bible-api.com - Look Up Bible Verses in the KJV and the World English Bible (official JSON API)

import json, time, urllib.parse
 
REFS = ["Romans 8:28", "John 3:16"]  # single verses only; never request whole books
TRANSLATIONS = ["kjv", "web"]        # King James Version, World English Bible (both Public Domain)
 
SITE = "https://bible-api.com/"
PAUSE = 2.5  # Terms of Use: 15 requests every 30 s per IP; keep calls serial
 
def on_site():
    """fetch() runs from a logged-out bible-api.com tab (the docs home page). Reuse the tab if already there."""
    try:
        if js("location.origin") == SITE.rstrip("/"):
            return
    except Exception:
        pass
    new_tab(SITE)
    wait_for_load()
    if "bible-api.com" not in (js("document.title") or ""):
        raise RuntimeError(f"bible-api.com did not serve its home page (title {js('document.title')!r}): stop, do not retry around it")
 
# js() gives up after a few seconds, so start the fetch, then poll for it.
START_JS = """(() => { window.__bib = window.__bib || {}; const id = String(Math.random()).slice(2); window.__bib[id] = null;
  fetch(%s, {credentials: 'omit'})
    .then(async r => { window.__bib[id] = {status: r.status, type: r.headers.get('content-type'), text: await r.text()}; })
    .catch(e => { window.__bib[id] = {status: 0, type: '', text: String(e)}; });
  return id; })()"""
POLL_JS = """(() => { const v = window.__bib[%s]; if (v) delete window.__bib[%s]; return v; })()"""
 
def verse(ref, translation, timeout=30):
    """One reference -> parsed JSON. 404 {"error":"not found"} = no such verse; an HTML 404 = unknown translation id.
    Waits 30 s once on 429/5xx, raises on anything else, so a failure never looks like an empty passage."""
    url = SITE + urllib.parse.quote(ref.lower()) + "?translation=" + translation
    for attempt in range(2):
        rid = json.dumps(js(START_JS % json.dumps(url)))
        t0 = time.time()
        while (r := js(POLL_JS % (rid, rid))) is None:
            if time.time() - t0 > timeout:
                raise RuntimeError(f"{url}: no answer after {timeout}s")
            time.sleep(0.3)
        time.sleep(PAUSE)
        if r["status"] == 200 and "json" in (r["type"] or ""):
            return json.loads(r["text"])
        if r["status"] in (0, 429, 500, 502, 503, 504) and attempt == 0:
            time.sleep(30)
            continue
        raise RuntimeError(f"{url}: HTTP {r['status']} {' '.join(r['text'].split())[:120]!r}; stopping")
 
on_site()
for ref in REFS:
    print(ref)
    for tr in TRANSLATIONS:
        d = verse(ref, tr)
        if len(d["verses"]) != 1:  # one verse asked, one verse back
            raise RuntimeError(f"{ref} ({tr}): expected 1 verse, got {len(d['verses'])} ({d['reference']})")
        text = " ".join(d["text"].split())  # KJV text carries hard line breaks mid-sentence
        print(f'  {d["translation_name"]} ({d["translation_id"]}, {d["translation_note"]}): "{text}" ({d["reference"]})')

Romans 8:28
  King James Version (kjv, Public Domain): "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)
  World English Bible (web, Public Domain): "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)
John 3:16
  King James Version (kjv, Public Domain): "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)
  World English Bible (web, Public Domain): "For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

import json, time
 
SITE = "https://bible-api.com/"
 
def on_site():
    try:
        if js("location.origin") == SITE.rstrip("/"):
            return
    except Exception:
        pass
    new_tab(SITE)
    wait_for_load()
    if "bible-api.com" not in (js("document.title") or ""):
        raise RuntimeError(f"bible-api.com did not serve its home page (title {js('document.title')!r}): stop")
 
START_JS = """(() => { window.__bib = window.__bib || {}; const id = String(Math.random()).slice(2); window.__bib[id] = null;
  fetch(%s, {credentials: 'omit'})
    .then(async r => { window.__bib[id] = {status: r.status, type: r.headers.get('content-type'), text: await r.text()}; })
    .catch(e => { window.__bib[id] = {status: 0, type: '', text: String(e)}; });
  return id; })()"""
POLL_JS = """(() => { const v = window.__bib[%s]; if (v) delete window.__bib[%s]; return v; })()"""
 
def raw(path, timeout=30):
    """GET SITE+path from inside the tab -> (status, content-type, text). No retries: this block only inspects answers."""
    rid = json.dumps(js(START_JS % json.dumps(SITE + path)))
    t0 = time.time()
    while (r := js(POLL_JS % (rid, rid))) is None:
        if time.time() - t0 > timeout:
            raise RuntimeError(f"{path}: no answer after {timeout}s")
        time.sleep(0.3)
    time.sleep(2.5)  # 15 requests every 30 s per IP
    return r["status"], r["type"], r["text"]
 
on_site()
# Terms of Use, as the home page shows them
terms = js("""(() => { const h = [...document.querySelectorAll('h2,h3')].find(e => /terms of use/i.test(e.textContent));
  let out = [], n = h && h.nextElementSibling; while (n && !/^H[23]$/.test(n.tagName)) { out.push(n.innerText); n = n.nextElementSibling; }
  return out.join(' '); })()""")
terms = " ".join(terms.split()).replace("\u2014", " - ")  # the page uses an em dash; print a plain hyphen
print("Terms of Use:", terms.split(" I make no")[0][:330])
 
s, t, body = raw("robots.txt")
print(f"\nrobots.txt: HTTP {s} {t} {body}")
 
s, t, body = raw("data")  # translation list (identifier, name, language, license)
tr = {x["identifier"]: x for x in json.loads(body)["translations"]}
print(f"\n/data: HTTP {s}, {len(tr)} translations")
for k in ("kjv", "web"):
    print(f"  {k}: {tr[k]['name']} | {tr[k]['language']} | {tr[k]['license']}")
 
for path in ("john+3:99?translation=kjv", "notabook+1:1", "john+3:16?translation=niv"):
    s, t, body = raw(path)
    print(f"\n{path}: HTTP {s} {t} {' '.join(body.split())[:80]}")

Terms of Use: This service is free for anyone to use as long as you don't abuse my server. This service is rate limited to 15 requests every 30 seconds (based on IP address), and this may change in the future. Do not use this API to download an entire bible - it's too slow and we will likely block you. Instead, get the data from the source.
 
robots.txt: HTTP 404 application/json;charset=utf-8 {"error":"not found"}
 
/data: HTTP 200, 37 translations
  kjv: King James Version | English | Public Domain
  web: World English Bible | English | Public Domain
 
john+3:99?translation=kjv: HTTP 404 application/json;charset=utf-8 {"error":"not found"}
 
notabook+1:1: HTTP 404 application/json;charset=utf-8 {"error":"not found"}
 
john+3:16?translation=niv: HTTP 404 text/html <html> <head><title>404 Not Found</title></head> <body> <center><h1>404 Not Foun

for REF in "romans+8:28" "john+3:16"; do
  for TR in kjv web; do
    curl -sS --fail "https://bible-api.com/$REF?translation=$TR" | python3 -c '
import json, sys
d = json.load(sys.stdin)
print(d["reference"], "|", d["translation_id"], "|", " ".join(d["text"].split()))
'
    sleep 2.5  # 15 requests every 30 s per IP
  done
done
curl -sS -o /dev/null -w 'no such verse (john 3:99): HTTP %{http_code} %{content_type}\n' "https://bible-api.com/john+3:99?translation=kjv"

Romans 8:28 | kjv | And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28 | web | We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
John 3:16 | kjv | For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16 | web | For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
no such verse (john 3:99): HTTP 404 application/json;charset=utf-8