The Vigil

from Nehemiah 8:8

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

Nehemiah 8:8

So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

Acts 8:30

And Philip ran there to him, and heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said, Understand you what you read?

from Nehemiah 8:8

I Corinthians 14:19

Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.

from Acts 8:30

I Corinthians 14:21

In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak to this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, says the Lord.

from I Corinthians 14:19

Deuteronomy 28:49

The LORD shall bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies; a nation whose tongue you shall not understand;

from I Corinthians 14:21

Jeremiah 49:22

Look, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah: and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

from Deuteronomy 28:49


a thread opens

I Corinthians 8:4

As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.

Isaiah 45:5

I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded you, though you have not known me:

from Deuteronomy 6:4

Psalms 18:39

For you have girded me with strength to the battle: you have subdued under me those that rose up against me.

from Isaiah 45:5 · a strong link


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I John 3:16

By this we perceive the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

from I John 3:16 · a strong link

Ephesians 2:4

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,

from John 3:16 · a strong link

Psalms 86:15

But you, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, patience, and plenteous in mercy and truth.

from Ephesians 2:4


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I John 2:27

But the anointing which you have received of him remains in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall remain in him.

II Peter 1:16

For we have not followed cleverly devised myths, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

from I John 2:27

Luke 9:28

And it happened about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray.

from II Peter 1:16

Mark 14:33

And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy;

from Luke 9:28

Luke 22:44

And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

from Mark 14:33

Lamentations 1:12

Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? look, and see if there is any sorrow like to my sorrow, which is done to me, with which the LORD has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

from Luke 22:44

Luke 23:28

But Jesus turning to them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.

from Lamentations 1:12


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I Corinthians 12:28

And God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, varieties of tongues.

Hebrews 13:17

Obey your leaders, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.

from Hebrews 13:24 · a strong link

Ezekiel 33:7

So you, O son of man, I have set you a watchman to the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.

from Hebrews 13:17

Isaiah 62:6

I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never keep silent day nor night: you that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence,

from Ezekiel 33:7

II Chronicles 8:14

And he appointed, according to the order of David his father, the divisions of the priests to their service, and the Levites to their charges, to praise and minister before the priests, as the duty of every day required: the gatekeepers also by their divisions at every gate: for so had David the man of God commanded.

from Isaiah 62:6


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I Chronicles 29:17

I know also, my God, that you try the heart, and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy your people, who are present here, to offer willingly to you.

Jeremiah 17:10

I the LORD search the heart, I try the inmost thoughts, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

from I Chronicles 29:17 · a strong link

Galatians 6:7

Do not be deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap.

from Romans 2:6

Hosea 8:7

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it has no stalk: the bud shall yield no flour: if it should yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.

from Galatians 6:7 · a strong link


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I Corinthians 5:7

Clean out therefore the old leaven, so that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:

Exodus 12:15

Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

from Exodus 13:6

Exodus 23:15

You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread: (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it you came out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)

from Exodus 12:15 · a strong link

That is the whole thread.

Every verse the cross-references reach from Nehemiah 8:8 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