a thread opens
And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that labors: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
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.
Like as a woman with child, that draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and cries out in her pangs; so have we been in your sight, O LORD.
from Isaiah 13:8
A woman when she is in labor has sorrow, because her hour has come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.
from Isaiah 26:17 · a strong link
Ask now, and see whether a man does toil with child? why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in labor, and all faces are turned into paleness?
from John 16:21
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 said to me, You are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
from Leviticus 10:3
Look, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
from Isaiah 49:3
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 Isaiah 52:13
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: look, your King comes to you: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon a donkey, and upon a colt the foal of a donkey.
from Isaiah 9:6
All this was done, so that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,
from Zechariah 9:9
Now all this was done, so that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
from Matthew 21:4
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,
Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
from Jude 1:24
Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.
from Hebrews 13:20 · a strong link
And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.
from Ezekiel 37:26
In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name with which she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.
from Ezekiel 34:25
Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
from Jeremiah 33:16
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.
Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And why he slew him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
from Jude 1:11 · a strong link
An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.
from I John 3:12
Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hate you.
from Proverbs 29:27
I have given them your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
from I John 3:13 · 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
And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has he reconciled
from Colossians 1:20 · a strong link
Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
from Colossians 1:21
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?
The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some men count slowness; but is patience toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
from Luke 18:7
And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious to you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
from II Peter 3:9 · a strong link
The LORD is exalted; for he dwells on high: he has filled Zion with judgment and righteousness.
from Isaiah 30:18
And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
from Isaiah 33:5
The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
from Isaiah 2:17
In that day, says the LORD, will I assemble her who limps, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted;
from Isaiah 2:11
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 they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives to the death.
from John 12:25
He that overcomes, the same shall be clothed in white apparel; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Woe to you, lawyers! for you have taken away the key of knowledge: you entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in you hindered.
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Isaiah 13:8 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