a thread opens
Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them.
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 there ran a man of Benjamin out of the army, and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes torn, and with earth upon his head.
from Nehemiah 9:1
And when they lifted up their eyes in the distance, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his robe, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.
from I Samuel 4:12
And shall cause their voice to be heard against you, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes:
from Job 2:12 · a strong link
For word came to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
from Ezekiel 27:30
a thread opens
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in me.
from Acts 20:21
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:
from Acts 26:18 · a strong link
For you are a holy people to the LORD your God: the LORD your God has chosen you to be a special people to himself, above all people upon the face of the earth.
from I Peter 2:9 · a strong link
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 Deuteronomy 7:6
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
Be it known to you therefore, men and brothers, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins:
I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.
from Acts 13:38
And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
from I John 2:12
Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing you put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, look, we turn to the Gentiles.
from Luke 24:47
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 13:46
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
Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
from Matthew 9:13 · 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.
And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.
from Acts 17:31
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 Psalms 9:8 · a strong link
Before the LORD; for he comes to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.
from Psalms 96:13
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
And to the others he said in my hearing, Go after him through the city, and strike: let not your eye spare, neither have you pity:
from Luke 13:1
Therefore, as I live, says the Lord GOD; Surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore will I also diminish you; neither shall my eye spare, neither will I have any pity.
from Ezekiel 9:5
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 the LORD had said to Moses, Say to the children of Israel, You are a stiff-necked people: I will come up into the midst of you in a moment, and consume you: therefore now put off your ornaments from you, so that I may know what to do to you.
from Acts 7:51 · a strong link
How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.
from Exodus 33:5
A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
from Psalms 73:19
Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.
from Job 15:21 · a strong link
Their tents and their flocks shall they take away: they shall take to themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry to them, Fear is on every side.
from Job 18:11
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
Who has gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him.
from Isaiah 49:5
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek those things above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God.
from I Peter 3:22
Even when we were dead in sins, has made us alive together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;)
from Colossians 3:1
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Nehemiah 9:1 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