a thread opens
Then Jael Heber’s wife took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him, and drove the tent peg into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.
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 Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly:
from Judges 4:21
And it shall happen, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that fathered him shall say to him, You shall not live; for you speak lies in the name of the LORD: and his father and his mother that fathered him shall thrust him through when he prophesies.
from Judges 3:21
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 Zechariah 13:3
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.
from Matthew 10:37 · a strong link
a thread opens
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world works death.
from Acts 20:21
For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
from II Corinthians 7:10
Strive to enter in at the narrow gate: for many, I say to you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
from Hebrews 12:17
The desire of the slothful kills him; for his hands refuse to labor.
from Luke 13:24
The soul of the sluggard desires, and has nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.
from Proverbs 21:25 · a strong link
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 all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
from Acts 13:38
And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
from II Corinthians 5:18
Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live to righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed.
from I John 2:2
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead in which we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
from I Peter 2:24
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
from Romans 7:6 · a strong link
The corresponding figure to which even baptism does also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
from Romans 6:4 · 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.
Before the LORD: for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.
from Acts 17:31
And I saw heaven opened, and look, a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he does judge and make war.
from Psalms 96:13 · a strong link
Look, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.
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
For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
from Luke 13:1
Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that does evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;
from I Peter 4:17 · 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.
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
In that you have brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when you offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations.
from Ezekiel 44:9
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 Ezekiel 44:7
Look, the name of the LORD comes from afar, burning with his anger, and its burden is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
from Jeremiah 4:4
And then shall the lawless one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the appearance of his coming:
from Isaiah 30:27
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
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,
from Acts 9:15 · a strong link
And now, says the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength.
from Galatians 1:15 · a strong link
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All power is given to me in heaven and in earth.
from Isaiah 49:5
He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give to him the throne of his father David:
from Matthew 28:18
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things says he who is holy, he that is true, he that has the key of David, he that opens, and no man shuts; and shuts, and no man opens;
from Luke 1:32
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Judges 4:21 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