1. The hour drew nigh and the moon was rent in twain.

2. And if they behold a portent they turn away and say: Prolonged illusion.

3. They denied the Truth and followed their own lusts. Yet everything will come to a decision

4. And surely there hath come unto them news whereof the purport should deter,

5. Effective wisdom; but warnings avail not.

6. So withdraw from them O Mohammed on the day when the Summoner summoneth unto a painful thing.

7. With downcast eyes, they come forth from the graves as they were locusts spread abroad,

8. Hastening toward the summoner; the disbelievers say: This is a hard day.

9. The folk of Noah denied before them, yea, they denied Our slave and said: A madman; and he was repulsed.

10. So he cried unto his Lord, saying: I am vanquished, so give help.

11. Then opened We the gates of heaven with pouring water

12. And caused the earth to gush forth springs, so that the waters met for a predestined purpose.

13. And We carried him upon a thing of planks and nails,

14. That ran upon the waters in Our sight, as a reward for him who was rejected.

15. And verily We left it as a token; but is there any that remembereth?

16. Then see how dreadful was My punishment after My warnings!

17. And in truth We have made the record easy to remember; but is there any that remembereth?

18. The tribe of Od rejected warnings. Then how dreadful was My punishment after My warnings.

19. Lo! We let loose on them a raging wind on a day of constant calamity,

20. Sweeping men away as though they were uprooted trunks of palm-trees.

21. Then see how dreadful was My punishment after My warnings!

22. And in truth We have made the record easy to remember; but is there any that remembereth?

23. The tribe of Shamod rejected warnings

24. For they said; Is it a mortal man, alone among us, that we are to follow? Then indeed we should fall into error and madness.

25. Hath the remembrance been given unto him alone among us? Nay, but he is a rash liar.

30 more verses…

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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