a thread opens
Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if perhaps she may be healed.
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 there followed another angel, saying, Babylon has fallen, has fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality.
from Jeremiah 51:8
Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.
from Revelation of John 14:8 · a strong link
With whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her sexual immorality.
from Jeremiah 51:7
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
Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you, and your fellows that sit before you: for they are men wondered at: for, look, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.
from Isaiah 49:3
Thus says the Lord GOD; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon a high mountain and eminent:
from Zechariah 3:8
Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
from Ezekiel 17:22
And I looked, and, look, a Lamb stood on the mount Zion, and with him a hundred forty-four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.
from Psalms 2:6
And it shall happen, that whoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD has said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
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 the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
from Jude 1:24
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
from Hebrews 13:20
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
from Hebrews 10:22
A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.
from Psalms 51:10 · a strong link
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
from James 1:8 · 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
For I, says the LORD, will be to her a wall of fire around, and will be the glory in the midst of her.
from Psalms 85:9 · a strong link
Violence shall no more be heard in your land, wasting nor destruction within your borders; but you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.
from Zechariah 2:5
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?
Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusts in God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.
from Luke 18:7
For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands:
from I Timothy 5:5
The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
from I Peter 3:5
In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with modesty and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or expensive clothes;
from Titus 2:3 · a strong link
Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
from I Timothy 2:9
The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
from Jeremiah 2:32
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.
Yes doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them as rubbish, so that I may win Christ,
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often.
from Philippians 3:8
Who also has made us able ministers of the new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.
from II Corinthians 11:23
After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do you, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.
from II Corinthians 3:6
Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you.
from I Corinthians 11:25 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Jeremiah 51:8 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