a thread opens
Her princes in its midst are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
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.
Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the next day.
from Ezekiel 22:27
Therefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall plunder them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goes out from there shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
from Zephaniah 3:3
The lion has come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he has gone forth from his place to make your land desolate; and your cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.
from Jeremiah 5:6
a thread opens
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.
And said to me, You are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
from Leviticus 10:3
Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you, and your fellows that sit before you: for they are men wondered at: for, look, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.
from Isaiah 49:3
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
from Zechariah 3:8
Then they reviled him, and said, You are his disciple; but we are Moses’ disciples.
from Isaiah 53:2
Look, you are called a Jew, and rest in the law, and make your boast of God,
from John 9:28
Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuses you, even Moses, in whom you trust.
from Romans 2:17
a thread opens
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,
Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
from Jude 1:24 · a strong link
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
from II Corinthians 4:14 · a strong link
Your dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, you that dwell in dust: for your dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
from I Thessalonians 4:14
Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
from Isaiah 26:19
And there shall be no night there; and they need no lamp, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God gives them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
from Isaiah 60:1 · a strong link
a thread opens
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.
The look on their faces bears witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe to their soul! for they have rewarded evil to themselves.
from Jude 1:11
But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.
from Isaiah 3:9 · a strong link
And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
from Genesis 13:13
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 Genesis 18:20
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
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
All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knows the Son, but the Father; neither knows any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
from Isaiah 9:6
Whoever denies the Son, the same has not the Father: [but] he that acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
from Matthew 11:27 · a strong link
a thread opens
And shall not God give justice to his own elect, which cry day and night to him, though he bear long with them?
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, do you not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
from Luke 18:7 · a strong link
For these be the days of vengeance, so that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed has come.
from Luke 21:22
For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.
from Isaiah 63:4
For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, so that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts has a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.
from Isaiah 34:8
I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of avenges upon the enemy.
from Jeremiah 46:10
a thread opens
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.
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
And every one that has forsaken houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life.
from John 12:25
If you were of the world, the world would love his own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
from Matthew 19:29
According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, so that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
from John 15:19
For I am with you, and no man shall set on you to hurt you: for I have much people in this city.
from Ephesians 1:4
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Ezekiel 22:27 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