a thread opens
All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.
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.
Surely common people are vanity, and people of rank are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.
from Isaiah 40:17 · a strong link
It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.
from Psalms 62:9
Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
from Psalms 118:9
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, whom I uphold; my elect, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
from Isaiah 49:3
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up immediately out of the water: and, look, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:
from Isaiah 42:1 · a strong link
And immediately coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:
from Matthew 3:16 · a strong link
Oh that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might flow down at your presence,
from Mark 1:10
Look, the days come, says the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that sows seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
from Isaiah 64:1
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,
Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
from Jude 1:24 · a strong link
In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight:
from II Corinthians 4:14
By which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
from Colossians 1:22
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
from Hebrews 10:10
Who being the radiance of his glory, and the exact imprint of his nature, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself made purification for our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
from Hebrews 10:12 · a strong link
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.
Surely his salvation is near them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.
from Luke 2:14
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
from Psalms 85:9
Who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped:
from John 1:14 · 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?
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, do you not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
from Luke 18:7 · a strong link
And I heard the angel of the waters say, You are righteous, O Lord, who are, and were, and shall be, because you have judged thus.
from Revelation of John 6:10 · a strong link
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, says the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.
from Revelation of John 1:8 · a strong link
Who has declared from the beginning, so that we may know? and formerly, so that we may say, He is righteous? yes, there is none that shows, yes, there is none that declares, yes, there is none that hears your words.
from Isaiah 41:4 · a strong link
Tell, and bring them near; yes, let them take counsel together: who has declared this from ancient time? who has told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside me.
from Isaiah 41:26
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.
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 Luke 14:26 · a strong link
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 there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defiles, neither whatever works abomination, or makes a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
from Revelation of John 3:5 · a strong link
The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
Woe to the world because of offenses! for it must be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!
from Matthew 13:41
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Isaiah 40:17 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