1. On the wide plains, our frontiers near, The stallions, sleek and large, appear. There, sleek and large, they meet our sight; Some black, with their hind quarters white; Pale yellow, some; some black; some bay:— For carriage teams good horses they! To the duke's thoughts we can assign no bound; Turned to his steeds, lo! thus good are they found!

2. On the wide plains, our frontiers near, The stallions, sleek and large, appear. Those stallions, sleek and large, are seen; Some piebald,—white and flushed with green, And others white, with yellow sheen; Some chestnuts; and some dapple gray:— From carriage teams strong horses they! To the duke's thoughts no limit can we set; Turned to his steeds, such is the strength they get!

3. On the wide plains, our frontiers near, The stallions, sleek and large, appear. Oh! sleek and large, those sprightly males! Some that appear as flecked with scales; Some black, with manes of spotless white; Some white or red, manes dark as night:— In carriage yoked, obedient quite! The duke's thoughts never cease and never tire; Turned to his steeds, lo! thus they rule their fire!

4. On the wide plains, our frontiers near, The stallions, sleek and large, appear. Oh! sleek and large, those stallions bright! Cream-colored, some; some, red and white; Some, with white hairy legs; with eyes Like those of fishes, some:—men prize Such horses, grand in strength and size. His thoughts without depravity, our prince Thinks of his steeds, and such powers they evince!

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.