1. The south wind swept across the hill; Its whistling sound each nook did fill.. Our happy, courteous king Was there, and, as he roamed about, In tuneful notes his joy gave out. Then I began to sing.

2. "You roam, with jocund spirits blest, And now, serene, at ease you rest, O happy, courteous king! May you your destined years fulfill, And, like your noble fathers still, Life to good issue bring!

3. "How vast and glorious is your realm, Where peace sits steadfast at the helm, O happy, courteous lord! May you your destined years complete, While ever as their host you treat All spirits at your board!

4. "Heaven to your sires assigned the crown, To you 'mid greatest peace come down, O happy, courteous king! Through all your term of years, may joy And happiness without alloy, Their charm around you fling!

5. "Men filial proved, and virtuous, stand Near to your throne on either hand, Wise guidance to afford. Like wings they bear you up on high, Where you their pattern all descry, O happy, courteous lord!

6. "Like mace of jade, pure, clear, and strong, What majesty and grace belong To those, your helpers true! The hope of all, their praise all sing. Through them, O courteous, happy king, The nation's guide are you.

7. "See how the phoenixes appear, And their wings rustle on the ear, As now they settle down! Such are those noble men who wait, O happy king, upon your state, The servants of your crown!

8. "The male and female phoenix, lo! With rustling wings about they go, Then up to heaven they soar. Such are those noble men who stand, Prompt to obey your least command;— None love your people more.

9. "Hark how the phoenixes emit Their notes, as on that ridge they sit! There the dryandras grow, And on its eastern slope they rise With richer growth; and thence the cries Sweet and still sweeter flow!

10. "Numerous your chariots! Fleet your steeds, And trained! Your name for noble deeds Shall be renowned for long. O king, these verses I have made, And humbly at your feet they're laid, Inspired by your own song."

About this reader

What is Scripture?

Scripture is a browser-based reader for sixteen sacred texts spanning multiple religious and literary traditions. It provides chapter-by-chapter navigation, full-text search across all works, word concordance with frequency analysis, verse-linked notes, text-to-speech, and deep linking to any chapter or verse.

Traditions Represented

The collection spans Abrahamic, East Asian, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Finnish, and Norse traditions. It includes King James biblical text and Apocrypha, Pickthall's Quran, the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, Legge's Four Books, Tao Te Ching, and Book of Poetry, Chamberlain's Kojiki, West's Bundahishn, Kern's Lotus Sutra, Haug and West's Arda Viraf, Crawford's Kalevala, and Bellows' Poetic Edda.

The committed manifests and chapter files currently describe 121 books, 2,724 chapters, and 63,141 verse records. In poetry and prose works, a verse record can represent a line or paragraph rather than a canonically numbered scriptural verse.

Licensing

The application source is AGPL-3.0. Generated text downloads and their structured arrangement are CC BY-SA 4.0; the underlying historic source texts are treated as public-domain inputs. The corpus metadata therefore describes the distributed arrangement with its CC BY-SA license rather than the Public Domain Mark.

Concordance and Related Passages

The concordance is an exact-word occurrence index with linked records grouped by work. Related Passages is separate: a TF-IDF (term frequency-inverse document frequency) cosine-similarity index compares chapter vocabulary after stop-word removal and stores up to five cross-book matches above its threshold. It is a lexical discovery aid, not a claim of historical or theological equivalence.

Deep Linking

Every chapter and verse has a permanent URL. Chapter links follow the pattern /scripture/{work}/{book}-{chapter} (e.g., /scripture/ot/gen-1 for Genesis 1). Verse links append the verse number (e.g., /scripture/ot/gen-1:26 for Genesis 1:26). These URLs can be shared, bookmarked, or cited directly.

Accessibility

Scripture supports keyboard navigation throughout: Tab moves between controls, Enter activates verse actions, and arrow keys navigate chapters. The reading pane has a skip-to-content link. All overlays (search, concordance) are focus-trapped ARIA dialogs. Dynamic content regions use aria-live for screen reader announcements. Light and dark themes are available through the theme toggle. Verse numbers are visible to assistive technology. No flashing content or motion hazards.

Scripture is part of a suite of educational simulations at a9l.im. Explore particle physics with Geon, redistricting with Gerry, or cellular metabolism with Cyano.