The Vigil

from Zechariah 7:5

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

Zechariah 7:5

Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did you at all fast to me, even to me?

Zechariah 1:12

Then the angel of the LORD answered and said, O LORD of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which you have had indignation these seventy years?

from Zechariah 7:5

Psalms 13:1

To the director of music, A Psalm of David. How long will you forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long will you hide your face from me?

from Psalms 74:10


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

Isaiah 32:2

And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a shelter from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

from Isaiah 49:10

Zechariah 13:7

Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, says the LORD of hosts: strike the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn my hand upon the little ones.

from Isaiah 32:2


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,

I Peter 4:13

But rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy.

from Jude 1:24

James 1:2

My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations;

from I Peter 4:13 · a strong link

Matthew 5:10

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

from James 1:2 · a strong link

Psalms 31:13

For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.

from Psalms 37:12


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.

Revelation of John 2:14

But I have a few things against you, because you have there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.

from Jude 1:11

I Corinthians 6:13

Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

from Revelation of John 2:14

I Corinthians 6:15

Do you not know that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a prostitute? God forbid.

from I Corinthians 6:13


a thread opens

Luke 2:14

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

Psalms 69:34

Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and everything that moves in it.

from Luke 2:14

Isaiah 49:13

Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD has comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.

from Psalms 69:34 · a strong link

Isaiah 44:23

Sing, O you heavens; for the LORD has done it: shout, you lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it: for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.

from Isaiah 49:13 · a strong link


a thread opens

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?

Jeremiah 20:11

But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.

from Luke 18:7

Daniel 12:2

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to eternal life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

from Jeremiah 20:11 · a strong link

Revelation of John 20:12

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

from Daniel 12:2

Matthew 16:27

For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

from Revelation of John 20:12 · a strong link

Matthew 24:30

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

from Matthew 16:27 · a strong link

Mark 14:62

And Jesus said, I am: and you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

from Matthew 24:30


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.

Psalms 73:25

Whom have I in heaven but you? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside you.

from Luke 14:26 · a strong link

Philippians 3:8

Yes doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them as rubbish, so that I may win Christ,

from Psalms 73:25 · a strong link

I John 5:20

And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

from Philippians 3:8

Acts 20:28

Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood.

from I John 5:20

I Corinthians 15:9

For I am the least of the apostles, that am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

from Acts 20:28

That is the whole thread.

Every verse the cross-references reach from Zechariah 7:5 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