Bible in Basic English
GENESIS, 17
Circumcision
17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord came to him, and said, I am God, Ruler of all; go in my ways and be upright in all things,
17:2 And I will make an agreement between you and me, and your offspring will be greatly increased.
17:3 And Abram went down on his face on the earth, and the Lord God went on talking with him, and said,
17:4 As for me, my agreement is made with you, and you will be the father of nations without end.
17:5 No longer will your name be Abram, but Abraham, for I have made you the father of a number of nations.
17:6 I will make you very fertile, so that nations will come from you and kings will be your offspring.
17:7 And I will make between me and you and your seed after you through all generations, an eternal agreement to be a God to you and to your seed after you.
17:8 And to you and to your seed after you, I will give the land in which you are living, all the land of Canaan for an eternal heritage; and I will be their God.
17:9 And God said to Abraham, On your side, you are to keep the agreement, you and your seed after you through all generations.
17:10 And this is the agreement which you are to keep with me, you and your seed after you : every male among you is to undergo circumcision.
17:11 In the flesh of your private parts you are to undergo it, as a mark of the agreement between me and you.
17:12 Every male among you, from one generation to another, is to undergo circumcision when he is eight days old, with every servant whose birth takes place in your house, or for whom you gave money to someone of another country, and not of your seed.
17:13 He who comes to birth in your house and he who is made yours for a price, all are to undergo circumcision; so that my agreement may be marked in your flesh, an agreement for all time.
17:14 And any male who does not undergo circumcision will be cut off from his people : my agreement has been broken by him.
17:15 And God said, As for Sarai, your wife, from now her name will be not Sarai, but Sarah.
17:16 And I will give her a blessing so that you will have a son by her : truly my blessing will be on her, and she will be the mother of nations : kings of peoples will be her offspring.
17:17 Then Abraham went down on his face, and laughing, said in his heart, May a man a hundred years old have a child? will Sarah, at ninety years old, give birth?
17:18 And Abraham said to God, If only Ishmael's life might be your care!
17:19 And God said, Not so; but Sarah, your wife, will have a son, and you will give him the name Isaac, and I will make my agreement with him for ever and with his seed after him.
17:20 As for Ishmael, I have given ear to your prayer : truly I have given him my blessing and I will make him fertile and give him great increase; he will be the father of twelve chiefs, and I will make him a great nation.
17:21 But my agreement will be with Isaac, to whom Sarah will give birth a year from this time.
17:22 And having said these words, God went up from Abraham.
17:23 And Abraham took Ishmael, his son, and all whose birth had taken place in his house, and all his servants whom he had made his for a price, every male of his house, and on that very day he gave them circumcision in the flesh of their private parts as God had said to him.
17:24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he underwent circumcision.
17:25 And Ishmael, his son, was thirteen years old when he underwent circumcision.
17:26 Abraham and Ishmael, his son, underwent circumcision on that very day.
17:27 And all the men of his house, those whose birth had taken place in the house and those whom he had got for money from men of other lands, underwent circumcision with him.
GENESIS, 18
Abraham's plea for Sodom
18:1 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;
18:2 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;
18:3 And said, My Lord, if now I have grace in your eyes, do not go away from your servant :
18:4 Let me get water for washing your feet, and take your rest under the tree :
18:5 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.
18:6 Then Abraham went quickly into the tent, and said to Sarah, Get three measures of meal straight away and make cakes.
18:7 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;
18:8 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.
18:9 And they said to him, Where is Sarah your wife? And he said, She is in the tent.
18:10 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.
18:11 Now Abraham and Sarah were very old, and Sarah was past the time for giving birth.
18:12 And Sarah, laughing to herself, said, Now that I am used up am I still to have pleasure, my husband himself being old?
18:13 And the Lord said, Why was Sarah laughing and saying, Is it possible for me, being old, to give birth to a child?
18:14 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.
18:15 Then Sarah said, I was not laughing; for she was full of fear. And he said, No, but you were laughing.
18:16 And the men went on from there in the direction of Sodom; and Abraham went with them on their way.
18:17 And the Lord said, Am I to keep back from Abraham the knowledge of what I do;
18:18 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?
18:19 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.
18:20 And the Lord said, Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is very great, and their sin is very evil,
18:21 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.
18:22 And the men, turning from that place, went on to Sodom : but Abraham was still waiting before the Lord.
18:23 And Abraham came near, and said, Will you let destruction come on the upright with the sinners?
18:24 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?
18:25 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?
18:26 And the Lord said, If there are fifty upright men in the town, I will have mercy on it because of them.
18:27 And Abraham answering said, Truly, I who am only dust, have undertaken to put my thoughts before the Lord :
18:28 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.
18:29 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.
18:30 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.
18:31 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.
18:32 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.
18:33 And the Lord went on his way when his talk with Abraham was ended, and Abraham went back to his place.
GENESIS, 19
Destruction of Sodom
19:1 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.
19:2 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.
19:3 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.
19:4 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;
19:5 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.
19:6 And Lot went out to them in the doorway, shutting the door after him.
19:7 And he said, My brothers, do not this evil.
19:8 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.
19:9 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.
19:10 But the men put out their hands and took Lot into the house to them, shutting the door again.
19:11 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.
19:12 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;
19:13 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.
19:14 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.
19:15 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.
19:16 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.
19:17 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.
19:18 And Lot said to them, Not so, O my Lord;
19:19 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;
19:20 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.
19:21 And he said, See, I have given you your request in this one thing more : I will not send destruction on this town.
19:22 Go there quickly, for I am not able to do anything till you have come there. For this reason, the town was named Zoar.
19:23 The sun was up when Lot came to Zoar.
19:24 Then the Lord sent fire and flaming smoke raining down from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah.
19:25 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.
19:26 But Lot's wife, looking back, became a pillar of salt.
19:27 And Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had been talking with the Lord:
19:28 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.
19:29 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.
19:30 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.
19:31 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:
19:32 Come, let us give our father much wine, and we will go into his bed, so that we may have offspring by our father,
19:33 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.
19:34 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.
19:35 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.
19:36 And so the two daughters of Lot were with child by their father.
19:37 And the older daughter had a son, and she gave him the name Moab : he is the father of the Moabites to this day.
19:38 And the younger had a son and gave him the name Ben-ammi : from him come the children of Ammon to this day.
GENESIS, 20
Abimelech threatened
20:1 And Abraham went on his way from there to the land of the South, and was living between Kadesh and Shur, in Gerar.
20:2 And Abraham said of Sarah, his wife, She is my sister : and Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah.
20:3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream in the night, and said to him, Truly you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken; for she is a man's wife.
20:4 Now Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, Lord, will you put to death an upright nation?
20:5 Did he not say to me himself, She is my sister? and she herself said, He is my brother : with an upright heart and clean hands have I done this.
20:6 And God said to him in the dream, I see that you have done this with an upright heart, and I have kept you from sinning against me : for this reason I did not let you come near her.
20:7 So now, give the man back his wife, for he is a prophet, and let him say a prayer for you, so your life may be safe : but if you do not give her back, be certain that death will come to you and all your house.
20:8 So Abimelech got up early in the morning and sent for all his servants and gave them word of these things, and they were full of fear.
20:9 Then Abimelech sent for Abraham, and said, What have you done to us? what wrong have I done you that you have put on me and on my kingdom so great a sin? You have done to me things which are not to be done.
20:10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, Why did you do this thing?
20:11 And Abraham said, Because it seemed to me that there was no fear of God in this place, and that they might put me to death because of my wife.
20:12 And, in fact, she is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife:
20:13 And when God sent me wandering from my father's house, I said to her, Let this be the sign of your love for me; wherever we go, say of me, He is my brother.
20:14 Then Abimelech gave to Abraham sheep and oxen and men-servants and women-servants, and gave him back his wife Sarah.
20:15 And Abimelech said, See, all my land is before you; take whatever place seems good to you.
20:16 And he said to Sarah, See, I have given to your brother a thousand bits of silver so that your wrong may be put right; now your honour is clear in the eyes of all.
20:17 Then Abraham made prayer to God, and God made Abimelech well again, and his wife and his women-servants, so that they had children.
20:18 For the Lord had kept all the women of the house of Abimelech from having children, because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.
GENESIS, 21
Birth of Issac
21:1 And the Lord came to Sarah as he had said and did to her as he had undertaken.
21:2 And Sarah became with child, and gave Abraham a son when he was old, at the time named by God.
21:3 And Abraham gave to his son, to whom Sarah had given birth, the name Isaac.
21:4 And when his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham made him undergo circumcision, as God had said to him.
21:5 Now Abraham was a hundred years old when the birth of Isaac took place.
21:6 And Sarah said, God has given me cause for laughing, and everyone who has news of it will be laughing with me.
21:7 And she said, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would have a child at her breast? for see, I have given him a son now when he is old.
21:8 And when the child was old enough to be taken from the breast, Abraham made a great feast.
21:9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian playing with Isaac.
21:10 So she said to Abraham, Send away that woman and her son : for the son of that woman is not to have a part in the heritage with my son Isaac.
21:11 And this was a great grief to Abraham because of his son.
21:12 But God said, Let it not be a grief to you because of the boy and Hagar his mother; give ear to whatever Sarah says to you, because it is from Isaac that your seed will take its name.
21:13 And I will make a nation of the son of your servant-woman, because he is your seed.
21:14 And early in the morning Abraham got up, and gave Hagar some bread and a water-skin, and put the boy on her back, and sent her away : and she went, wandering in the waste land of Beer-sheba.
21:15 And when all the water in the skin was used up, she put the child down under a tree.
21:16 And she went some distance away, about an arrow flight, and seating herself on the earth, she gave way to bitter weeping, saying, Let me not see the death of my child.
21:17 And the boy's cry came to the ears of God; and the angel of God said to Hagar from heaven, Hagar, why are you weeping? have no fear, for the child's cry has come to the ears of God.
21:18 Come, take your child in your arms, for I will make of him a great nation.
21:19 Then God made her eyes open, and she saw a water-spring, and she got water in the skin and gave the boy a drink.
21:20 And God was with the boy, and he became tall and strong, and he became a bowman, living in the waste land.
21:21 And while he was in the waste land of Paran, his mother got him a wife from the land of Egypt.
21:22 Now at that time, Abimelech and Phicol, the captain of his army, said to Abraham, I see that God is with you in all you do.
21:23 Now, then, give me your oath, in the name of God, that you will not be false to me or to my sons after me, but that as I have been good to you, so you will be to me and to this land where you have been living.
21:24 And Abraham said, I will give you my oath.
21:25 But Abraham made a protest to Abimelech because of a water-hole which Abimelech's servants had taken by force.
21:26 But Abimelech said, I have no idea who has done this thing; you never gave me word of it, and I had no knowledge of it till this day.
21:27 And Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made an agreement together.
21:28 And Abraham put seven young lambs of the flock on one side by themselves.
21:29 Then Abimelech said, What are these seven lambs which you have put on one side?
21:30 And he said, Take these seven lambs from me as a witness that I have made this water-hole.
21:31 So he gave that place the name Beer-sheba, because there the two of them had given their oaths.
21:32 So they made an agreement at Beer-sheba, and Abimelech and Phicol, the captain of his army, went back to the land of the Philistines.
21:33 And Abraham, after planting a holy tree in Beer-sheba, gave worship to the name of the Lord, the Eternal God.
21:34 And Abraham went on living in the land of the Philistines as in a strange country.
GENESIS, 22
Abraham tested
22:1 Now after these things, God put Abraham to the test, and said to him, Abraham; and he said, Here am I.
22:2 And he said to him, Take your son, your dearly loved only son Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and give him as a burned offering on one of the mountains of which I will give you knowledge.
22:3 And Abraham got up early in the morning, and made ready his ass, and took with him two of his young men and Isaac, his son, and after the wood for the burned offering had been cut, he went on his way to the place of which God had given him word.
22:4 And on the third day, Abraham, lifting up his eyes, saw the place a long way off.
22:5 Then he said to his young men, Keep here with the ass; and I and the boy will go on and give worship and come back again to you.
22:6 And Abraham put the wood for the burned offering on his son's back, and he himself took the fire and the knife in his hand, and the two of them went on together.
22:7 Then Isaac said to Abraham, My father; and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, We have wood and fire here, but where is the lamb for the burned offering?
22:8 And Abraham said, God himself will give the lamb for the burned offering : so they went on together.
22:9 And they came to the place of which God had given him knowledge; and there Abraham made the altar and put the wood in place on it, and having made tight the bands round Isaac his son, he put him on the wood on the altar.
22:10 And stretching out his hand, Abraham took the knife to put his son to death.
22:11 But the voice of the angel of the Lord came from heaven, saying, Abraham, Abraham : and he said, Here am I.
22:12 And he said, Let not your hand be stretched out against the boy to do anything to him; for now I am certain that the fear of God is in your heart, because you have not kept back your son, your only son, from me.
22:13 And lifting up his eyes, Abraham saw a sheep fixed by its horns in the brushwood : and Abraham took the sheep and made a burned offering of it in place of his son.
22:14 And Abraham gave that place the name Yahweh-yireh : as it is said to this day, In the mountain the Lord is seen.
22:15 And the voice of the angel of the Lord came to Abraham a second time from heaven,
22:16 Saying, I have taken an oath by my name, says the Lord, because you have done this and have not kept back from me your dearly loved only son,
22:17 That I will certainly give you my blessing, and your seed will be increased like the stars of heaven and the sand by the seaside; your seed will take the land of those who are against them;
22:18 And your seed will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth, because you have done what I gave you orders to do.
22:19 Then Abraham went back to his young men and they went together to Beer-sheba, the place where Abraham was living.
22:20 After these things, Abraham had news that Milcah, the wife of his brother Nahor, had given birth to children;
22:21 Uz the oldest, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel, the father of Aram,
22:22 And Chesed and Hazo and Pildash and Jidlaph and Bethuel.
22:23 Bethuel was the father of Rebekah : these eight were the children of Milcah and Nahor, Abraham's brother.
22:24 And his servant Reumah gave birth to Tebah and Gaham and Tahash and Maacah.
GENESIS, 23
Death of Sarah
23:1 Now the years of Sarah's life were a hundred and twenty-seven.
23:2 And Sarah's death took place in Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron, in the land of Canaan : and Abraham went into his house, weeping and sorrowing for Sarah.
23:3 And Abraham came from his dead and said to the children of Heth,
23:4 I am living among you as one from a strange country : give me some land here as my property, so that I may put my dead to rest.
23:5 And in answer the children of Heth said to Abraham,
23:6 My lord, truly you are a great chief among us; take the best of our resting-places for your dead; not one of us will keep back from you a place where you may put your dead to rest.
23:7 And Abraham got up and gave honour to the children of Heth, the people of that land.
23:8 And he said to them, If you will let me put my dead to rest here, make a request for me to Ephron, the son of Zohar,
23:9 That he will give me the hollow in the rock named Machpelah, which is his property at the end of his field; let him give it to me for its full price as a resting-place for my dead among you.
23:10 Now Ephron was seated among the children of Heth : and Ephron the Hittite gave Abraham his answer in the hearing of the children of Heth, and of all those who came into his town, saying,
23:11 No, my lord, I will give you the field with the hollow in the rock; before all the children of my people will I give it to you for a resting-place for your dead.
23:12 And Abraham went down on his face before the people of the land.
23:13 And Abraham said to Ephron, in the hearing of the people of the land, If only you will give ear to me, I will give you the price of the field; take it, and let me put my dead to rest there.
23:14 So Ephron said to Abraham,
23:15 My lord, give ear to me : the value of the land is four hundred shekels; what is that between me and you? so put your dead to rest there.
23:16 And Abraham took note of the price fixed by Ephron in the hearing of the children of Heth, and gave him four hundred shekels in current money.
23:17 So Ephron's field at Machpelah near Mamre, with the hollow in the rock and all the trees in the field and round it,
23:18 Became the property of Abraham before the eyes of the children of Heth and of all who came into the town.
23:19 Then Abraham put Sarah his wife to rest in the hollow rock in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, that is, Hebron in the land of Canaan.
23:20 And the field and the hollow rock were handed over to Abraham as his property by the children of Heth.
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