- Photo courtesy of flickr user Rae Whitlock
Looking for an easy way to listen to the Bible for free on your terms? Look no further. If you follow the instructions below you’ll be able to listen to the ESV Bible any time, any place. You can easily stream audio of the ESV to your iPhone, iPad, or other smartphone (as long as it can play MP3s). You can quickly listen to the verse(s) you want from Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer. You’ll be able to listen to a daily Bible Reading Plan with just a click!
Sound too good to be true? It’s not. Read on and you’ll be amazed out how quickly and easily you’ll be listening to the Scriptures of your choice.
Listen Anywhere
No matter where you are or from whatever device you’re using (as long as it can play MP3s) you can quickly listen to specific Scriptures using the form below. Try it!
The little search box above should work most of the time, but maybe you’d like search directly from your browser. So, here’s how you can do it from three popular browsers.
Listen Using Google Chrome
One of the most useful features that Google Chrome has built into it is its ability to add custom “search engines” to the address bar. Using this feature you can get to the audio of any passages you want in just a few simple steps.
1. Click the wrench button then click preferences.
2. Click the “Manage” button to the right of default search.
3. Click the + symbol to add a custom search engine.
4. Enter the following info:
- Name: ESV MP3 (or whatever you prefer)
- Keyword: esvm (or something else, but keep it short)
- URL: http://www.esvapi.org/v2/rest/passageQuery?key=IP&output-format=mp3&passage=%s
Once you’ve added the custom search engine you’ll type your keyword, press tab, type your reference(s), and press enter. The next thing you know you’ll be listening the Bible being read to you!
Listen Using Firefox
When I started writing this post I thought adding the ability to search for ESV Audio MP3s in Firefox was going to be really difficult for me to explain. Turns out it’s ridiculously easy (now that I did a LOT of trial and error). All you have to do to add the ESV Audio search is:
- Click on the search engine icon next to the search box.
- In the drop-down box click Add “ESV Audio”
That’s it. Really. Once you do those two steps (from this page, of course) you’ll have the ESV Audio search added to your Firefox search engines. Now you’ll be able to quickly listen to any Scripture right in your browser. Try it out!
Listen Using Internet Explorer
The process for Internet Explorer is about the same as Firefox. One difference is the drop-down arrow to the right of the search box will change colors to let you know there is a search engine available on the page. I’ll update this post with clearer instructions once I’m booted into Windows.
Listen to a Daily Bible Reading Plan
And as an added bonus you can follow a daily reading plan via audio too. There are a few nice plans to choose from. Quickly listen to any of the reading (or I guess listening plans) by clicking below:
- One-Year Tract
- ESV Study Bible
- Chronological
- Every Day in the Word
- Through the Bible in a Year
- Book of Common Prayer Daily Office
- Literary Study Bible
Whew. This post became a big undertaking. I’d love to get some feedback from you. Please share your thoughts or questions in the comments below. Also, I’ve had a weird issue with my iPhone cutting off the last few verses of the MP3 that I’m listening to. Let me know if you’re having the same problem.
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Please note. The ESV translation is copyright, so the following applies:
The ESV text may be quoted for audio use (audio cassettes, CDs, audio television) up to two hundred fifty (250) verses without express written permission of the publisher providing that the verses quoted do not amount to a complete book of the Bible nor do the verses quoted account for 50 percent or more of the total text of the work in which they are quoted.
So, basically don’t save an MP3 of a whole book or more than 250 verses. If you’re streaming to your iPhone you should be fine.
hey the firefox tip was really helpful..appreciate it..
Thanks so much for posting this. Great post ever!
Thanks Luis. Glad you enjoyed it.
this is a great post!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks!
Wow. Pretty neat. My search menu in Firefox now has “ESV audio” as an option. I’ve done customized searches in Google before, but didn’t realize it could be added to the browser.
Thanks Joyce. It was really easy to make the “search engine” and it only uses a couple of lines of code. I’m glad you like it!
The ESV for iPhone and iPad app also has a really cool listen feature. It scrolls the verses down the screen as the voice reads the text. It’s a great way to study or worship with the scriptures.
I’ve been thinking about upgrading my iPhone ESV app to + to get offline access to the ESV Study Bible and listening to the audio. I read that you don’t actually get the audio saved to your device, but that you have to have a network connection to hear the audio. Not a deal-breaker at all, but I was a little surprised by that I guess.
Wow…this is so good it should be a secret…
It was a secret, until now.