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Your holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
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.
Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
from Isaiah 64:10
Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths, as long as it lies desolate, and you be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her Sabbaths.
from Isaiah 1:7
To fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
from Leviticus 26:34 · a strong link
But in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest to the land, a Sabbath for the LORD: you shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard.
from II Chronicles 36:21
And if you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? look, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:
from Leviticus 25:4
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As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.
Thus says the LORD, your redeemer, and he that formed you from the womb, I am the LORD that makes all things; that stretches forth the heavens alone; that spreads abroad the earth by myself;
from I Corinthians 8:4
It is he that sits upon the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are as grasshoppers; that stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in:
from Isaiah 44:24
Which alone spreads out the heavens, and treads upon the waves of the sea.
from Isaiah 40:22
Who cover yourself with light as with a garment: who stretch out the heavens like a curtain:
from Job 9:8
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By this we perceive the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
from I John 3:16 · a strong link
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
from I John 4:9
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
from Romans 8:32
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But the anointing which you have received of him remains in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall remain in him.
For this cause we also thank God without ceasing, because, when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which is at work also in you that believe.
from I John 2:27
We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;
from I Thessalonians 2:13
I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers,
from I Thessalonians 1:2
I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of you in my prayers night and day;
from Philemon 1:4
And Paul, earnestly seeing the council, said, Men and brothers, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.
from II Timothy 1:3
For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conduct in the world, and more abundantly toward you.
from Acts 23:1 · a strong link
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And God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, varieties of tongues.
Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood.
from I Corinthians 12:28
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.
from Acts 20:28 · a strong link
A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
from Isaiah 40:11
Hear the word of the LORD, O you nations, and declare it in the isles in the distance, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.
from Psalms 23:1
As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
from Jeremiah 31:10
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I know also, my God, that you try the heart, and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy your people, who are present here, to offer willingly to you.
They that are of a perverse heart are abomination to the LORD: but such as are upright in their way are his delight.
from I Chronicles 29:17
א ALEPH. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD.
from Proverbs 11:20
Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.
from Psalms 119:1
My foot stands in an even place: in the congregations will I bless the LORD.
from Psalms 1:1 · a strong link
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Clean out therefore the old leaven, so that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures;
from I Corinthians 5:7
For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered to you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
from I Corinthians 15:3 · a strong link
And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
from I Corinthians 11:23
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Isaiah 64:10 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