a thread opens
Take counsel, execute judgment; make your shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; bewray not him that wanders.
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 a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a shelter from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
from Isaiah 16:3
For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon your seed, and my blessing upon your offspring:
from Isaiah 32:2
For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all that are in the distance, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
from Isaiah 44:3 · 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.
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
But know that the LORD has set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call to him.
from Psalms 65:4
The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished:
from Psalms 4:3
There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.
from II Peter 2:9 · 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 I Corinthians 10:13
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,
Now to him that is able to do immeasurably more than all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
from Jude 1:24 · a strong link
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
from Ephesians 3:20 · a strong link
And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, The LORD is able to give you much more than this.
from II Corinthians 9:8
The blessing of the LORD, it makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.
from II Chronicles 25:9
And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing:
from Proverbs 10:22
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.
Which have forsaken the right way, and have gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
from Jude 1:11 · a strong link
But I have a few things against you, because you have there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.
from II Peter 2:15 · a strong link
And Israel remained in Acacia, and the people began to commit prostitution with the daughters of Moab.
from Revelation of John 2:14 · a strong link
And they pitched by Jordan, from Beth-jesimoth even to Abel-acacia in the plains of Moab.
from Numbers 25:1
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
Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD has comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.
from Psalms 96:11
For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found in it, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
from Isaiah 49:13
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
If any man or woman that believes have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed.
from I Timothy 5:5
Honor widows that are widows indeed.
from I Timothy 5:16 · a strong link
And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite within your gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD your God has chosen to place his name there.
from I Timothy 5:3
And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite within your gates; since he has no part nor inheritance with you.
from Deuteronomy 16:11 · a strong link
Praise the LORD: for it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is beautiful.
from Deuteronomy 12:12
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.
He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
So when they had dined, Jesus says to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, love you me more than these? He says to him, Yes, Lord; you know that I love you. He says to him, Feed my lambs.
from Matthew 10:37
Him that is weak in the faith receive you, but not to quarreling over opinions.
from John 21:15
However there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol to this hour eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.
from Romans 14:1
But if any man say to you, This is offered in sacrifice to idols, eat not for his sake that showed it, and for conscience’ sake: for the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness:
from I Corinthians 8:7
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Isaiah 16:3 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