Random Bible Verse
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
- 145
- Matching the filters
- 145
- In the selection
Verses are drawn from a selection of 145 widely quoted passages in the King James Version, each with its book, chapter and verse. It is a curated selection rather than the whole Bible. The count is shown on the page, because a tool that implies full coverage and holds a few dozen verses is misrepresenting itself.
How it works
- The text is the King James Version, published in 1611 and in the public domain, which is why it can be included in full rather than quoted in fragments.
- Each verse is tagged with its testament and a theme, comfort, courage, love, wisdom, forgiveness, hope and several others.
- Filtering by testament or theme narrows the pool, and the page shows how many verses match before you draw.
- The reference travels with the verse, and the copy button includes it, since a quotation without its reference is not much use.
The selection leans toward the passages people actually look for (Psalm 23, John 3:16, Philippians 4:13) rather than being a uniform sample of the text. That is a deliberate editorial choice and it means the draw is not representative of the Bible as a whole.
The King James wording is four hundred years old, and some of it reads differently now than it did: "charity" in 1 Corinthians 13 means love, and "let" in older passages can mean hinder. Modern translations read more plainly but are under copyright, which is why this uses the KJV.
Examples
Any verse
Filters
None
Result
One of 145, with its reference
Both testaments and every theme are in the pool.
Filtered by theme
Theme
Courage
Result
Drawn from the courage verses only
The matching count is shown, so you can see how narrow the filter has made the pool before drawing.
An archaic word
Verse
1 Corinthians 13:13
Result
"…the greatest of these is charity."
Charity here translates the Greek agape and means love. Modern versions render it that way; the KJV wording predates the narrowing of the English word.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the whole Bible?
No. It holds 145 verses chosen from the passages most often quoted. The full King James text is over 31,000 verses and several megabytes, which is not sensible to load on every page. The count is shown so the selection is never mistaken for the whole.
Why the King James Version?
Because it was published in 1611 and is in the public domain, so it can be reproduced in full. Nearly every modern translation (NIV, ESV, NLT) is under copyright and cannot be included without a licence.
How were the themes assigned?
By hand, one per verse, based on how the passage is usually read. Many verses could reasonably sit under two or three themes, so the tagging is a navigation aid rather than an interpretation anyone should lean on.
Why does the wording look odd?
The King James English is four centuries old. Some words have shifted meaning (charity for love, let for hinder, suffer for allow) and the verb forms are archaic. If the wording matters more than the licence, a modern translation will read more plainly.
Is the selection representative of the Bible?
No, and deliberately so. It leans toward the passages people search for, which skews heavily toward Psalms, Proverbs and the epistles. It is a quotation tool, not a sample of the text.