A Word About
the New International Reader’s Version

Have You Ever Heard of the New International Version?

We call it the NIV. A lot of people read the NIV. In fact, more people read the NIV than any other English Bible. They like it because it’s easy to read.

And now we are happy to give you another Bible that’s easy to read and understand. It’s the New International Reader’s Version. We call it the NIrV.

Who Will Enjoy Reading the New International Reader’s Version?

We made sure that people who are just starting to read could understand and enjoy the NIrV. Children will be able to read it and understand it. So will older people who are learning how to read or those who are reading the Bible for the first time. So will people who have a hard time understanding what they read. And so will people who use English as their second language. We hope this Bible will be just right for you.

How Is the NIrV Different from the NIV?

The NIrV is based on the NIV. The NIV Committee on Bible Translation (CBT) didn’t produce the NIrV. But several members of CBT worked hard to make the NIrV possible. We used the words of the NIV when we could. When the NIV words were long, we used words that were shorter. We wanted to use words that are easy to understand. We also made the sentences much shorter.

Why did we do all of those things? Because we wanted to make the NIrV really easy to read and understand.

What Other Helps Does the NIrV Have?

We decided to give you a lot of other help too. For example, sometimes a verse is quoted from another place in the Bible. When it is, we put the Bible book’s name, chapter and verse right after the verse that quotes another place.

We separated each chapter into shorter sections. We gave a title to almost every chapter. Sometimes we even gave a title to a section. We did it to help you understand what the chapter or section is all about.

Sometimes the writers of the Bible used more than one name for the same person or place. For example, in the New Testament the Sea of Galilee is also called the Sea of Gennesaret and the Sea of Tiberias. But in the NIrV we decided to call it the Sea of Galilee everywhere it appears in the New Testament. We did it because that is its most familiar name.

We also wanted to help our readers learn the names of people and places even in verses where those names don’t actually appear. For example, when we knew that “the River” meant “the Euphrates River,” we used those words even in verses where only the words “the River” are found. When we knew that the name of “Pharaoh” in a certain verse was “Hophra,” we wrote his name in that verse. We did all of those things because we wanted to make the NIrV as clear as possible.

Does the NIrV Say What the First Writers of the Bible Said?

We wanted the NIrV to say just what the first writers of the Bible said. So we kept checking the Greek New Testament as we did our work. That’s because the New Testament’s first writers used Greek.

We used the best and oldest copies of the Greek New Testament. Earlier English Bibles couldn’t use those copies because they had not yet been found. The oldest Greek New Testaments are best because they are closer in time to the ones the first Bible writers wrote. That’s why we kept checking the older copies instead of newer ones.

Later copies of the Greek New Testament added several verses that the earlier ones don’t have. Sometimes it’s several verses in a row. When that’s the case, we included them in the NIrV. But we set those verses off with a long line. That tells you that the first writers didn’t write them. The verses were added later on. You will find the long lines at Mark 16:9–20 and John 7:53—8:11. Sometimes it’s a single verse. An example is Mark 9:44. That verse is not in the oldest Greek New Testaments. So we put the number 43/44 right before Mark 9:43. Then you can look on the list below for Mark 9:44 and locate the verse that was added.

Verses That Were Not Found in Earliest Greek New Testaments

What Is Our Prayer for You?

The Lord has blessed the New International Version in a wonderful way. He has used it to help millions of Bible readers. Many people have put their faith in Jesus after reading it. Many others have become stronger believers because they have read it.

We hope and pray that the New International Reader’s Version will help you in the same way. If that happens, we will give God all of the glory.

A Word about This Edition

This edition of the New International Reader’s Version has been revised so that the gender language more closely matches that of the New International Version. When we prepared this new edition, we had help from people who were not part of the first team. We want to thank them for their help. They are Ben Aker from the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, Paul House from the Southern Baptist Seminary, and Scott Munger from International Bible Society.

The Old
Testament

Genesis

The Beginning

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2The earth didn’t have any shape. And it was empty. Darkness was over the surface of the ocean. At that time, the ocean covered the earth. The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3 God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. 4God saw that the light was good. He separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light “day.” He called the darkness “night.” There was evening, and there was morning. It was day one.

6 God said, “Let there be a huge space between the waters. Let it separate water from water.” 7And that’s exactly what happened. God made the huge space between the waters. He separated the water that was under the space from the water that was above it. 8God called the huge space “sky.” There was evening, and there was morning. It was day two.

9 God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered into one place. Let dry ground appear.” And that’s exactly what happened. 10God called the dry ground “land.” He called the waters that were gathered together “oceans.” And God saw that it was good.

11 Then God said, “Let the land produce plants. Let them bear their own seeds. And let there be trees on the land that bear fruit with seeds in it. Let each kind of plant or tree have its own kind of seeds.” And that’s exactly what happened.

12 The land produced plants. Each kind of plant had its own kind of seeds. The land produced trees that bore fruit with seeds in it. Each kind of tree had its own kind of seeds.

God saw that it was good. 13And there was evening, and there was morning. It was day three.

14 God said, “Let there be lights in the huge space of the sky. Let them separate the day from the night. Let them serve as signs to mark off the seasons and the days and the years. 15Let them serve as lights in the huge space of the sky to give light on the earth.” And that’s exactly what happened.

16 God made two great lights. He made the larger light to rule over the day. He made the smaller light to rule over the night. He also made the stars.

17 God put the lights in the huge space of the sky to give light on the earth. 18He put them there to rule over the day and the night. He put them there to separate light from darkness.

God saw that it was good. 19And there was evening, and there was morning. It was day four.

20 God said, “Let the waters be filled with living things. Let birds fly above the earth across the huge space of the sky.” 21So God created the great creatures of the ocean. He created every living and moving thing that fills the waters. He created all kinds of them. He created every kind of bird that flies. And God saw that it was good.

22 God blessed them. He said, “Have little ones and increase your numbers. Fill the water in the oceans. Let there be more and more birds on the earth.”

23 There was evening, and there was morning. It was day five.

24 God said, “Let the land produce all kinds of living creatures. Let there be livestock, and creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals. Let there be all kinds of them.” And that’s exactly what happened.

25 God made all kinds of wild animals. He made all kinds of livestock. He made all kinds of creatures that move along the ground. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our likeness. Let them rule over the fish in the waters and the birds of the air. Let them rule over the livestock and over the whole earth. Let them rule over all of the creatures that move along the ground.”

27 So God created man in his own likeness.

He created him in the likeness of God.

He created them as male and female.

28 God blessed them. He said to them, “Have children and increase your numbers. Fill the earth and bring it under your control. Rule over the fish in the waters and the birds of the air. Rule over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

29 Then God said, “I am giving you every plant on the face of the whole earth that bears its own seeds. I am giving you every tree that has fruit with seeds in it. All of them will be given to you for food.

30 “I am giving every green plant to all of the land animals and the birds of the air for food. I am also giving the plants to all of the creatures that move on the ground. I am giving them to every living thing that breathes.” And that’s exactly what happened.

31 God saw everything he had made. And it was very good. There was evening, and there was morning. It was day six.

2 So the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed.

2By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing. So on the seventh day he rested from all of his work. 3God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. He rested on it. After he had created everything, he rested from all of the work he had done.

Adam and Eve

4Here is the story of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

The Lord God made the earth and the heavens. 5At that time, bushes had not appeared on the earth. Plants had not come up in the fields. The Lord God had not sent rain on the earth. And there wasn’t any man to work the ground. 6But streams came up from the earth. They watered the whole surface of the ground.

7Then the Lord God formed a man. He made him out of the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into him. And the man became a living person.

8The Lord God had planted a garden in the east. It was in Eden. There he put the man he had formed. 9The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground. Their fruit was pleasing to look at and good to eat.

The tree that gives life forever was in the middle of the garden. The tree that gives the ability to tell the difference between good and evil was also there.

10A river watered the garden. It flowed from Eden. From there it separated into four other rivers.

11The name of the first river is the Pishon. It winds through the whole land of Havilah. Gold is found there. 12The gold of that land is good. Onyx and sweet-smelling resin are also found there.

13The name of the second river is the Gihon. It winds through the whole land of Cush. 14The name of the third river is the Tigris. It runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

15The Lord God put the man in the Garden of Eden. He put him there to work its ground and to take care of it.

16The Lord God gave the man a command. He said, “You can eat the fruit of any tree that is in the garden. 17But you must not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you do, you can be sure that you will die.”

18The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”

19The Lord God had formed all of the wild animals. He had also formed all of the birds of the air. He had made all of them out of the ground. He brought them to the man to see what names he would give them. And the name the man gave each living creature became its name.

20So the man gave names to all of the livestock. He gave names to all of the birds of the air. And he gave names to all of the wild animals.

But Adam didn’t find a helper that was right for him. 21So the Lord God caused him to fall into a deep sleep. While the man was sleeping, the Lord God took out one of his ribs. He closed up the opening that was in his side.

22Then the Lord God made a woman. He made her from the rib he had taken out of the man. And he brought her to him.

23The man said,

“Her bones have come from my bones.

Her body has come from my body.

She will be named ‘woman,’

because she was taken out of a man.”

24That’s why a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. The two of them will become one.

25The man and his wife were both naked. They didn’t feel any shame.

Adam and Eve Fall Into Sin

3 The serpent was more clever than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. The serpent said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat the fruit of any tree that is in the garden’?”

2The woman said to the serpent, “We can eat the fruit of the trees that are in the garden. 3But God did say, ‘You must not eat the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden. Do not even touch it. If you do, you will die.’ ”

4“You can be sure that you won’t die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5“God knows that when you eat the fruit of that tree, you will know things you have never known before. You will be able to tell the difference between good and evil. You will be like God.”

6The woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good to eat. It was also pleasing to look at. And it would make a person wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her. And he ate it.

7Then both of them knew things they had never known before. They realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made clothes for themselves.

8Then the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking in the garden. It was the coolest time of the day. They hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

9But the Lord God called out to the man. “Where are you?” he asked.

10“I heard you in the garden,” the man answered. “I was afraid. I was naked, so I hid.”

11The Lord God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten the fruit of the tree I commanded you not to eat?”

12The man said, “It was the woman you put here with me. She gave me some fruit from the tree. And I ate it.”

13Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?”

The woman said, “The serpent tricked me. That’s why I ate the fruit.”

14So the Lord God spoke to the serpent. He said, “Because you have done this,

“I am putting a curse on you.

You are cursed more than all of the livestock

and all of the wild animals.

You will crawl on the ground.

You will eat dust

all of the days of your life.

15 I will put hatred

between you and the woman.

Your children and her children will be enemies.

Her son will crush your head.

And you will crush his heel.”

16The Lord God said to the woman,

“I will greatly increase your pain when you give birth.

You will be in pain when you have children.

You will long for your husband.

And he will rule over you.”

17The Lord God said to Adam, “You listened to your wife. You ate the fruit of the tree that I commanded you about. I said, ‘You must not eat its fruit.’

“So I am putting a curse on the ground because of what you did.

All the days of your life you will have to work hard

to get food from the ground.

18 You will eat the plants of the field,

even though the ground produces thorns and thistles.

19 You will have to work hard and sweat a lot

to produce the food you eat.

You were made out of the ground.

And you will return to it.

You are dust.

So you will return to it.”

20Adam named his wife Eve. She would become the mother of every living person.

21The Lord God made clothes out of animal skins for Adam and his wife to wear. 22The Lord God said, “The man has become like one of us. He can now tell the difference between good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and pick fruit from the tree of life and eat it. If he does, he will live forever.”

23So the Lord God drove the man out of the Garden of Eden to work the ground he had been made out of. 24The Lord God drove him out and then placed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden. He also placed a flaming sword there. It flashed back and forth. The cherubim and the sword guarded the way to the tree of life.