a thread opens
Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
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 the land enjoy her Sabbaths, as long as it lies desolate, and you be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her Sabbaths.
from Isaiah 1:7
To fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
from Leviticus 26:34 · a strong link
And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
from II Chronicles 36:21
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 I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honored upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so.
from Leviticus 10:3
And in very deed for this cause have I raised you up, to show in you my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.
from Exodus 14:4
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
from Exodus 9:16 · a strong link
The LORD has made all things for himself: yes, even the wicked for the day of evil.
from Romans 9:17
The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished:
from Proverbs 16:4
The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry.
from II Peter 2:9 · a strong link
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,
And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.
from Jude 1:24
In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight:
Therefore, my brothers, you also have become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, so that we should bring forth fruit to God.
from Colossians 1:22
Having abolished in his flesh the hostility, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; to make in himself of two one new man, so making peace;
from Romans 7:4
Canceling the record of debt that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
from Ephesians 2:15 · a strong link
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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.
Which have forsaken the right way, and have gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
from Jude 1:11 · a strong link
He sent messengers therefore to Balaam the son of Beor to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, Look, there has a people come out from Egypt: look, they cover the face of the earth, and they remain opposite me:
from II Peter 2:15
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 Numbers 22:5
And Israel remained in Acacia, and the people began to commit prostitution with the daughters of Moab.
from Revelation of John 2:14 · a strong link
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
from Luke 2:14 · a strong link
Therefore in all things it befitted him to be made like to his brothers, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
from Colossians 1:20
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 Hebrews 2:17
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And shall not God give justice to his own elect, which cry day and night to him, though he bear long with them?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies.
from Luke 18:7
He is near that justifies me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is my adversary? let him come near to me.
from Romans 8:33 · a strong link
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
from Isaiah 50:8
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
from Romans 8:32
But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
from I John 4:10
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
from Romans 5:8 · a strong link
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.
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 Luke 14:26 · a strong link
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
And this is the testimony, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
from I John 5:20
And this is the promise that he has promised us, even eternal life.
from I John 5:11 · a strong link
(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show to you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested to us;)
from I John 2:25
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Isaiah 1:7 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