1. How great is God, who ruleth men below! In awful terrors now arrayed, His dealings seem a recklessness to show, From which we shuddering shrink, dismayed. But men at first from Heaven their being drew, With nature liable to change. All hearts in infancy are good and true, But time and things those hearts derange.

2. Thus to the tyrant Ju our King Wen said:— "Alas! alas! O king of Yin, To you the proud oppressors give their aid, And 'gainst you fierce exactors sin! Why call such men your offices to hold? O'er your affairs why such men set? 'Heaven made them thus, so insolent and bold!' But 'tis from you their strength they get."

3. Thus to the tyrant Ju our King Wen said:— "Alas! alas! Yin's king so great, You honor not the good, but in their stead Oppressors whom the people hate. To you with baseless stories they reply, And thieves and robbers by them stand. Their oaths and maledictions fiercely fly, Ceaseless and deep, throughout the land."

4. Thus to the tyrant Ju our King Wen said:— "Alas! alas! O king of Yin, Fierce is your will, here in the court displayed, And only hatred thus you win. Your proper virtue you have never sought, And thus none good surround your throne. Of what true virtue is you take no thought, Hence are your nobles worthless known."

5. Thus to the tyrant Ju our King Wen said:— "Alas! alas! Yin's king so great, Not Heaven, but spirits, flush your face with red, That evil thus you imitate. You do in all your conduct what is wrong. Darkness to you the same as light, Your noisy feasts and revels you prolong; And day through you is black as night."

6. Thus to the tyrant Ju our King Wen said:— "Alas! alas! O king of Yin, Round you it is as if cicadas made, And bubbling soup, their ceaseless din. Things, great and small, fast to perdition go, While you pursue your reckless game. Our middle states with indignation glow; The demon lands as loudly blame."

7. Thus to the tyrant Ju our King Wen said:— "Alas! alas! O Yin's great king, 'Tis Yin, not God, has caused this time of dread, Yin that old ways away would fling. Old men and wise may not give you their trust, But statutes and old laws remain. Now is Yin's fortune crumbling to the dust, Because obedience you disdain."

8. Thus to the tyrant Ju King Wen did speak:— "Alas! alas! O king of Yin, For Yin its beacon was not far to seek;— In Hsia's last king its light was seen. True is the lesson in the saying taught: 'While leaf and branch still vigorous grow, A tree may fall. And what that fall has wrought? Its roots uptorn the cause will show.'"

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, and Nordic traditions. Christian texts include the King James Version Old and New Testaments (1611) and Apocrypha. The Quran uses Marmaduke Pickthall's 1930 English translation. Latter-day Saint scripture includes the Book of Mormon (1830), Doctrine and Covenants (1835), and Pearl of Great Price (1851).

Confucian works include James Legge's translations of The Four Books (1893) and the Book of Poetry (1876). The Tao Te Ching uses Legge's 1891 translation. The Kojiki uses Basil Hall Chamberlain's 1919 English translation. Zoroastrian texts include the Bundahishn (E. W. West, 1880) and the Arda Viraf (Haug & West, 1872). The Lotus Sutra uses Hendrik Kern's 1884 translation. The Finnish Kalevala uses John Martin Crawford's 1888 translation, and the Norse Poetic Edda uses Henry Adams Bellows' 1923 translation.

Public Domain Translations

Every translation in this collection is in the public domain. The most recent translation dates to 1930 (Pickthall's Quran). All texts are freely available for reading, study, quotation, and redistribution with no copyright restrictions.

Concordance and Related Passages

The concordance indexes every word across all sixteen works, showing frequency and distribution. TF-IDF (term frequency-inverse document frequency) scoring identifies passages with similar vocabulary across different traditions, enabling comparative study without requiring prior knowledge of each text's structure. TF-IDF weights words that are frequent in one chapter but rare across the corpus, surfacing meaningful thematic connections rather than common function words.

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. High-contrast mode is available via the theme toggle. Verse numbers are visible to assistive technology. No flashing content or motion hazards.

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