a thread opens
Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.
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.
My eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the nursing infants swoon in the streets of the city.
from Isaiah 51:20
Look, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; my heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaves, at home there is as death.
from Lamentations 2:11
My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction came upon me.
from Lamentations 1:20
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 let the priests also, which come near to the LORD, sanctify themselves, lest the LORD break forth upon them.
from Leviticus 10:3
And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD.
from Exodus 19:22
And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.
from Exodus 24:5
And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which the LORD your God has blessed you.
from Exodus 18:12
And you shall bestow that money for whatever your soul lusts after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatever your soul desires: and you shall eat there before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you, and your household,
from Deuteronomy 12:7 · a strong link
Go your way, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God now accepts your works.
from Deuteronomy 14:26
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 to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
from Jude 1:24
In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
from Romans 16:25 · a strong link
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
from Romans 2:16 · a strong link
Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are that judge: for in which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you that judge do the same things.
from I Corinthians 4:5 · a strong link
And do you think this, O man, that judge them which do such things, and do the same, that you shall escape the judgment of God?
from Romans 2:1 · 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.
And in process of time it happened, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the LORD.
from Jude 1:11
All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they shall offer to the LORD, them have I given you.
from Genesis 4:3
The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in his mother’s milk.
from Numbers 18:12
And to bring the firstfruits of our ground, and the firstfruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, to the house of the LORD:
from Exodus 23:19
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Saying, Blessed be the King that comes in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.
from Luke 2:14 · a strong link
And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord:
from Luke 19:38
Save now, I beg you, O LORD: O LORD, I beg you, send now prosperity.
from Mark 11:9 · 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
A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
from Jeremiah 20:11 · a strong link
I will praise you: for you have heard me, and have become my salvation.
from Psalms 27:1 · a strong link
I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my supplications.
from Psalms 118:21 · a strong link
We love him, because he first loved us.
from Psalms 116:1
For we ourselves also were formerly foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
from I John 4:19
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
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.
from I John 4:4 · a strong link
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
from I John 5:4
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
from Romans 8:35
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Isaiah 51:20 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