a thread opens
The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languishes; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, have withered: because joy has withered away from the sons of men.
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.
The field is wasted, the land mourns; for the grain is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languishes.
from Joel 1:12
They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourns to me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart.
from Joel 1:10
Judah mourns, and its gates languish; they are black to the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem has gone up.
from Jeremiah 12:11
And the men that died not were struck with the tumors: and the cry of the city went up to heaven.
from Jeremiah 14:2
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
We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
from Ephesians 1:15
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 Colossians 1:3
I am truly a man who am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as you all are this day.
from II Timothy 1:3
But Paul said, I am a man who am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beg you, suffer me to speak to the people.
from Acts 22:3 · 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:
And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
from Acts 13:38
And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
from II Corinthians 5:18
And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
from I John 2:2 · a strong link
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
from I John 4:14
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 John 1:14 · a strong link
As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eats me, even he shall live by me.
from I John 4:9 · 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.
But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved to fire for the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
from Acts 17:31
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall grow old like a garment, and they that dwell in it shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
from II Peter 3:7
Of old have you laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of your hands.
from Isaiah 51:6 · a strong link
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
The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Son Jesus; whom you delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
from Matthew 27:2 · a strong link
But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.
from Acts 3:13
And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas:
from John 19:15
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.
Yet many years did you forbear them, and testified against them by your spirit in your prophets: yet would they not give ear: therefore gave you them into the hand of the people of the lands.
from Acts 7:51
For the prophecy came not in ancient times by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
from Nehemiah 9:30
Of which the Holy Spirit also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,
from II Peter 1:21
Therefore (as the Holy Spirit says, Today if you will hear his voice,
from Hebrews 10:15
Boast not yourself of tomorrow; for you know not what a day may bring forth.
from Hebrews 3:7 · 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
As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.
from Acts 9:15 · a strong link
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God,
from Acts 13:2
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 Romans 1:1
Of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of his power.
from I Timothy 2:7
Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?
from Ephesians 3:7
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Joel 1:12 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