, and there do what I have given you orders to do.
15. Only you may put to death animals, such as the gazelle or the roe, for your food in any of your towns, at the desire of your soul, in keeping with the blessing of the Lord your God which he has given you: the unclean and the clean may take of it.
16. But you may not take the blood for food, it is to be drained out on the earth like water.
17. In your towns you are not to take as food the tenth part of your grain, or of your wine or your oil, or the first births of your herds or of your flocks, or anything offered under an oath, or freely offered to the Lord, or given as a lifted offering;
18. But they will be your food before the Lord your God in the place of his selection, where you may make a feast of them, with your son and your daughter, and your man-servant and your woman-servant, and the Levite who is living with you: and you will have joy before the Lord your God in everything to which you put your hand.
19. See that you do not give up caring for the Levite as long as you are living in your land.
20. When the Lord your God makes wide the limit of your land, as he has said, and you say, I will take flesh for my food, because you have a desire for it; then you may take whatever flesh you have a desire for.
21. If the place marked out by the Lord your God as the resting-place for his name is far away from you, then take from your herds and from your flocks which the Lord has given you, as I have said, and have a meal of it in the towns where you may be living.
22. It will be your food, like the gazelle and the roe; the unclean and the clean may take of it.
23. But see that you do not take the blood for food; for the blood is the life; and you may not make use of the life as food with the flesh.
24. Do not take it for food but let it be drained out on the earth like water.
25. Do not take it for food; so that it may be well for you and for your children after you, while you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.
26. But the holy things which you have, and the offerings of your oaths, you are to take to the place which will be marked out by the Lord:
27. Offering the flesh and the blood of your burned offerings on the altar of the Lord your God; and the blood of your offerings is to be drained out on the altar of the Lord your God, and the flesh will be your food.
28. Take note of all these orders I am giving you and give attention to them, so that it may be well for you and for your children after you for ever, while you do what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord your God.
29. When the people of the land where you are going have been cut off before you by the Lord your God, and you have taken their land and are living in it;
30. After their destruction take care that you do not go in their ways, and that you do not give thought to their gods, saying, How did these nations give worship to their gods? I will do as they did.
31. Do not so to the Lord your God: for everything which is disgusting to the Lord and hated by him they have done in honour of their gods: even burning their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
32. You are to keep with care all the words I give you, making no addition to them and taking nothing from them.

Psalms 84 / Basic English

1. <To the chief music-maker; put to the Gittith A Psalm. Of the sons of Korah.> How dear are your tents, O Lord of armies!
2. The passion of my soul's desire is for the house of the Lord; my heart and my flesh are crying out for the living God.
3. The little birds have places for themselves, where they may put their young, even your altars, O Lord of armies, my King and my God.
4. Happy are they whose resting-place is in your house: they will still be praising you. (Selah.)
5. Happy is the man whose strength is in you; in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
6. Going through the valley of balsam-trees, they make it a place of springs; it is clothed with blessings by the early rain.
7. They go from strength to strength; every one of them comes before God in Zion.
8. O Lord God of armies, let my prayer come to you: give ear, O God of Jacob. (Selah.)
9. O God, let your eyes be on him who is our safe cover, and let your heart be turned to your king.
10. For a day in your house is better than a thousand. It is better to be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to be living in the tents of sin.
11. The Lord God is our sun and our strength: the Lord will give grace and glory: he will not keep back any good thing from those whose ways are upright.
12. O Lord of armies, happy is the man whose hope is in you.

Psalms 85 / Basic English

1. <To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of the sons of Korah.> Lord, you were good to your land: changing the fate of Jacob.
2. The wrongdoing of your people had forgiveness; all their sin had been covered. (Selah.)
3. You were no longer angry: you were turned from the heat of your wrath.
4. Come back to us, O God of our salvation, and be angry with us no longer.
5. Will you go on being angry with us for ever? will you keep your wrath against us through all the long generations?
6. Will you not give us life again, so that your people may be glad in you?
7. Let us see your mercy, O Lord, and give us your salvation.
8. I will give ear to the voice of the Lord; for he will say words of peace to his people and to his saints; but let them not go back to their foolish ways.
9. Truly, his salvation is near to his worshippers; so that glory may be in our land.
10. Mercy and faith have come together; righteousness and peace have given one another a kiss.
11. Faith comes up from the earth like a plant; righteousness is looking down from heaven.
12. The Lord will give what is good; and our land will give its increase.
13. Righteousness will go before him, making a way for his footsteps.