a thread opens
And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water, which Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away.
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.
For all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.
from Genesis 21:25
And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shall you take of my hand, that they may be a witness to me, that I have dug this well.
from Genesis 26:15 · a strong link
This heap be witness, and this pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and that you shall not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.
from Genesis 21:30
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.
Speak to Aaron, saying, Whoever he be of your seed in their generations that has any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.
from Leviticus 10:3
Blessed is the man whom you choose, and cause to approach to you, so that he may dwell in your courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, even of your holy temple.
from Leviticus 21:17
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
from Psalms 65:4
You have turned for me my mourning into dancing: you have put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;
from Psalms 23:6 · a strong link
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
from Psalms 30:11
And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dances.
from Ecclesiastes 3:4 · a strong link
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,
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
from Jude 1:24
Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods: for in the thing in which they dealt proudly he was above them.
from John 10:29
And showed signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land: for you knew that they dealt proudly against them. So did you get you a name, as it is this day.
from Exodus 18:11
As a beast goes down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest: so did you lead your people, to make yourself a glorious name.
from Nehemiah 9:10
That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name?
from Isaiah 63:14
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.
And in process of time it happened, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the LORD.
from Jude 1:11
All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they shall offer to the LORD, them have I given you.
from Genesis 4:3
The firstfruit also of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, shall you give him.
from Numbers 18:12
You shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven; they are the firstfruits to the LORD.
from Deuteronomy 18:4
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and its fullness.
from Luke 2:14
Let the sea roar, and its fullness; the world, and they that dwell in it.
from Psalms 96:11
A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD’s, and its fullness; the world, and they that dwell in it.
from Psalms 98:7
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?
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, do you not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
from Luke 18:7 · a strong link
And the nations were angry, and your wrath has come, and the time of the dead, so that they should be judged, and that you should give reward to your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear your name, small and great; and should destroy them which destroy the earth.
He that leads into captivity shall go into captivity: he that kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.
If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit.
from Genesis 9:5
If the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant; he shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.
from Exodus 21:28
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.
And they shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him.
You have avouched the LORD this day to be your God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to listen to his voice:
from Malachi 3:17 · a strong link
And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD has said will we do, and be obedient.
from Deuteronomy 26:17
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Genesis 21:25 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