a thread opens
By you have I been held up from the womb: you are he that took me out of my mother’s bowels: my praise shall be continually of you.
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.
But you are he that took me out of the womb: you did make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.
from Psalms 71:6 · a strong link
And when they had departed, look, the angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be there until I bring you word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
from Psalms 22:9
And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.
from Matthew 2:13
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
Sing, O you heavens; for the LORD has done it: shout, you lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it: for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.
from Isaiah 49:3 · a strong link
Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD has comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.
from Isaiah 44:23 · a strong link
For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found in it, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
from Isaiah 49:13
A fire devours before them; and behind them a flame burns: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yes, and nothing shall escape them.
from Isaiah 51:3
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
from Joel 2:3 · 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
You have rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from your commandments.
from Exodus 18:11
With my whole heart have I sought you: O let me not wander from your commandments.
from Psalms 119:21
And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err in it.
from Psalms 119:10
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.
Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men:
from Jude 1:11
Our father died in the wilderness, and he was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together against the LORD in the company of Korah; but died in his own sin, and had no sons.
from Numbers 16:1
I the LORD have said, I will surely do it to all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
from Numbers 27:3
God is not a man, so that he should lie; neither the son of man, so that he should repent: has he said, and shall he not do it? or has he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
from Numbers 14:35 · a strong link
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and its fullness.
from Luke 2:14
Let the sea roar, and its fullness; the world, and they that dwell in it.
from Psalms 96:11
A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD’s, and its fullness; the world, and they that dwell in it.
from Psalms 98:7
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
And I gave her space to repent of her sexual immorality; and she repented not.
from II Peter 3:9
And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, so that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, and silver, and bronze, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
from Revelation of John 2:21 · a strong link
And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for you have prostituted yourself from your God, you have loved a reward upon every cornfloor.
from Acts 7:41
My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declares to them: for the spirit of prostitution has caused them to err, and they have prostituted themselves from under their God.
from Hosea 9:1
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.
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 Luke 14:26 · a strong link
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.
from Acts 20:24
For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
from II Timothy 4:6 · a strong link
And Jesus said to him, Truly I say to you, Today shall you be with me in paradise.
from Philippians 1:23
Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own? Is your eye evil, because I am good?
from Luke 23:43
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Psalms 71:6 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