a thread opens
And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as bands between your eyes.
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.
Bind them continually upon your heart, and tie them about your neck.
from Deuteronomy 6:8
Let not mercy and truth forsake you: bind them about your neck; write them upon the tablet of your heart:
from Proverbs 6:21 · a strong link
Since you are manifestly declared to be the letter of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in tablets of human hearts.
from Proverbs 3:3 · a strong link
And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? for you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
from II Corinthians 3:3
a thread opens
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world works death.
from Acts 20:21
In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God perhaps will give them repentance to the knowledge of the truth;
from II Corinthians 7:10 · a strong link
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope in you with meekness and fear:
from II Timothy 2:25 · a strong link
Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what you shall answer:
from I Peter 3:15 · a strong link
But when they deliver you up, do not be anxious how or what you shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak.
from Luke 21:14
a thread opens
Be it known to you therefore, men and brothers, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins:
Then Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
from Acts 13:38
And now why do you wait? arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
from Acts 2:38 · a strong link
The corresponding figure to which even baptism does also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
from Acts 22:16
He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned.
from I Peter 3:21 · a strong link
In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
from Mark 16:16 · a strong link
For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
from II Thessalonians 1:8
a thread opens
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.
When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
from Acts 17:31
Look, he comes with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
from Matthew 25:31
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
from Revelation of John 1:7 · a strong link
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
I give you charge in the sight of God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession;
from Matthew 27:2
And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, Are you the King of the Jews? And Jesus said to him, You say.
from I Timothy 6:13 · a strong link
Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him.
from Matthew 27:11
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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.
Circumcise therefore your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.
from Acts 7:51 · a strong link
And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live.
from Deuteronomy 10:16 · a strong link
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God.
from Deuteronomy 30:6
No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us.
from I John 4:7
By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.
from I John 4:12
a thread opens
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
As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.
from Acts 9:15 · a strong link
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,
from Acts 13:2 · a strong link
And now, says the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength.
from Galatians 1:15 · a strong link
While he yet spoke, look, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and look, a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him.
from Isaiah 49:5
And there came a voice from heaven, saying, You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
from Matthew 17:5
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Deuteronomy 6:8 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