1. Long and large the O plants grow. Hao plants surely I should know! How can I confound them so? Grief has robbed my eyes of sight, Almost plunging me in night. Others' hands laid in the grave, Those whose pain my being gave.

2. Long and large the O plants grow. Wei plants surely I should know! How can I confound them so? Grief has robbed my eyes of sight, Almost plunging me in night. Others' hands laid in the earth, Those whose suffering gave me birth.

3. Pitcher should be filled from vase; Where this fails, 'tis reckoned base. Than to live as orphan left, Better be of life bereft! Father dead, on whom depend? Mother dead, where find a friend? I, abroad, this sad case know, And, at home, can nowhere go.

4. Father, from whose loins I sprung, Mother, on whose breast I hung, Tender were ye, and ye fed, Now upheld, now gently led. Eyes untiring watched my way; Often in your arms I lay. How could I repay your love, Vast as arch of heaven above?

5. Cold and bleak that southern hill! Tempest fierce with terror thrill. All around is dark, but more Dark the lot which I deplore! Others all can happy be;— Why from grief am I not free?

6. Hill so steep what foot can brave? Blustering winds around it rave. Fierce the winds! As fierce the fate, Which pursues me desolate! Happy all save me alone, Thinking aye of dues undone!

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.