The Vigil

from Malachi 3:5

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

Malachi 3:5

And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts.

James 5:4

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 Malachi 3:5

Jeremiah 22:13

Woe to him that builds his house by unrighteousness, and his rooms by wrong; that uses his neighbor’s service without wages, and gives him not for his work;

from James 5:4

Deuteronomy 24:14

You shall not oppress a hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of your brothers, or of your strangers in your land within your gates:

from Jeremiah 22:13


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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.

I Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:

from Isaiah 49:3

Psalms 106:5

That I may see the good of your chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory with your inheritance.

from I Peter 2:9

Romans 9:4

Who are Israelites; to whom pertains the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;

from Psalms 105:6


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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,

II Timothy 4:18

And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me to his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

from Jude 1:24

Psalms 75:10

All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.

from Psalms 92:10


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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.

I John 3:12

Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And why he slew him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.

from Jude 1:11 · a strong link

Proverbs 29:27

An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.

from I John 3:12

John 15:18

If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.

from I John 3:13 · a strong link


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Luke 2:14

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

Psalms 96:11

Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and its fullness.

from Luke 2:14

Psalms 24:1

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


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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?

II Peter 3:9

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

Exodus 34:6

And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, patience, and abundant in goodness and truth,

from II Peter 3:9

II Chronicles 30:9

For if you turn again to the LORD, your brothers and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land: for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.

from Exodus 34:6 · a strong link

Micah 7:18

Who is a God like you, that pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retains not his anger for ever, because he delights in mercy.

from II Chronicles 30:9 · a strong link

Isaiah 43:25

I, even I, am he that blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins.

from Micah 7:18 · a strong link

Mark 2:7

Why does this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?

from Isaiah 43:25 · a strong link


a thread opens

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.

Deuteronomy 33:9

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

Luke 2:49

And he said to them, How is it that you sought me? knew you not that I must be about my Father’s business?

from Matthew 12:48

Malachi 3:1

Look, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in: look, he shall come, says the LORD of hosts.

from Luke 2:49 · a strong link

Isaiah 7:14

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Look, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

from Malachi 3:1

That is the whole thread.

Every verse the cross-references reach from Malachi 3:5 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