a thread opens
For thus has the LORD of hosts said, Hew you down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.
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.
When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by forcing an axe against them: for you may eat of them, and you shall not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man’s life) to employ them in the siege:
from Jeremiah 6:6
Then he said to the dresser of his vineyard, Look, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbers it the ground?
from Deuteronomy 20:19
And now also the axe is laid to the root of the trees: every tree therefore which brings not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
from Luke 13:7 · a strong link
Look, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled.
from Luke 3:9
a thread opens
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love to all the saints,
from Acts 20:21
Hearing of your love and faith, which you have toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints;
from Ephesians 1:15 · a strong link
Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have to all the saints,
from Philemon 1:5 · a strong link
For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which works by love.
from Colossians 1:4
Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;
from Galatians 5:6 · a strong link
a thread opens
Be it known to you therefore, men and brothers, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins:
Then Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
from Acts 13:38
Do you not know, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
from Acts 2:38 · a strong link
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
from Romans 6:3
Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
from Romans 6:8
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
from II Corinthians 4:10 · a strong link
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death;
from Romans 6:5 · a strong link
a thread opens
Because he has appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.
Before the LORD: for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.
from Acts 17:31
Before the LORD; for he comes to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.
from Psalms 96:13
Say among the pagans that the LORD reigns: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously.
from Psalms 98:9
a thread opens
For truly against your holy child Jesus, whom you have anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.
from Acts 4:27 · a strong link
There were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
from Matthew 27:2
Look, O LORD, and consider to whom you have done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
from Luke 13:1
I prayed therefore to the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, destroy not your people and your inheritance, which you have redeemed through your greatness, which you have brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
from Lamentations 2:20
a thread opens
You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do you.
For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
from Acts 7:51
And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live.
from Philippians 3:3
Circumcise therefore your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.
from Deuteronomy 30:6 · a strong link
In whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
from Deuteronomy 10:16
But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
from Colossians 2:11 · a strong link
a thread opens
And he said to me, Depart: for I will send you far hence to the Gentiles.
But the Lord said to him, Go your way: for he is a chosen vessel to me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:
from Acts 22:21 · a strong link
To which I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.
from Acts 9:15
To which I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.
from I Timothy 2:7 · a strong link
Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor of which they affirm.
from II Timothy 1:11
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
from I Timothy 1:7
Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the carved image: for his cast image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
from Romans 1:22
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Jeremiah 6:6 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