a thread opens
Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; every one could sling stones at a hair breadth, and not miss.
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.
They were armed with bows, and could use both the right hand and the left in hurling stones and shooting arrows out of a bow, even of Saul’s brothers of Benjamin.
from Judges 20:16 · a strong link
But when the children of Israel cried to the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man left-handed: and by him the children of Israel sent a present to Eglon the king of Moab.
from I Chronicles 12:2 · a strong link
And when the children of Israel cried to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.
from Judges 3:15
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
Him that overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
from Psalms 65:4
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
from Revelation of John 3:12 · a strong link
He that has the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.
For your Maker is your husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.
from John 3:29
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,
And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me to his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
from Jude 1:24
Who are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
from II Timothy 4:18
For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
from I Peter 1:5 · a strong link
No man can come to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
from Ephesians 2:8 · a strong link
The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving devotion have I drawn you.
from John 6:44
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.
Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And why he slew him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
from Jude 1:11 · a strong link
An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.
from I John 3:12
Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate you? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against you?
from Proverbs 29:27
I saw the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not your word.
from Psalms 139:21 · a strong link
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:)
from Luke 2:14
And he has on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
from Acts 10:36
His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
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?
But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
from Luke 18:7
By terrible things in righteousness will you answer us, O God of our salvation; who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are in the distance upon the sea:
from Jeremiah 20:11 · a strong link
He is your praise, and he is your God, that has done for you these great and terrible things, which your eyes have seen.
from Psalms 65:5
They forgot God their savior, which had done great things in Egypt;
from Deuteronomy 10:21
They soon forgot his works; they waited not for his counsel:
from Psalms 106:21
And forgot his works, and his wonders that he had shown them.
from Psalms 106:13
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.
Who said to his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brothers, nor knew his own children: for they have observed your word, and kept your covenant.
from Luke 14:26
And they sent out to him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that you are true, and teach the way of God in truth, neither care you for any man: for you regard not the person of men.
from Deuteronomy 33:9
And the Pharisees went forth, and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.
from Matthew 22:16 · a strong link
And they send to him some of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words.
from Mark 3:6 · a strong link
And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.
from Mark 12:13
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Judges 20:16 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