Mar 12
11
Sometimes there is nothing better than reading a random Bible verse. It was King David who once said "We may throw the dice, but the LORD determines how they fall." - Proverbs 16:33.
So, I decided to post this little random Bible verse utility:
Click here to get a new random verse: Get Random Verse
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If you want use this tool on an Android device, see how to download the Android application on the following post: http://www.stevenmarkford.com/random-bible-verse-android/ |
If you want to use this tool on other mobile devices use the mobi version found here:
stevenmarkford.com/mobi/random-bible-verse.html
(just type it in your device's internet browser, and bookmark it, even save the bookmark to your device's desktop)
I achieved this with some custom javascript and the API on http://labs.bible.org
To view the entire Bible online go to: net.bible.org
Hi,
Thanks for posting this little generator. It seems more “random” than most of the others I’ve searched for, which don’t seem to be random at all but choose from a preselected set of verses. Am I correct in assuming this is from the full bible?
Thanks and God Bless,
Tovio
Hey Tovio, I agree with you. I have also noticed that other random Bible verse sites tend to select what verses to use. I could have done this but purposefully decided to include the whole Bible and let God choose what verse to show, as He decides how the dice fall :). God Bless, and use this generator all you like :)
Haha I just clicked the “get random verse” link and got “Proverbs 16:33″, that is the verse I quoted above the link. This has a 1 in 31,103 chance of happening as there are this many verses in the Bible.
Thank you Steven for this resource.
Glad you like it :)
Wow @Steven in God there is no coincidence… :)
Agreed.
Dude, the app’s selection of verses is not completely random. It’s pretty clear form how the API, and as further evidence the structure of your app’s output, that you are probably selecting a random bible book, and then selecting a random verse within that bible book.
Think about it: is this completely random? A verse in Philemon has about [multi-step process, so product rule: P(first step) * P(second step)] (1/66) * (1/25) = a constant c1 of being chosen. A verse in Psalm is (1/66) * (1/1000) = a constant c2 of being chosen [arbitrarily small constant for step 2]. c1 != c2, but the property of a random verse generator is that any two verses in the bible must have the same probability of being chosen.
Clearly, your method is not selecting each verse with equal probability.
However, I do appreciate that at least you are selecting from the whole Bible instead of pre-selected verses.
Thanks Alex :), kudos. I will revise the algorithm.
Hm though here’s a possible solution:
Assuming that Psalm has the most amount of verses. Let n be the number of verses in Psalm. Define the following process for selecting a verse:
1. Randomly select a book b.
2. From the set [n], randomly select a natural number m.
3. If b:m is not a valid verse, repeat process.
Else return b:m
Note: [n] is the set of all natural numbers between 1 and n, inclusive.
Now any two verses will have equal probability of being chosen. The proof for this should be pretty trivial.
currently the app is:
1. Selecting a random book.
2. Selecting a random chapter in that book.
3. Selecting a random verse in that chapter.
Alright, let me know (via email) when you revise it! Sorry I was really picky about the randomness, but I wanted to take a random sample (a la Knuth’s 3:16 project) and study those verses in detail, so it was really important that the verses were genuinely random.
Thanks so much for programming something like this and saving other people the pain of programming it themselves! Maybe open source your code on GitHub?
In light of the quoted verse “We may throw the dice, but the LORD determines how they fall.” it doesn’t really matter :). My main goal was to ensure the entire Bible was covered. But I will let you know when the algorithm has been updated.
@Alex The tool has now been updated so that every verse has an equal chance of being selected. Obviously the only issue with this is that, although randomness is complete the verse diversity has decreased. By diversity I mean there are now certain books/chapters that have a greater chance of being selected. i.e. you will more likely get a lot more Chronicles and Psalms verses now than say Acts. For this reason I have left Version 2 with the previous algorithm: http://www.stevenmarkford.com/random-bible-verse-version-2/
Hey All,
I realised this random bible verse tool was not very mobile-friendly so I created a version just for mobile devices found here:
http://www.stevenmarkford.com/mobi/random-bible-verse.html
For the first time you going to have to manually type this in your mobile device browser but then you can bookmark it and on some devices even add the bookmark to the desktop. Enjoy :)
Thanks for this great utility. Can we use your script on our own projects? If so, do you want attribution? Thanks again!
Hi There,
I am so glad you like it :). You can re-use my code with pleasure :). If you want to put a link back to my blog post that would be cool :) but up to you.
Okay, thank you! I am not sure if I will upload it onto the web yet, but I wanted to get permission so I could. Thanks, Steven. If I do upload it I will definitely comment again and let you know. ;)
Today was a rough day, and the first verse that popped up was Psalm 107:13 “They cried out to the Lord in their distress; he delivered them from their troubles.”
Thank you for this generator. :) God is good.
Glad you like it :) and thanks for sharing. I am planning on creating a random bible verse application for Android devices e.g Droid, Samsung Galaxy etc.
Thank you for creating this website. I’ve read the bible through several times and now just want to be more random in my studies. I’ve been relying on tossing a coin because all of the online random bible generators didn’t seem random. Your site is truly random and I’ve put my penny away. haha. Thank you for making it easier. Every verse that pops ups helps me to consider things that don’t come up in the devotionals I’ve studied over the years.
Great, this one is really random selection from the whole Bible, which gives freedom to the Holy Spirit to tell us the Rhema Word He wants to give. Thanks and may God bless your efforts.
Can I suggest including a link with the random verse to the entire chapter so that the reader can find context easily? I suggest linking to either biblegateway.com (many versions available and easy navigation) or bible.cc (parallel bible).
Thanks Benjamin. Have been thinking about doing this for a while. Will probably implement this sometime in May.