a thread opens
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
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.
The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of the learned, so that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakens morning by morning, he wakens my ear to hear as the learned.
from Proverbs 25:11
Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, Look, I have put my words in your mouth.
from Isaiah 50:4 · a strong link
And he has made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand has he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver has he hid me;
from Jeremiah 1:9
For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart.
from Isaiah 49:2
a thread opens
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
from Acts 20:21
Him has God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
from Luke 24:47 · a strong link
When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then has God also to the Gentiles granted repentance to life.
from Acts 5:31
And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said to him, You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:
from Acts 11:18
But there rose up some of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.
from Acts 21:20
a thread opens
Be it known to you therefore, men and brothers, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins:
Then Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
from Acts 13:38
And as they went on their way, they came to a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what does hinder me to be baptized?
from Acts 2:38 · a strong link
Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?
from Acts 8:36
And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
from Acts 10:47
And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed to them also:
from Genesis 17:24
Therefore it is of faith, so that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
from Romans 4:11
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.
When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
from Acts 17:31
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
from Matthew 25:31
Look, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
from I Thessalonians 4:16 · a strong link
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
Look, O LORD, and consider to whom you have done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
from Luke 13:1
For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,
from Lamentations 2:20
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.
But they rebelled, and troubled his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.
from Acts 7:51
When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.
from Isaiah 63:10
Because all those men who have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not listened to my voice;
from Psalms 95:9 · a strong link
These ten times have you reproached me: you are not ashamed that you make yourselves strange to me.
from Numbers 14:22
And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers in all his realm.
from Job 19:3
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
Listen, O isles, to me; and listen, you people, from afar; The LORD has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name.
from Galatians 1:15 · a strong link
Thus says the LORD that made you, and formed you from the womb, which will help you; Do not fear, O Jacob, my servant; and you, Jesurun, whom I have chosen.
from Isaiah 49:1
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, so that we may obtain mercy, and find favor to help in time of need.
from Isaiah 44:2 · a strong link
So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do to me.
from Hebrews 4:16 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Proverbs 25:11 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