1. O pitying Heaven, why see we thee In terrors thus arrayed? Famine has come. The people flee, And homeless roam, dismayed. In settled spots, and far and near, Our regions all lie waste and drear.

2. See o'er the land Heaven's net of crime! And lo! in place appear Men idle, knowing not the time, Locusts looked at with fear, Oppressive, perverse, fond of strife!— Can such as these bring peace and life?

3. Slanderers and insolent, the king Yet sees in them no ill. Us to dread peril's brink they bring; Our minds with care they fill. Not for a moment dare we rest, Degraded oft, and sore opprest.

4. As when the dry parched grass we see Wither for want of rain; As water plants graft on a tree Cannot their life retain; So all things now to ruin haste. Who can their fatal course arrest?

5. 'Twas merit once that riches gained; The case how different now! Troubles through all our time have reigned, And greater still they grow. Like grain unhulled those men in place! Like fine rice these who find no grace! Ye villains, of yourselves retire! Why thus prolong my grief and ire?

6. Now empty stands and dry the pool;— No streams into it flow. The spring is idle, once so full;— Unfed now from below! So for those evils all around Sufficient causes could be found; But they increase my anxious care, Lest I be caught in evil snare.

7. When our first kings the throne received, Such ministers they had As Chao's great chief, whom all believed. In one day he would add A thousand li, from states which came Our king's protecting care to claim. Now in one day that space is lost! Can none the ancient virtue boast?

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.

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.