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You serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?
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.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said to them, O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
from Matthew 23:33 · a strong link
To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? look, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot listen: look, the word of the LORD is to them a reproach; they have no delight in it.
from Matthew 3:7
You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do you.
from Jeremiah 6:10 · a strong link
And do not grieve the holy Spirit of God, by whom you are sealed to the day of redemption.
from Acts 7:51
And he said, Hear now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also?
from Ephesians 4:30
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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.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
from I Corinthians 8:4 · a strong link
I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to carved images.
from Deuteronomy 6:4
I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no savior.
from Isaiah 42:8
Yet I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt, and you shall know no god but me: for there is no savior beside me.
from Isaiah 43:11 · a strong link
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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.
Who have for my life laid down their own necks: to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.
from I John 3:16
You have also given me the necks of my enemies, so that I might destroy them that hate me.
from Romans 16:4
I will send my fear before you, and will destroy all the people to whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.
from II Samuel 22:41 · a strong link
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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.
However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.
from I John 2:27
Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but you know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you.
from John 16:13 · a strong link
Jesus answered him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.
from John 14:17
He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall remain under the shadow of the Almighty.
from John 14:23 · a strong link
For you have been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.
from Psalms 91:1 · a strong link
In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.
from Psalms 61:3
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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.
Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.
from I Corinthians 12:28
Or he that exhorts, on exhortation: he that gives, let him do it with simplicity; he that rules, with diligence; he that shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
from I Timothy 5:17 · a strong link
And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, You men and brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.
from Romans 12:8
For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.
from Acts 13:15
And now, brothers, I know that through ignorance you did it, as did also your rulers.
from Acts 13:27 · a strong link
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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
Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that fears the LORD, she shall be praised.
from I Samuel 16:7 · a strong link
But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.
from Proverbs 31:30 · a strong link
From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
from II Samuel 14:25
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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:
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
from I Corinthians 5:7
And I saw, and, look, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
from I Peter 1:19
The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength to his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Matthew 23:33 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