$re = '/(.*?)\s(\d{1,2})(?::(\d{1,2})(?:-(\d{1,2})?)?)?/';
$str = '2 Timothy 28:10-11';
preg_match($re, $str, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php