The Vigil

from Job 39:5

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.

a thread opens

Job 39:5

Who has sent out the wild donkey free? or who has loosed the bands of the wild donkey?

Job 24:5

Look, as wild donkeys in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising early for a prey: the wilderness yields food for them and for their children.

from Job 39:5

Genesis 3:19

In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, till you return to the ground; for out of it were you taken: for dust you are, and to dust shall you return.

from Psalms 104:23 · a strong link


a thread opens

Acts 20:21

Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

Acts 26:20

But showed first to them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, so that they should repent and turn to God, and do works worthy of repentance.

from Acts 20:21

Matthew 9:13

But go and learn what that means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

from Acts 26:20

Matthew 21:42

Jesus said to them, Did you never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the cornerstone: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?

from Matthew 9:13

Isaiah 28:16

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, Look, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes will not panic.

from Matthew 21:42 · a strong link


a thread opens

Acts 13:38

Be it known to you therefore, men and brothers, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins:

Luke 24:47

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

Isaiah 49:6

And he said, It is a light thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give you for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.

from Luke 24:47

Luke 2:32

A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.

from Isaiah 49:6 · a strong link

Isaiah 9:2

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shone.

from Luke 2:32

Psalms 107:10

Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron;

from Isaiah 9:2

Matthew 4:16

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 Psalms 107:10


a thread opens

Acts 17:31

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.

Psalms 98:9

Before the LORD; for he comes to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.

from Acts 17:31

Psalms 96:10

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

Psalms 67:4

O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for you shall judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.

from Psalms 96:10


a thread opens

Acts 4:27

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,

Matthew 27:2

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

Acts 3:13

The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Son Jesus; whom you delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.

from Matthew 27:2 · a strong link

Matthew 22:32

I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

from Acts 3:13

Acts 7:32

Saying, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and dared not look.

from Matthew 22:32


a thread opens

Acts 7:51

You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do you.

Ezekiel 44:9

Thus says the Lord GOD; No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger among the children of Israel.

from Acts 7:51

Joel 3:17

So shall you know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

from Ezekiel 44:9

Jeremiah 31:23

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I shall bring again their captivity; The LORD bless you, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.

from Joel 3:17

Isaiah 1:26

And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning: afterward you shall be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.

from Jeremiah 31:23 · a strong link

Jeremiah 33:7

And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.

from Isaiah 1:26


a thread opens

Acts 22:21

And he said to me, Depart: for I will send you far hence to the Gentiles.

Acts 9:15

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

Acts 13:2

As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

from Acts 9:15 · a strong link

Romans 1:1

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God,

from Acts 13:2

James 1:1

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

from Romans 1:1

I Peter 1:1

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

from James 1:1 · a strong link

Acts 16:6

Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia,

from I Peter 1:1 · a strong link

That is the whole thread.

Every verse the cross-references reach from Job 39:5 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