a thread opens
For you have made of a city a heap; of a fortified city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
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.
And the fortress of the high fort of your walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.
from Isaiah 25:2
For he brings down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he lays it low; he lays it low, even to the ground; he brings it even to the dust.
from Isaiah 25:12
Cast abroad the rage of your wrath: and look on every one that is proud, and abase him.
from Isaiah 26:5
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
What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
from Exodus 14:4 · a strong link
Therefore you be witnesses to yourselves, that you are the children of them which killed the prophets.
from Romans 9:22
Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all people:
from Matthew 23:31
And Haman said to king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the king’s laws: therefore it is not for the king’s profit to suffer them.
from I Thessalonians 2:15
And I will scatter you among the pagans, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
from Esther 3:8
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,
In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight:
from Jude 1:24 · a strong link
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 Colossians 1:22
Thus says the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all.
from Ephesians 1:4
Isaiah also cries concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:
from Isaiah 65:8
Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall happen, that in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there it shall be said to them, You are the sons of the living God.
from Romans 9:27
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.
And the sons of Eliab; Nemuel, and Dathan, and Abiram. This is that Dathan and Abiram, which were famous in the congregation, who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah, when they strove against the LORD:
from Jude 1:11
These were the renowned of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel.
from Numbers 26:9 · a strong link
Furthermore over the tribes of Israel: the ruler of the Reubenites was Eliezer the son of Zichri: of the Simeonites, Shephatiah the son of Maacah:
from Numbers 1:16
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
from Luke 2:14
I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, says the LORD; and I will heal him.
from Romans 5:1
For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all that are in the distance, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
from Isaiah 57:19 · 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?
But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
from Luke 18:7
Come and see the works of God: he is terrible in his doing toward the children of men.
from Jeremiah 20:11 · a strong link
Come, see the works of the LORD, what desolations he has made in the earth.
from Psalms 66:5
And Pharaoh’s servants said to him, How long shall this man be a snare to us? let the men go, so that they may serve the LORD their God: do you not know yet that Egypt is destroyed?
from Psalms 46:8
They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me: for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.
from Exodus 10:7
And they served their idols: which were a snare to them.
from Exodus 23:33 · 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.
Whom have I in heaven but you? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside you.
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
Because your loving devotion is better than life, my lips shall praise you.
from Psalms 73:25 · a strong link
Hear me, O LORD; for your loving devotion is good: turn to me according to the multitude of your tender mercies.
from Psalms 63:3 · a strong link
To the director of music, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving devotion: according to the multitude of your tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
from Psalms 69:16
To the praise of the glory of his grace, in which he has made us accepted in the beloved.
from Psalms 51:1
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Isaiah 25:2 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