a thread opens
They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because its shadow is good: therefore your daughters shall commit prostitution, and your spouses shall commit adultery.
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.
Then shall you know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols around their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savor to all their idols.
from Hosea 4:13
And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.
from Ezekiel 6:13
Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the images: and the kingdom was quiet before him.
from Ezekiel 6:4 · a strong link
And they broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the Asherah poles, and the carved images, and the cast images, he broke in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed to them.
from II Chronicles 14:5 · a strong link
And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.
from II Chronicles 34:4
a thread opens
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.
Know therefore this day, and consider it in your heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.
from I Corinthians 8:4
And said, O LORD God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? and rule not you over all the kingdoms of the pagans? and in your hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand you?
from Deuteronomy 4:39
After this manner therefore pray you: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be your name.
from II Chronicles 20:6
And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.
from Matthew 6:9
a thread opens
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.
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
from I John 3:16 · a strong link
As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eats me, even he shall live by me.
from I John 4:9 · a strong link
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
from John 6:57
a thread opens
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.
But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.
from I John 2:27 · a strong link
You love righteousness, and hate wickedness: therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.
from I John 2:20
He loves righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.
from Psalms 45:7 · a strong link
O LORD, how manifold are your works! in wisdom have you made them all: the earth is full of your riches.
from Psalms 33:5
He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
from Psalms 104:24
It is he that sits upon the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are as grasshoppers; that stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in:
from Jeremiah 10:12
a thread opens
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.
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 Corinthians 12:28
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:
from Acts 20:28
And have made us to our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
from I Peter 2:9 · a strong link
And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.
And to make you high above all nations which he has made, in praise, and in name, and in honor; and that you may be a holy people to the LORD your God, as he has spoken.
from Exodus 19:6 · a strong link
a thread opens
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.
Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and says of him, Look, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!
from I Chronicles 29:17
Not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:
from John 1:47
For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
from Romans 9:6
For to us was the gospel preached, as well as to them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
from Romans 3:3 · a strong link
a thread opens
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:
Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
from I Corinthians 5:7
The feast of unleavened bread shall you keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt.
from Exodus 12:15 · a strong link
And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the LORD: seven days you must eat unleavened bread.
from Exodus 34:18
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Hosea 4:13 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