a thread opens
Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loves gifts, and follows after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to 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.
And you shall take no gift: for the gift blinds the wise, and perverts the words of the righteous.
from Isaiah 1:23 · a strong link
And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.
from Exodus 23:8
Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating greed; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:
from I Samuel 8:3
And Joseph said to them the third day, This do, and live; for I fear God:
from Exodus 18:21
And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife’s sake.
from Genesis 42:18
a thread opens
As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.
And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
from I Corinthians 8:4
To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
from Mark 12:29
But the God of all grace, who has called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and establish you.
from Jude 1:25
Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
from I Peter 5:10 · a strong link
a thread opens
By this we perceive the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
from I John 3:16 · a strong link
For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
from Romans 5:8 · a strong link
For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world has he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
from Romans 5:6
a thread opens
But the anointing which you have received of him remains in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall remain in him.
Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it remain in the vine; no more can you, except you remain in me.
from I John 2:27
At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
from John 15:4
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
from John 14:20 · a strong link
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.
from Galatians 2:20
Who only has immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach to; whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.
from I John 1:7 · a strong link
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Look, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
from I Timothy 6:16
a thread opens
And God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, varieties of tongues.
Greet all your leaders, and all the saints. They of Italy greet you.
from I Corinthians 12:28 · a strong link
Remember your leaders, who have spoken to you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conduct.
from Hebrews 13:24 · a strong link
Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an example to you to follow us.
from Hebrews 13:7
For yourselves know how you ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you;
from II Thessalonians 3:9
Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.
from II Thessalonians 3:7
a thread opens
I know also, my God, that you try the heart, and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy your people, who are present here, to offer willingly to you.
But the LORD said to Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.
from I Chronicles 29:17
For the eyes of the LORD run back and forth throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein you have done foolishly: therefore from now on you shall have wars.
from I Samuel 16:7 · a strong link
That your eyes may be open upon this house day and night, upon the place of which you have said that you would put your name there; to listen to the prayer which your servant prays toward this place.
from II Chronicles 16:9 · a strong link
The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry.
from II Chronicles 6:20
a thread opens
Clean out therefore the old leaven, so that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:
Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
from I Corinthians 5:7
You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left to the morning.
from Exodus 12:15
And you shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire.
from Exodus 34:25 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Isaiah 1:23 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