PrayTime.me Bible Verses

Installation

This section describes how to install the plugin and get it working.

1. You can install the plugin by uploading the .zip file in the plugins section of WordPress, or by adding the files to the folder /wp-content/plugins/praytime-me-bible-verses.

2. Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress.

   On activation the plugin creates three tables (wp_praybive_bibles, wp_praybive_books, wp_praybive_verses, using your table prefix) and imports the bundled SQL (data/bibles-data.txt) into them: 13 translations, 66 books and about 405,000 verses.

   The import is too large for a single request, so it runs in short batches in the background (WP-Cron). Progress is shown under Tools → PrayTime.me Bible Verses, where an administrator can also run it in the browser. On sites where WP-Cron is disabled, use the button there or run wp praytime-me-bible-verses import.

3. Make sure the plugin data was successfully imported. To check that, you must go to the plugin settings Tools → PrayTime.me Bible Verses → Settings in the Import & usage tab. If the import was not done automatically, simply press the Run import now button to import the needed data for the plugin to work properly.
4. Create or Edit a page/post where you want to display the Bible. Inside the page/post body add the /Shortcode [praytime_bible_verses].
5. Visit your new/edited page/post to see the newly added Bible.
6. Check the plugin settings for multiple render capabilities. To access the Settings page follow the path Tools → PrayTime.me Bible Verses → Settings

Demo

You can see a live demo on our website on the Bible page or in the WordPress Playground

Usage

The following /Shortcodes can be used to display different kind of verses, or chapters of the Bible Translations

• [praytime_bible_verses] — a reader with translation, book and chapter pickers and previous/next chapter links.
• [praytime_bible_verses reference="John 3:16"] — a single verse in the default translation (BSB unless changed in the settings).
• [praytime_bible_verses reference="Psalm 23" bible="WEB"] — a whole chapter.
• [praytime_bible_verses reference="Romans 8:28-30" bible="WEB,YLT,ASV"] — translations side by side.
• [praytime_bible_verses reference="Genesis 1:1" bible="all"] — every translation.
• [praytime_bible_verses book="John" chapter="1" verses="1-5"] — the same as reference, as separate attributes.
• [praytime_bible_verses reference="John 1" browse="yes"] — the reader, opened at a chosen chapter.
• [praytime_verse_of_the_day] — a verse that changes every day; also accepts bible and show_info.
• show_info="no" / show_info="yes" — hides or shows the translation descriptions, overriding the setting.

Translations (bible="…"): BSB, ASV, AKJV, CPDV, DBT, DRB, ERV, JPS / WEY, NHEB, SLT, WBT, WEB, YLT.

For developers: verse provider API

Other plugins (for example a bridge that posts a daily verse to a community plugin) can read verses as structured data through three filters. They are read-only: nothing is rendered, saved or scheduled. Pass null as the value, so the result stays null when this plugin is not active.

1. Method definition: apply_filters( 'praybive_get_verse', null, $args ) — a passage. $args:

• reference (required) — John 3:16, John 3:16-18 or Psalm 23.
• translation — a code such as WEB; empty means the default translation. Must be enabled in the settings.
• max_verses — refuse longer passages (0, the default, means no limit). Useful for user-typed commands.

1. Method definition: apply_filters( 'praybive_get_verse_of_the_day', null, $args ) — the verse the [praytime_verse_of_the_day] shortcode shows for a date, following its settings. $args:

• date — Y-m-d; empty means today in timezone.
• timezone — a PHP timezone such as Europe/Bucharest; empty means the site timezone.
• translation — empty means the verse of the day translation.

Both return either a WP_Error or this array (date only for the verse of the day):

array(
    'api_version' => 1,
    'reference'   => 'John 3:16-17',
    'book'        => 'John',
    'chapter'     => 3,
    'verse_start' => 16,
    'verse_end'   => 17,
    'text'        => 'For God so loved the world, … For God sent not his Son …',
    'verses'      => array( array( 'number' => 16, 'text' => '…' ), array( 'number' => 17, 'text' => '…' ) ),
    'translation' => 'WEB',
    'attribution' => 'World English Bible - https://worldenglish.bible/',
    'url'         => 'https://example.com/bible/?praybive_bible=web&praybive_book=43&praybive_chapter=3',
    'hash'        => 'md5 of translation, reference and text',
    'date'        => '2026-10-09',
)

• attribution is the translation’s credit line; show it next to the text.
• url links to the chapter on the reader page chosen in the settings, or is empty when none is chosen.
• hash is stable for the same translation, reference and text, so it can be stored to avoid posting a verse twice.

Error codes: praybive_not_ready (the import has not finished), praybive_unknown_translation, praybive_invalid_reference, praybive_not_found, praybive_too_long, praybive_invalid_date, praybive_invalid_timezone.

1. Method definition: apply_filters( 'praybive_get_translations', null ) lists the enabled translations as array( 'code' => 'WEB', 'attribution' => '…', 'is_default' => true ) items, for a settings screen. It is empty until the import has finished.

The praybive_api_loaded action fires on plugins_loaded with the API version (1). The version only changes if the returned arrays change in a way that could break callers.