a thread opens
I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for my anger is turned away from him.
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.
Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Look, we come to you; for you are the LORD our God.
from Hosea 14:4
I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a young bull unaccustomed to the yoke: turn me, and I shall be turned; for you are the LORD my God.
from Jeremiah 3:22
Blessed is the man whom you chasten, O LORD, and teach him out of your law;
from Jeremiah 31:18
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
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.
from Psalms 65:4
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, Look, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry: look, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty: look, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be ashamed:
Then shall you return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves him not.
from Isaiah 65:13
That are far from you to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that are far from you: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
from Malachi 3:18 · 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
I have manifested your name to the men which you gave me out of the world: yours they were, and you gave them me; and they have kept your word.
from John 10:29
And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
from John 17:6
And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
from Exodus 34:5 · a strong link
And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says the LORD.
from Exodus 33:19
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 first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring to the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in his mother’s milk.
from Numbers 18:12
That you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which you shall bring of your land that the LORD your God gives you, and shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which the LORD your God shall choose to place his name there.
from Exodus 34:26
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Saying, Blessed be the King that comes in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.
from Luke 2:14 · a strong link
The stone which the builders refused has become the head stone of the corner.
from Luke 19:38
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone;
from Psalms 118:22 · a strong link
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?
Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusts in God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.
from Luke 18:7
For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands:
from I Timothy 5:5
The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
from I Peter 3:5
Likewise must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain;
from Titus 2:3 · a strong link
Paul and Timothy, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:
from I Timothy 3:8 · a strong link
For you were as sheep going astray; but are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
from Philippians 1:1
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.
Whom have I in heaven but you? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside you.
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
from Psalms 73:25
I know also, my God, that you try the heart, and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy your people, which are present here, to offer willingly to you.
from Matthew 5:8 · a strong link
For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart.
from I Chronicles 29:17
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brothers, what shall we do?
from Hebrews 4:12 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Hosea 14:4 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