a thread opens
Why have we fasted, say they, and you see not? why have we afflicted our soul, and you take no knowledge? Look, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exact all your labors.
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.
You have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
from Isaiah 58:3 · a strong link
And it shall happen at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and punish the men that are settled on their dregs: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil.
from Malachi 3:14
Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his lees, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither has he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.
from Zephaniah 1:12 · a strong link
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.
No man that has a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come near to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he has a blemish; he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God.
from Leviticus 10:3
They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God: for the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and the bread of their God, they do offer: therefore they shall be holy.
from Leviticus 21:21
And the priest shall burn it upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire to the LORD.
from Leviticus 21:6 · a strong link
And Aaron’s sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is upon the wood on the fire: it is an offering made by fire, of a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
from Leviticus 3:11
And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out: and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order upon it; and he shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings.
from Leviticus 3:5 · a strong link
And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.
from Leviticus 6:12
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,
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
from Jude 1:24
All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.
from John 10:29
For I have given to them the words which you gave me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from you, and they have believed that you did send me.
from John 6:37
That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, so that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that you have sent me.
from John 17:8
That there should be no division in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
from John 17:21
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.
Which have forsaken the right way, and have gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
from Jude 1:11 · a strong link
And said, O full of all deceit and all mischief, you child of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
from II Peter 2:15
The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the weeds are the children of the wicked one;
from Acts 13:10 · a strong link
He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, so that he might destroy the works of the devil.
from Matthew 13:38
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and everything that moves in it.
from Luke 2:14
For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
from Psalms 69:34
Go forth of Babylon, flee you from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare you, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say, The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob.
from Isaiah 55:12 · 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?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies.
from Luke 18:7
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
from Romans 8:33
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
from Romans 8:1 · a strong link
Therefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
from I Corinthians 15:22
That as sin has reigned to death, even so might grace reign through righteousness to eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
from Romans 5:12
Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
from Romans 5:21 · 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.
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
I write to you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father.
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.
from I John 2:13
Whoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
from I John 4:4
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
from I John 3:9 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Isaiah 58:3 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