The Vigil

from Psalms 129:1

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

Psalms 129:1

A Song of Ascents. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say:

Hebrews 5:7

Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

from Psalms 120:1


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

Numbers 16:5

And he spoke to Korah and to all his company, saying, Even tomorrow the LORD will show who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near to him: even him whom he has chosen will he cause to come near to him.

from Leviticus 21:17

Ezekiel 44:15

But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister to me, and they shall stand before me to offer to me the fat and the blood, says the Lord GOD:

from Numbers 16:5

Deuteronomy 10:8

At that time the LORD separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day.

from Ezekiel 44:15

Deuteronomy 18:5

For the LORD your God has chosen him out of all your tribes, to stand to minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons for ever.

from Deuteronomy 10:8 · a strong link

Numbers 3:10

And you shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall wait on their priest’s office: and the stranger that comes near shall be put to death.

from Deuteronomy 18:5


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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,

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 John 1:47

Deuteronomy 14:1

You are the children of the LORD your God: you shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.

from Romans 9:4


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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.

Numbers 16:1

Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men:

from Jude 1:11

Psalms 45:1

To the director of music upon Shoshannim, for the sons of Korah, Maschil, A Song of loves. My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

from I Chronicles 6:37


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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

Isaiah 53:5

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

from Isaiah 9:6 · a strong link

Ephesians 5:2

And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a fragrant offering.

from Isaiah 53:5 · 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?

Psalms 88:1

A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the director of music upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite. O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you:

from Luke 18:7 · a strong link

Psalms 88:9

My eye mourns by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon you, I have stretched out my hands to you.

from Psalms 86:3

Psalms 38:10

My heart pants, my strength fails me: as for the light of my eyes, it also has gone from me.

from Psalms 88:9

Psalms 6:7

My eye is consumed because of grief; it grows old because of all my enemies.

from Psalms 38:10 · a strong link

Job 17:7

My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.

from Psalms 6:7


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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.

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

Galatians 1:10

For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

from Deuteronomy 33:9

James 4:4

You adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship of the world is hostility with God? whoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

from Galatians 1:10 · a strong link

John 17:14

I have given them your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

from James 4:4

I John 5:19

And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

from John 17:14 · a strong link

That is the whole thread.

Every verse the cross-references reach from Psalms 129:1 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