a thread opens
Now therefore, look, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me: and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
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.
Thus says the LORD of hosts; The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together: and all that took them captives held them fast; they refused to let them go.
from Exodus 3:9
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?
from Jeremiah 50:33
I likewise, and my brothers, and my servants, might exact of them money and grain: Please, let us leave off this interest.
from Isaiah 58:6
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.
They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God: for the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and the bread of their God, they do offer: therefore they shall be holy.
from Leviticus 10:3
And you shall not let any of your seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shall you profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.
from Leviticus 21:6 · a strong link
There shall not be found among you any one that makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that uses divination, or a fortune-teller, or a spellcaster, or a sorceress,
from Leviticus 18:21
You shall not eat anything with the blood: neither shall you use enchantment, nor observe times.
from Deuteronomy 18:10 · a strong link
Moreover you shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of birds or of beast, in any of your dwellings.
from Leviticus 19:26
But flesh with its life, which is its blood, shall you not eat.
from Leviticus 7:26
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
They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of your house; and you shall make them drink of the river of your pleasures.
from Ephesians 3:20 · a strong link
The beast of the field shall honor me, the jackals and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.
from Psalms 36:8 · a strong link
They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun strike them: for he that has mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.
from Isaiah 43:20
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.
from Isaiah 49:10
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.
And in process of time it happened, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the LORD.
from Jude 1:11
All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they shall offer to the LORD, them have I given you.
from Genesis 4:3
The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in his mother’s milk.
from Numbers 18:12
That you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which you shall bring of your land that the LORD your God gives you, and shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which the LORD your God shall choose to place his name there.
from Exodus 23:19
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
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 Psalms 96:11
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 49:13 · 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?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies.
from Luke 18:7
He is near that justifies me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is my adversary? let him come near to me.
from Romans 8:33 · a strong link
Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.
from Isaiah 50:8
Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
from Isaiah 41:1 · a strong link
And I said to him, Sir, you know. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
from Isaiah 1:18 · a strong link
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
from Revelation of John 7:14 · 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.
Whom have I in heaven but you? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside you.
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
Because your loving devotion is better than life, my lips shall praise you.
from Psalms 73:25 · a strong link
Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. Look, how great a forest a little fire kindles!
from Psalms 63:3
Then they said, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
from James 3:5
Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the LORD; Look, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return you now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
from Jeremiah 18:18
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Exodus 3:9 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