1. O thou wrapped up in thy raiment!

2. Keep vigil the night long, save a little -

3. A half thereof, or abate a little thereof

4. Or add a little thereto - and chant the record in measure,

5. For we shall charge thee with a word of weight.

6. Lo! the vigil of the night is a time when impression is more keen and speech more certain.

7. Lo! thou hast by day a chain of business.

8. So remember the name of thy Lord and devote thyself with a complete devotion -

9. Lord of the East and the West; there is no God save Him; so choose thou Him alone for thy defender -

10. And bear with patience what they utter, and part from them with a fair leave- taking.

11. Leave Me to deal with the deniers, lords of ease and comfort in this life; and do thou respite them awhile.

12. Lo! with Us are heavy fetters and a raging fire,

13. And food which choketh the partaker, and a painful doom

14. On the day when the earth and the hills rock, and the hills become a heap of running sand.

15. Lo! We have sent unto you a messenger as witness against you, even as We sent unto Pharaoh a messenger.

16. But Pharaoh rebelled against the messenger, whereupon We seized him with no gentle grip.

17. Then how, if ye disbelieve, will ye protect yourselves upon the day which will turn children grey,

18. The very heaven being then rent asunder. His promise is to be fulfilled.

19. Lo! This is a Reminder. Let him who will, then, choose a way unto his Lord.

20. Lo! thy Lord knoweth how thou keepest vigil sometimes nearly two-thirds of the night, or sometimes half or a third thereof, as do a party of those with thee. God measureth the night and the day. He knoweth that ye count it not, and turneth unto you in mercy. Recite, then, of the record that which is easy for you. He knoweth that there are sick folk among you, while others travel in the land in search of God's bounty, and others still are fighting for the cause of God. So recite of it that which is easy for you, and establish worship and pay the poor-due, and so lend unto God a goodly loan. Whatsoever good ye send before you for your souls, ye will find it with God, better and greater in the recompense. And seek forgiveness of God. Lo! God is Forgiving, Merciful.

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.