a thread opens
And Achish believed David, saying, He has made his people Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant for ever.
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 Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, You have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.
from I Samuel 27:12
When they were but a few men in number; yes, very few, and strangers in it.
from Genesis 34:30
And you shall speak and say before the LORD your God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:
from Psalms 105:12
And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.
from Deuteronomy 26:5
a thread opens
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commands all men everywhere to repent:
from Acts 20:21
Or despise you the riches of his goodness and forbearance and patience; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
from Acts 17:30
The eyes of your heart being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
from Romans 2:4 · a strong link
For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
from Ephesians 1:18
I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, and in his word do I hope.
from Galatians 5:5
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 that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
from Acts 13:38 · a strong link
Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers:
from Luke 24:47
But he answered, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
from Romans 15:8 · a strong link
What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
from Matthew 15:24
For thus says the Lord GOD; Look, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.
from Luke 15:4 · a strong link
For the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
from Ezekiel 34:11
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.
When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
from Acts 17:31
And Jesus said, I am: and you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
from Matthew 25:31
Look, he comes with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
from Mark 14:62
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
I give you charge in the sight of God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession;
from Matthew 27:2
I charge you before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that you observe these things without favoritism, doing nothing by partiality.
from I Timothy 6:13 · a strong link
I charge you therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
from I Timothy 5:21 · 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.
Circumcise therefore your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.
from Acts 7:51 · a strong link
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 Deuteronomy 10:16 · a strong link
However Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the LORD came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah.
from Leviticus 26:41
Because your heart was tender, and you did humble yourself before God, when you heard his words against this place, and against its inhabitants, and humbled yourself before me, and did rend your clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard you also, says the LORD.
from II Chronicles 32:26
The LORD is near to them that are of a broken heart; and saves such as are of a contrite spirit.
from II Chronicles 34:27
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
To which I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.
from Acts 9:15
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 I Timothy 2:7
By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:
from Ephesians 3:7
But cursed be the deceiver, which has in his flock a male, and vows, and sacrifices to the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, says the LORD of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the pagans.
from Romans 1:5
And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.
from Malachi 1:14
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from I Samuel 27:12 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