a thread opens
For there is hope of a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its tender branch will not cease.
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.
He has destroyed me on every side, and I have gone: and my hope has he removed like a tree.
from Job 14:7
Look, he breaks down, and it cannot be built again: he shuts up a man, and there can be no opening.
from Job 19:10
God has delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
from Job 12:14
Deliver me not over to the will of my enemies: for false witnesses have risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
from Job 16:11
a thread opens
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then has God also to the Gentiles granted repentance to life.
from Acts 20:21
And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said to him, You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:
from Acts 11:18
I am truly a man who am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as you all are this day.
from Acts 21:20 · a strong link
Then there arose some of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.
from Acts 22:3
Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
from Acts 6:9
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
And I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, You are my people; and they shall say, You are my God.
from Luke 24:47
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.
from Hosea 2:23 · a strong link
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
from Zechariah 13:9 · a strong link
What? do you not know that he which is joined to a prostitute is one body? for two, he says, shall be one flesh.
from Hebrews 8:10
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cling to his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
from I Corinthians 6:16 · a strong link
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.
But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved to fire for the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
from Acts 17:31
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 II Peter 3:7
The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry.
from II Peter 2:9 · a strong link
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
There were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
from Matthew 27:2
After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.
from Luke 13:1
And it happened in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
from Acts 5:37
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.
For circumcision truly profits, if you keep the law: but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision is made uncircumcision.
from Acts 7:51
Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
from Romans 2:25
Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you, before the day of the LORD’s anger come upon you.
from Jeremiah 4:4
The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
from Zephaniah 2:2
You have rebuked the pagans, you have destroyed the wicked, you have put out their name for ever and ever.
from Isaiah 17:13 · 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
At my first defense no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
from Acts 9:15
And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
from II Timothy 4:16 · a strong link
And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,
from Acts 7:60
And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.
from Luke 22:41
And he came the third time, and said to them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough, the hour has come; look, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
from Mark 14:35
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Job 14:7 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