a thread opens
How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
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.
Yes, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.
from Joel 1:18
The voice of the LORD makes the hinds to calve, and discovers the forests: and in his temple does every one speak of his glory.
from Jeremiah 14:5
Know you the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? or can you mark when the hinds do calve?
from Psalms 29:9
The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies.
from Job 39:1
The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks;
from Psalms 104:18 · a strong link
a thread opens
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.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
from I Corinthians 8:4 · a strong link
And this is life eternal, so that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
from Deuteronomy 6:4
For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God: for God gives not the Spirit by measure to him.
from John 17:3 · a strong link
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
from John 3:34
a thread opens
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.
For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit:
from I John 3:16
And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has he reconciled
from I Peter 3:18
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
from Colossians 1:21
a thread opens
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.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
from I John 2:27
But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
from I Corinthians 2:13
He answered them, Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
from I Corinthians 2:14 · a strong link
And he said, To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.
from Matthew 13:11
What then? Israel has not obtained that which he seeks for; but the election has obtained it, and the rest were blinded
from Luke 8:10
But their minds were blinded: for until this day remains the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ.
from Romans 11:7
a thread opens
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.
Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.
from I Corinthians 12:28
Or he that exhorts, on exhortation: he that gives, let him do it with simplicity; he that rules, with diligence; he that shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
from I Timothy 5:17 · a strong link
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as you see the day approaching.
from Romans 12:8
And when they had come in, they went up into an upper room, where remained both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the brother of James.
from Hebrews 10:25
And there were many lights in the upper room, where they were gathered together.
from Acts 1:13 · a strong link
a thread opens
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.
And you, Solomon my son, know you the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts: if you seek him, he will be found of you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off for ever.
from I Chronicles 29:17 · a strong link
Every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loves a cheerful giver.
from I Chronicles 28:9
Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that gives it willingly with his heart you shall take my offering.
from II Corinthians 9:7 · a strong link
And afterward offered the continual burnt offering, both of the new moons, and of all the set feasts of the LORD that were consecrated, and of every one that willingly offered a freewill offering to the LORD.
from Exodus 25:2
a thread opens
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:
Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
from I Corinthians 5:7
The feast of unleavened bread shall you keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt.
from Exodus 12:15 · a strong link
This day came you out in the month Abib.
from Exodus 34:18
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Joel 1:18 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