a thread opens
Write also for the Jews, as it likes you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring: for the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may no man reverse.
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.
If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate to another that is better than she.
from Esther 8:8 · a strong link
If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.
from Esther 1:19
And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought to him, which owed him ten thousand talents.
from Esther 3:9
And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up to the heavens.
from Matthew 18:24
a thread opens
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent you, and believe the gospel.
from Acts 20:21
But now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:
from Mark 1:15
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone;
from Romans 16:26
And I say also to you, That you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
from Ephesians 2:20 · a strong link
And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, shall be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in you, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
from Matthew 16:18
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
And that he might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross, having slain the hostility thereby:
from Romans 5:10 · a strong link
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 Ephesians 2:16
And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has he reconciled
from Colossians 1:20 · a strong link
That at that time you were without Christ, being excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
from Colossians 1:21 · a strong link
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.
Before the LORD: for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.
from Acts 17:31
Before the LORD; for he comes to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.
from Psalms 96:13
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
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
Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.
from Lamentations 2:20
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.
To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
from Acts 7:51
We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick:
from Acts 7:39
And the children of Israel said to them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of food, and when we did eat bread to the full; for you have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
from Numbers 11:5 · a strong link
And the mixt multitude among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?
from Exodus 16:3
Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
from Numbers 11:4 · a strong link
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
At my first defense no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
from Acts 9:15
And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
from II Timothy 4:16 · a strong link
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
from Acts 7:60
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also give life to your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you.
from I Corinthians 15:20
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
from Romans 8:11
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Esther 8:8 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