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 said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,
from Isaiah 1:7
And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.
from Isaiah 6:11
The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
from Isaiah 3:26 · a strong link
Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for you shall no more be called tender and delicate.
from Lamentations 2:10
You daughter that do inhabit Dibon, come down from your glory, and sit in thirst; for the spoiler of Moab shall come upon you, and he shall destroy your strongholds.
from Isaiah 47:1
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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.
Thus says the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.
from I Corinthians 8:4
O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwell between the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: you have made heaven and earth.
from Isaiah 44:6 · a strong link
And there I will meet with you, and I will commune with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim upon the ark of the covenant, of all things which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.
from Isaiah 37:16
And the LORD said to Moses, Speak to Aaron your brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.
from Exodus 25:22 · a strong link
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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.
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
from I John 3:16 · a strong link
And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
from Revelation of John 11:15 · a strong link
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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.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
from I John 2:27
What? do you not know that he which is joined to a prostitute is one body? for two, he says, shall be one flesh.
from Hebrews 8:10
And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cling to his wife: and they two shall be one flesh?
from I Corinthians 6:16
Of the nations concerning which the LORD said to the children of Israel, You shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in to you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clung to these in love.
from Matthew 19:5
Neither shall you make marriages with them; your daughter you shall not give to his son, nor his daughter shall you take to your son.
from I Kings 11:2 · a strong link
Else if you do in any wise go back, and cling to the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in to them, and they to you:
from Deuteronomy 7:3
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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.
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone;
from I Corinthians 12:28
To whom coming, as to a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
from Ephesians 2:20 · a strong link
This is the stone which was set at nothing of you builders, which has become the cornerstone.
from I Peter 2:4
The wicked flee when no man pursues: but the righteous are bold as a lion.
from Acts 4:11
You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you: because he trusts in you.
from Proverbs 28:1 · a strong link
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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.
They that are of a perverse heart are abomination to the LORD: but such as are upright in their way are his delight.
from I Chronicles 29:17
א ALEPH. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD.
from Proverbs 11:20
That they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
from Psalms 119:1 · a strong link
That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, says the Lord GOD.
from Ezekiel 11:20 · a strong link
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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 you shall eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the LORD.
from I Corinthians 5:7
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 Exodus 13:6
You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shall you eat unleavened bread with it, even the bread of affliction; for you came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that you may remember the day when you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.
from Exodus 12:15 · a strong link
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