The Vigil

from Ezra 4:5

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.

a thread opens

Ezra 4:5

And hired counselors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

Ezra 4:24

Then ceased the work of the house of God at Jerusalem. So it ceased to the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

from Ezra 4:5

Haggai 1:15

In the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

from Ezra 4:24

Haggai 1:1

In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,

from Haggai 1:15


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Leviticus 10:3

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.

Leviticus 21:17

Speak to Aaron, saying, Whoever he be of your seed in their generations that has any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.

from Leviticus 10:3

Psalms 65:4

Blessed is the man whom you choose, and cause to approach to you, so that he may dwell in your courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, even of your holy temple.

from Leviticus 21:17

Psalms 15:1

A Psalm of David. LORD, who shall remain in your tabernacle? who shall dwell in your holy hill?

from Psalms 65:4

Psalms 43:3

O send out your light and your truth: let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill, and to your tabernacles.

from Psalms 15:1

Romans 5:20

Moreover the law entered, so that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

from John 1:17 · a strong link


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Jude 1:24

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,

Hebrews 13:20

Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,

from Jude 1:24

Ezekiel 37:26

Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.

from Hebrews 13:20 · a strong link

Ezekiel 43:7

And he said to me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their prostitution, nor by the carcasses of their kings in their high places.

from Ezekiel 37:26

Ezekiel 20:39

As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord GOD; Go, serve every one his idols, and hereafter also, if you will not listen to me: but pollute you my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.

from Ezekiel 43:7

Ezekiel 20:25

Therefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live;

from Ezekiel 20:39


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Jude 1:11

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.

Revelation of John 2:14

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

Numbers 31:16

Look, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.

from Revelation of John 2:14 · a strong link

Numbers 24:14

And now, look, I go to my people: come therefore, and I will inform you what this people shall do to your people in the latter days.

from Numbers 31:16

Daniel 2:28

But there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets, and makes known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed, are these;

from Numbers 24:14


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Luke 2:14

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

John 17:4

I have glorified you on the earth: I have finished the work which you gave me to do.

from Luke 2:14

John 15:10

If you keep my commandments, you shall remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and remain in his love.

from John 17:4

John 14:21

He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

from John 15:10


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Luke 18:7

And shall not God give justice to his own elect, which cry day and night to him, though he bear long with them?

Hebrews 3:6

But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.

from Hebrews 10:35 · a strong link

Romans 5:2

By whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

from Hebrews 3:6

Ephesians 1:18

The eyes of your heart being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

from Colossians 1:12


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Luke 14:26

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.

Philippians 3:8

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

Isaiah 55:1

Ho, every one that thirsts, come to the waters, and he that has no money; come, buy, and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

from Proverbs 23:23

Isaiah 44:3

For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon your seed, and my blessing upon your offspring:

from Isaiah 55:1 · a strong link

That is the whole thread.

Every verse the cross-references reach from Ezra 4:5 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