a thread opens
Bow down your ear to me; deliver me speedily: be my strong rock, for a house of defense to save me.
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.
A Prayer of David. Bow down your ear, O LORD, hear me: for I am poor and needy.
from Psalms 31:2
But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinks upon me: you are my help and my deliverer; make no delay, O my God.
from Psalms 86:1
Look, God is my helper: the Lord is with them that uphold my soul.
from Psalms 40:17
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.
I was mute, I opened not my mouth; because you did it.
from Leviticus 10:3
But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
from Psalms 39:9 · a strong link
Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him.
from Job 2:10 · a strong link
And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
from James 1:12
That you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
from Hebrews 6:15
Remember your leaders, who have spoken to you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conduct.
from Hebrews 6:12 · a strong link
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,
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
from Jude 1:24
Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods: for in the thing in which they dealt proudly he was above them.
from John 10:29
Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.
from Exodus 18:11
He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
from Daniel 4:37 · a strong link
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
from Deuteronomy 32:4
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.
The look on their faces bears witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe to their soul! for they have rewarded evil to themselves.
from Jude 1:11
But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.
from Isaiah 3:9 · a strong link
And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
from Genesis 13:13
And he said, What have you done? the voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground.
from Genesis 18:20
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
I have glorified you on the earth: I have finished the work which you gave me to do.
from Luke 2:14
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear to myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
from John 17:4
And he said to me, Depart: for I will send you far hence to the Gentiles.
from Acts 20:24
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?
Cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great reward.
from Luke 18:7
Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
from Hebrews 10:35
Therefore in all things it befitted him to be made like to his brothers, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
from Hebrews 4:14
For such a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
from Hebrews 2:17
Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such a high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;
from Hebrews 7:26 · a strong link
Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all.
from Hebrews 8:1
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.
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 Luke 14:26 · a strong link
For the love of Christ compels us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
from Matthew 10:37
Even as the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.
from II Corinthians 5:14
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree:
from Matthew 20:28
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew and hanged on a tree.
from Galatians 3:13
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Psalms 31:2 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