a thread opens
Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in your hand; for I will make him a great nation.
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 as for Ishmael, I have heard you: Look, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.
from Genesis 21:18
And also of the son of the slave woman will I make a nation, because he is your seed.
from Genesis 17:20
And the angel of the LORD said to her, I will multiply your seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.
from Genesis 21:13 · a strong link
a thread opens
Then Moses said to Aaron, This is it that the LORD spoke, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace.
They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God: for the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and the bread of their God, they do offer: therefore they shall be holy.
from Leviticus 10:3
And the priest shall burn it upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire to the LORD.
from Leviticus 21:6 · a strong link
And Aaron’s sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is upon the wood on the fire: it is an offering made by fire, of a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
from Leviticus 3:11
And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out: and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order upon it; and he shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings.
from Leviticus 3:5 · a strong link
And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.
from Leviticus 6:12
And David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering.
from Leviticus 9:24
a thread opens
Now to him that is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
from Jude 1:24 · a strong link
In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight:
from II Corinthians 4:14
By which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
from Colossians 1:22
Who needs not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.
from Hebrews 10:10 · a strong link
So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and to them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin to salvation.
from Hebrews 7:27 · a strong link
a thread opens
Woe to them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And why he slew him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
from Jude 1:11 · a strong link
By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaks.
from I John 3:12 · a strong link
And he said, What have you done? the voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground.
from Hebrews 11:4 · a strong link
For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but look, oppression; for righteousness, but look, a cry.
from Genesis 4:10
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
from Luke 2:14
The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
from Isaiah 9:6 · a strong link
But their minds were blinded: for until this day remains the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ.
from Isaiah 10:21
a thread opens
And shall not God give justice to his own elect, which cry day and night to him, though he bear long with them?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies.
from Luke 18:7
He is near that justifies me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is my adversary? let him come near to me.
from Romans 8:33 · a strong link
Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.
from Isaiah 50:8
But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.
from Isaiah 41:1 · a strong link
Then I said, I am cast out of your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.
from Habakkuk 2:20
And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
from Jonah 2:4
a thread opens
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives to the death.
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
He that overcomes, the same shall be clothed in white apparel; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches; To him that overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
And the LORD God said, Look, the man has become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
For God does know that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
from Genesis 3:22
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Genesis 21:18 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