Ascent Bible. A free Bible web app: no account, no ads, works offline.
Bible memorization built on recall, so it stays with you.
Say the verse aloud and claim each hidden word with a single letter: get it wrong and the word gives back its own shape, never a penalty. Then it comes back tomorrow, in a few days, in a week, until you have it.
Psalms 119:11, round 2 of 5.
No account. No feed. No streaks. No ads. No tracking. Free. Not freemium: free.
The practice
The psalmist hid the Word in his heart.
“I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.”
Psalm 119:11
The psalmist stored the Word up inside himself, and he tells us why: so that it would hold him when it counted. A verse carried in the heart is there in the moment of temptation, in the sleepless hour, in the hospital corridor, when no page is open in front of you.
Memorizing is the plain, ancient way of doing that storing. Two things make words stay: recalling them rather than rereading them, and meeting them again after enough time has passed to make the recall work. This app does those two things and almost nothing else.
The mechanic
Say it. Then claim it.
Here is the verse above, the way the app hands it to you. Read it once, then claim each blank with a single letter.
I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.
In the app you say the verse aloud and claim each hidden word with its first letter.
A demonstration of the mechanic, in this page’s own type; its blanks come from the app’s own code. Here it is in the app.
The blanks are not random. Content words go first: round two hides “have”, “hidden”, “word”, “sin” and “against”, while “I”, “Your” and “in” are still standing in round four. The order is fixed to the reference, so tomorrow the same verse hides the same words, and every round’s blanks contain the round before it.
Keep
Three screens, start to finish.
Choose what to carry, recall it round by round, and let it come back to you.
Swipe to see all three.
It comes back
A verse you got once is not a verse you have kept.
When a session ends, the app asks one question: how did it go? Not yet, got it, or easily. Your answer sets when the verse returns: tomorrow, then in a few days, then a week, then a couple of weeks, then a month or so. Each return is a single round with every word hidden, and it takes about as long as reading the verse.
Answer “not yet” and the verse steps back a single rung; nothing ever wipes your climb. Verses waiting for you sit in a short list inside the room, under Ready when you are. Nothing else in the app mentions them.
Where a verse lands the first time you get it.
Ready, never overdue.
Spaced repetition usually arrives with a debt attached: a red count, a broken streak, a pile you owe. There is none of that here. A verse is ready when its time has passed, and it stays ready. Ignore it for a month and it waits exactly where you left it. Nothing scolds you, because nothing is counting.
The one number in the practice, the share of words you recalled without a hint, appears once to help you answer and is never written down. Your history lives on your device only, and holds where each verse sits on the ladder, nothing about how well you did. “Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:4).
Also true
Four things worth knowing.
Whole passages, not just verses.
Tap a run of verses and the rounds work the same way. The Beatitudes, Romans 8, Psalm 23: the ladder does not care how long the passage is.
Any translation in the app.
The default is the Berean Standard Bible, with KJV, NET, LSV and BLB included. A verse remembers which translation you learned it in.
On a keyboard, the room just listens.
At a desk there is no field to click into: start typing and the words claim themselves. Press 1, 2 or 3 to answer, R to go again.
Offline, and yours.
Ascent installs to your home screen in about ten seconds and works with no connection at all. Nothing is uploaded, because there is nowhere to upload it to.
The same room at a desk: the passage keeps its column, and the review queue sits beside the text instead of covering it.
Quick answers
Bible memorization, answered.
How does it work?
Choose a verse or passage. The first round hides nothing: you read it once, slowly. Each round after that hides more of it behind soft blanks, about a third, then a half, then four fifths, until the last round hides every word. In each round you say the verse aloud and type the first letter of each hidden word to claim it. Five rounds later, you carry it.
Do I have to type out the whole verse?
No. One letter per hidden word, the first letter of the word you just said aloud. A round is a recitation, not a typing test.
If you type the wrong letter, the word gives back one more of its own letters instead of penalizing you, and it never gives away the first letter, because that is the one being asked for.
Does it use spaced repetition?
Yes. A verse you have practiced comes back on a fixed expanding schedule of 1, 3, 7, 16 and 40 days, moved by your own answer of not yet, got it, or easily. It is a plain ladder rather than a hidden algorithm scoring you, and each return is a single round that takes about as long as reading the verse.
What if I miss a few weeks, or forget a verse completely?
Nothing happens. A verse is ready, never overdue: ignore it for a month and it waits exactly where you left it, with no red count and nothing to catch up on. Answering “not yet” moves a verse back a single rung rather than wiping your progress.
Are there streaks, points, or a leaderboard?
No. No points, no leaderboard, no streaks, no notifications. The passage itself is the reward. The one number in the whole practice, the share of words you recalled without a hint, appears once to help you answer how it went, and is never written down.
Can I memorize a whole passage, not just one verse?
Yes. Select a single verse or a run of them and the rounds work the same way. Many readers start with one verse and grow from there.
Where is my progress stored?
On your device only, like everything else in Ascent. What is stored is where each verse sits on the ladder and when you last practiced it, nothing about how well you did. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no account to create.
Which translations can I memorize from?
Any translation in the app. The default is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), with KJV, NET, LSV, and BLB also included; more follow as publisher licenses are granted.
Hide it in your heart.
A quiet place to draw near to God.
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