a thread opens
No man shall take the lower or the upper millstone to pledge: for he takes a man’s life to pledge.
The Vigil
Today’s scroll, one verse at a time — each linked to the last by the cross-references rather than by any model of you. The same vigil for everyone, and a different one tomorrow.
When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by forcing an axe against them: for you may eat of them, and you shall not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man’s life) to employ them in the siege:
from Deuteronomy 24:6
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
from Deuteronomy 20:19
Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that puts not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.
from Matthew 7:15
Then the LORD said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke to them: they prophesy to you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their heart.
from Micah 3:5
a thread opens
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
from Acts 20:21
And I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, You are my people; and they shall say, You are my God.
from Luke 24:47
O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come to you from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things in which there is no profit.
from Hosea 2:23 · a strong link
Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the carved image: for his cast image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
from Jeremiah 16:19
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
from Jeremiah 10:14
a thread opens
Be it known to you therefore, men and brothers, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins:
And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
from Acts 13:38
And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
from II Corinthians 5:18
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
from Colossians 1:20
Saying, Blessed be the King that comes in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.
from Romans 5:1
And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.
from Luke 19:38
And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were deeply displeased,
from Matthew 21:9
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Because he has appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.
Before the LORD; for he comes to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.
from Acts 17:31
Say among the pagans that the LORD reigns: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously.
from Psalms 98:9
And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.
from Psalms 96:10
a thread opens
For truly against your holy child Jesus, whom you have anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.
from Acts 4:27 · a strong link
There were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
from Matthew 27:2
Look, O LORD, and consider to whom you have done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
from Luke 13:1
The hands of the compassionate women have boiled their own children: they were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
from Lamentations 2:20 · a strong link
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You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do you.
And the LORD said to Moses, I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a stiff-necked people:
from Acts 7:51 · a strong link
Now be not stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified for ever: and serve the LORD your God, so that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you.
from Exodus 32:9
Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, so that his fierce wrath may turn away from us.
from II Chronicles 30:8 · a strong link
And Jehoiada made a covenant between him, and between all the people, and between the king, so that they should be the LORD’s people.
from II Chronicles 29:10
And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, so that they should be the LORD’s people; between the king also and the people.
from II Chronicles 23:16
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And he said to me, Depart: for I will send you far hence to the Gentiles.
But the Lord said to him, Go your way: for he is a chosen vessel to me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:
from Acts 22:21 · a strong link
For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my office:
from Acts 9:15
But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed to me, as the gospel of the circumcision was to Peter;
from Romans 11:13
And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go to the pagans, and they to the circumcision.
from Galatians 2:7
By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:
from Galatians 2:9
For from the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered to my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the pagans, says the LORD of hosts.
from Romans 1:5
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Deuteronomy 24:6 along this chain. Today’s own vigil is laid separately.
Each verse follows the one before it along the chain a study Bible draws — a century old, public, and compiled by people arguing about Scripture rather than about how long you stay. Every card says which verse it came from and opens the chapter it belongs to. Today’s vigil is the same for every reader and is worked out from the date alone, so there is no account, no counter, and nothing stored in your browser or ours.
The text is the Lantern Modern Standard. The links are openbible.info’s cross-reference set (CC BY), the same apparatus behind the reader’s Echoes drawer. Read a whole book · Today’s table