a thread opens
For innumerable evils have surrounded me: my iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my head: therefore my heart fails 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.
Who can understand his errors? cleanse me from secret faults.
from Psalms 40:12
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
from Psalms 19:12
To the director of music upon Mahalath, Maschil, A Psalm of David. The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that does good.
from Jeremiah 17:9 · a strong link
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
And the king said, What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? so let him curse, because the LORD has said to him, Curse David. Who shall then say, Why have you done so?
from Psalms 39:9
And I am this day weak, though anointed king; and these men the sons of Zeruiah be too hard for me: the LORD shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness.
from II Samuel 16:10
Their blood shall therefore return upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his seed for ever: but upon David, and upon his seed, and upon his house, and upon his throne, shall there be peace for ever from the LORD.
from II Samuel 3:39
And the LORD shall return his blood upon his own head, who fell upon two men more righteous and better than he, and slew them with the sword, my father David not its knowing, namely, Abner the son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah.
from I Kings 2:33
And all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads: and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.
from I Kings 2:32
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,
Now to him that is able to do immeasurably more than all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
from Jude 1:24 · a strong link
Ah Lord GOD! look, you have made the heaven and the earth by your great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for you:
from Ephesians 3:20 · a strong link
Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
from Jeremiah 32:17 · a strong link
For, look, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
from Isaiah 46:9
Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, in which dwells righteousness.
from Isaiah 65:17 · a strong link
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
Look, the hire of the laborers who have harvested your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cries: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts.
from Genesis 18:20
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
from Luke 2:14 · a strong link
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away are made near by the blood of Christ.
from Colossians 1:20
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
from Ephesians 2:13
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?
The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some men count slowness; but is patience toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
from Luke 18:7
Or despise you the riches of his goodness and forbearance and patience; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
from II Peter 3:9 · a strong link
And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, patience, and abundant in goodness and truth,
from Romans 2:4 · a strong link
The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
from Exodus 34:6 · a strong link
The LORD is patience, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation.
from Psalms 103:8
The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.
from Numbers 14:18 · a strong link
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.
Yes doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them as rubbish, so that I may win Christ,
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end;
from Philippians 3:8
And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brothers; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort.
from Hebrews 3:14
These things command and teach.
from I Timothy 6:2 · a strong link
And these things give in charge, that they may be blameless.
from I Timothy 4:11
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Psalms 40:12 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