a thread opens
And you, son of man, take you a sharp knife, take you a barber’s razor, and cause it to pass upon your head and upon your beard: then take you balances to weigh, and divide the hair.
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.
They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.
from Ezekiel 5:1 · a strong link
You are the children of the LORD your God: you shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
from Leviticus 21:5 · a strong link
That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
from Deuteronomy 14:1 · a strong link
And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed to them also:
from Romans 9:8
a thread opens
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
And they went out, and preached that men should repent.
from Acts 20:21
Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, says the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.
from Mark 6:12
But after your hardness and impenitent heart treasure up to yourself wrath for the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
from Ezekiel 18:30
For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, so that they should come against Israel in battle, so that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses.
from Romans 2:5
But of the cities of these people, who the LORD your God does give you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes:
from Joshua 11:20
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
Namely, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them; and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
from II Corinthians 5:18
I in them, and you in me, so that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them, as you have loved me.
from II Corinthians 5:19
Look, what kind of love the Father has bestowed upon us, so that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him not.
from John 17:23 · a strong link
But as many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
from I John 3:1 · a strong link
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
from John 1:12 · 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.
In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
from Acts 17:31
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
from Romans 2:16 · a strong link
But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
from I Corinthians 4:5 · 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
The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Son Jesus; whom you delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
from Matthew 27:2 · a strong link
Saying, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and dared not look.
from Acts 3:13
I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
from Acts 7:32
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.
And that I also have walked contrary to them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:
from Acts 7:51 · a strong link
Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves; and they said, The LORD is righteous.
from Leviticus 26:41
Therefore has the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he does: for we obeyed not his voice.
from II Chronicles 12:6
And it shall happen, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, says the LORD.
from Daniel 9:14
For I will set my eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.
from Jeremiah 31:28 · 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
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 Acts 9:15 · a strong link
And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love in Christ Jesus.
from Ephesians 3:7
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
from I Timothy 1:14
And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.
from I Peter 1:3 · a strong link
In this is love perfected for us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
from I John 3:3
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Ezekiel 5:1 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