a thread opens
The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength.
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.
Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, grew valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
from I Samuel 2:4
And he answered, Do not fear: for they that are with us are more than they that are with them.
from Hebrews 11:34
Say not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear their fear, nor be afraid.
from II Kings 6:16
Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, so that they may add sin to sin:
from Isaiah 8:12
a thread opens
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in me.
from Acts 20:21
To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
from Acts 26:18 · a strong link
The people who sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
from Luke 1:79 · a strong link
A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.
from Matthew 4:16
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the its light.
from Luke 2:32
a thread opens
Be it known to you therefore, men and brothers, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins:
Then Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
from Acts 13:38
Repent you therefore, and be converted, so that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
from Acts 2:38 · a strong link
And said, Truly I say to you, Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
from Acts 3:19
But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come to me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
from Matthew 18:3 · a strong link
And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant, and remember me, and not forget your maidservant, but will give to your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.
from Matthew 19:14
And God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her, and opened her womb.
from I Samuel 1:11
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
And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.
from Matthew 27:2 · a strong link
From that time forth began Jesus to show to his disciples, how that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
from Matthew 20:19 · a strong link
Even as the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.
from Matthew 16:21 · a strong link
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 a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of you; for you are a stiff-necked people: lest I consume you in the way.
from Acts 7:51
And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good land and a large, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
from Exodus 33:3 · a strong link
And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.
from Exodus 3:8 · a strong link
And it happened in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God by reason of the bondage.
from Exodus 3:17
Look, the hire of the laborers who have harvested your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cries: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts.
from Exodus 2:23 · 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
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,
from Acts 9:15 · a strong link
Listen, O isles, to me; and listen, you people, from afar; The LORD has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name.
from Galatians 1:15 · a strong link
Incline your ear, and come to me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
from Isaiah 49:1
For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
from Isaiah 55:3
And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you, and to your seed after you.
from Isaiah 61:8
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from I Samuel 2:4 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