a thread opens
For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for slaves and slave women, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king’s damage.
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.
And the LORD shall bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I spoke to you, You shall see it no more again: and there you shall be sold to your enemies for slaves and slave women, and no man shall buy you.
from Esther 7:4 · a strong link
But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, so that he should multiply horses: since the LORD has said to you, You shall from now on return no more that way.
from Deuteronomy 28:68
But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, so that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? shall he escape that does such things? or shall he break the covenant, and be delivered?
from Deuteronomy 17:16 · a strong link
But if you will not go forth to the king of Babylon’s princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape out of their hand.
from Ezekiel 17:15
a thread opens
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear to myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
from Acts 20:21
And now, brothers, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
from Acts 20:24
Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
from Acts 20:32 · a strong link
Comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work.
from Colossians 2:7
To the end he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.
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
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
from II Corinthians 5:18
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
from Romans 5:10 · a strong link
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
from Romans 8:32
Therefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
from Romans 6:23 · a strong link
Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
from Romans 5:12
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.
In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
from Acts 17:31
For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment to the Son:
from Romans 2:16
And Jesus said, For judgment I have come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
from John 5:22 · 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
And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.
from Matthew 27:2 · a strong link
And the soldiers led him away into the hall, called Pretorium; and they call together the whole band.
from Matthew 20:19
And went again into the judgment hall, and said to Jesus, Where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer.
from Mark 15:16
a thread opens
You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do you.
But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?
from Acts 7:51
This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.
from Acts 7:27
He raises up the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the dunghill;
from Acts 7:35
Yet sets he the poor on high from affliction, and makes him families like a flock.
from Psalms 113:7 · a strong link
But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
from Psalms 107:41
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
To which I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.
from Acts 9:15
Of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of his power.
from I Timothy 2:7
If you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard, and which was preached to every creature under heaven; of which I Paul am made a minister;
from Ephesians 3:7
If a man remain not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and has withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
from Colossians 1:23
Every branch in me that bears not fruit he takes away: and every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, so that it may bring forth more fruit.
from John 15:6 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Esther 7:4 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