a thread opens
When you vow a vow to God, defer not to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools: pay that which you have vowed.
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.
If a man vow a vow to the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
from Ecclesiastes 5:4 · a strong link
I will pay my vows to the LORD now in the presence of all his people,
from Numbers 30:2
My praise shall be of you in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
from Psalms 116:18
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 say, Thus says the Lord GOD; Look, I am against you, O Sidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of you: and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.
from Leviticus 10:3
And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honored upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so.
from Ezekiel 28:22
And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.
from Exodus 14:4 · a strong link
And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten me honor upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.
from Exodus 7:5
Thus says the LORD, In this you shall know that I am the LORD: look, I will strike with the rod in my hand upon the waters in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.
from Exodus 14:18
And it shall happen, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither listen to your voice, that you shall take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which you take out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.
from Exodus 7:17 · 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,
In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight:
from Jude 1:24 · a strong link
Therefore, my brothers, you also have become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, so that we should bring forth fruit to God.
from Colossians 1:22
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead in which we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
from Romans 7:4
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer in it?
from Romans 7:6
For I through the law am dead to the law, so that I might live to God.
from Romans 6:2
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.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
from Luke 2:14
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
from Isaiah 9:6
But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
from John 3:16 · a strong link
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?
A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the director of music upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite. O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you:
from Luke 18:7 · a strong link
Be merciful to me, O Lord: for I cry to you daily.
from Psalms 88:1
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and to that end with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
from Psalms 86:3
Watch therefore, and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall happen, and to stand before the Son of man.
from Ephesians 6:18 · a strong link
Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. [Not in the earliest manuscripts. King James also had: “wherein the Son of man cometh.”]
from Luke 21:36 · a strong link
Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
from Matthew 25:13
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.
Who said to his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brothers, nor knew his own children: for they have observed your word, and kept your covenant.
from Luke 14:26
And Leah conceived, and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben: for she said, Surely the LORD has looked upon my affliction; now therefore my husband will love me.
from Deuteronomy 33:9
And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.
from Genesis 29:32 · a strong link
And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect to them.
from Exodus 4:31
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their slave drivers; for I know their sorrows;
from Exodus 2:25
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Ecclesiastes 5:4 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