The Vigil

from Matthew 5:39

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

Matthew 5:39

But I say to you, That you resist not evil: but whoever shall strike you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.

I Peter 3:9

Not rendering evil for evil, or insult for insult: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that you are called to this, so that you should inherit a blessing.

from Matthew 5:39


a thread opens

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

Isaiah 49:10

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 Revelation of John 7:16 · a strong link

John 6:35

And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to me shall never hunger; and he that believes on me shall never thirst.

from Isaiah 49:10


a thread opens

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

Psalms 132:11

The LORD has sworn in truth to David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of your body will I set upon your throne.

from Psalms 89:3

Psalms 110:4

The LORD has sworn, and will not repent, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.

from Psalms 132:11


a thread opens

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

Hebrews 11:4

By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaks.

from I John 3:12 · a strong link

Genesis 4:3

And in process of time it happened, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the LORD.

from Hebrews 11:4 · a strong link

Numbers 18:12

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


a thread opens

Luke 2:14

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

Isaiah 9:6

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

from Luke 2:14

Psalms 45:3

Gird your sword upon your thigh, O most mighty, with your glory and your majesty.

from Isaiah 9:6

Revelation of John 1:16

And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shines in his strength.

from Psalms 45:3 · a strong link


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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

Habakkuk 2:3

For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it delays, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not delay.

from II Peter 3:9 · a strong link

Exodus 12:41

And it happened at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the very same day it happened, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.

from Habakkuk 2:3 · a strong link

Daniel 9:24

Seventy weeks are determined upon your people and upon your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

from Exodus 12:41

Revelation of John 3:7

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things says he who is holy, he that is true, he that has the key of David, he that opens, and no man shuts; and shuts, and no man opens;

from Daniel 9:24


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.

John 12:25

He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.

from Luke 14:26 · a strong link

Matthew 10:39

He that finds his life shall lose it: and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it.

from John 12:25 · a strong link

Revelation of John 2:10

Fear none of those things which you shall suffer: look, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, so that you may be tried; and you shall have tribulation ten days: be faithful to death, and I will give you a crown of life.

from Matthew 10:39

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 Matthew 24:13

That is the whole thread.

Every verse the cross-references reach from Matthew 5:39 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