bible-ko

name	bible-ko
description	Read and search the Korean Bible (대한성서공회 bskorea.or.kr) — chapters, specific verses, translation comparison, keyword search across 66 books. No API key. 성경 읽기, 성경 구절, 성경 검색, 개역개정, 개역한글, 새번역, 공동번역, 성경 번역 비교, 성경 장절, 요한복음, 창세기, 시편
version	1.0
allowed-tools	Bash(bible *), Bash(jq *)

Status: active

/bible-ko -- Korean Bible Reader & Search

Read, compare, and search the Korean Bible, sourced from 대한성서공회 (Korean Bible Society, bskorea.or.kr). 66 books, 5 translations, no API key.

This skill is the lightweight, token-frugal counterpart to the bible-ko-mcp MCP server in this repo: instead of a persistent server with 6 structured tools, it shells out to a small zero-dependency CLI on demand, so it costs nothing while idle. Use the MCP server inside MCP clients (Claude Desktop, TypingMind); use this skill inside coding agents with shell access.

When NOT to use

• English-only study with cross-references / commentary -> use a dedicated Bible API
• Full-text search across the entire Bible -> this scans the first N chapters per book (the data source has no search endpoint; a full scan is ~1,189 HTTP requests)

Setup

The skill drives the bible CLI bundled at skill/bin/bible (zero dependencies, Python 3). Put it on your PATH:

chmod +x skill/bin/bible
export PATH="$PWD/skill/bin:$PATH"     # or copy it to ~/.local/bin

No API key or configuration needed.

Core Patterns — bible CLI

<book> accepts an English name (John), a Korean name (요한복음), or a 3-letter code (jhn). Add --json for machine-readable output.

Read a chapter

bible chapter John 3                    # 개역개정 (default)
bible chapter 요한복음 3
bible chapter Psalms 1 --version GAE1

Specific verses (range or list)

bible verses John 3 16                  # a single verse
bible verses John 3 16-17               # a range
bible verses Genesis 1 1,3,5            # a list

Compare translations side by side

bible compare John 3 16                 # GAE / GAE1 / NIR / KOR / CEV

Search (first N chapters per book — see limitation)

bible search "사랑" --books "1 Corinthians" 
bible search "love" --version CEV --books "John,Mark" -n 5
bible search "은혜" --testament NT

List books / translations

bible books                             # all 66
bible books --testament NT              # 27 NT books
bible versions

File Index

File	Purpose
bin/bible	the zero-dependency CLI this skill drives
references/books.md	66-book table (EN / 한글 / code / testament) + translation codes

Translations

Code	Name	Notes
GAE	개역개정 (Revised Korean)	default — most reliable parsing
GAE1	개역한글	may return 0 verses (different HTML on the source)
NIR	새번역	may return 0 verses
KOR	공동번역	may return 0 verses
CEV	Contemporary English Version	English

Tips & Limitations

• GAE is the reliable default. GAE1/NIR/KOR sometimes return 0 verses because the source site uses a different HTML structure for them — a known data-source quirk inherited from the MCP server, not a CLI bug. Verify with GAE first.
• Search is bounded: it scans the first N chapters per book (default 10, -n to change), not the whole Bible. Narrow with --books or --testament for speed. Search matching is substring, case-insensitive.
• The CLI retries transient network failures up to 3 times with backoff.

Output Contract

• chapter / verses — {book, bookKorean, chapter, version, versionName, verses:[{number, text}]}
• compare — {book, korean, chapter, verse, translations:{GAE, GAE1, NIR, KOR, CEV}}
• search — array of {book, chapter, verse, text}
• books — array of {name, code, korean, testament}

Present a chapter as verse text lines; render compare and multi-verse results as a markdown table when >=3 rows. Always cite book/chapter/verse.