a thread opens
Who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:
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.
Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bends his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
from Psalms 64:3
Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt:
from Psalms 58:7
And it shall be, when they say to you, Why do you sigh? that you shall answer, For the tidings; because it comes: and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: look, it comes, and shall be brought to pass, says the Lord GOD.
from Isaiah 13:7
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.
And said to me, You are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
from Leviticus 10:3
Look, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
from Isaiah 49:3
But emptied himself, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
from Isaiah 52:13
Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.
from Philippians 2:7
For you had compassion of me in my chains, and took joyfully the plundering of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.
from Hebrews 13:3 · a strong link
The Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus; for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain:
from Hebrews 10:34
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 of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
from Jude 1:24
And now, brothers, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
from Romans 16:25
But I said, How shall I put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a fine heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, You shall call me, My father; and shall not turn away from me.
from Acts 20:32
Doubtless you are our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: you, O LORD, are our father, our redeemer; your name is from everlasting.
from Jeremiah 3:19 · a strong link
Thus says the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.
from Isaiah 63:16
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.
But I have a few things against you, because you have there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.
from Jude 1:11
Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.
Are you not then making distinctions among yourselves, and have become judges with evil reasoning?
from Romans 14:13
Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as you have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.
from James 2:4
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
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.
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?
Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusts in God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.
from Luke 18:7
If any man or woman that believes have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed.
from I Timothy 5:5
Honor widows that are widows indeed.
from I Timothy 5:16 · a strong link
And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite within your gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD your God has chosen to place his name there.
from I Timothy 5:3
And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite within your gates; since he has no part nor inheritance with you.
from Deuteronomy 16:11 · a strong link
For the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim: therefore they gave no part to the Levites in the land, save cities to dwell in, with their pasturelands for their cattle and for their possessions.
from Deuteronomy 12:12
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.
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives to the death.
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now thanks be to God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ, and makes manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place.
from I Corinthians 15:57 · a strong link
Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the pagans, to give thanks to your holy name, and to triumph in your praise.
from II Corinthians 2:14
Oh that the salvation of Israel had come out of Zion! when the LORD brings back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
from Psalms 106:47
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Psalms 64:3 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