a thread opens
The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.
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 I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.
from Lamentations 1:4
For you have made of a city a heap; of a fortified city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
from Jeremiah 9:11 · a strong link
The burden of Damascus. Look, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
from Isaiah 25:2 · a strong link
The burden of the word of the LORD in the land of Hadrach, and Damascus shall be its rest: when the eyes of man, as of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the LORD.
from Isaiah 17:1 · a strong link
Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet.
from Zechariah 9:1
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.
One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
from I Corinthians 8:4
Have we not all one father? has not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
from Ephesians 4:6
You do the deeds of your father. Then they said to him, We be not born of sexual immorality; we have one Father, even God.
from Malachi 2:10
Do you thus repay the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? is not he your father that has bought you? has he not made you, and established you?
from John 8:41
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.
But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
from I John 3:16 · a strong link
Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
from Romans 5:8 · a strong link
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God.
from John 15:13
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
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
from I Corinthians 2:13 · a strong link
For our gospel came not to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance; as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.
from I Corinthians 2:4
To which he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
from I Thessalonians 1:5 · a strong link
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
from Romans 8:28 · a strong link
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.
Obey your leaders, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
from I Corinthians 12:28 · a strong link
Remember your leaders, who have spoken to you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conduct.
from Hebrews 13:17 · a strong link
There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.
from Hebrews 13:7
O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you, I will praise your name; for you have done wonderful things; your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
from I Corinthians 10:13 · a strong link
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
from Isaiah 25:1
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.
But the LORD said to Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.
from I Chronicles 29:17
But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.
from I Samuel 16:7
The LORD shall strike you in the knees, and in the legs, with a painful boils that cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
from II Samuel 14:25
The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with the tumors, and with the scab, and with the itch, of which you cannot be healed.
from Deuteronomy 28:35 · a strong link
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:
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: you shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:
from I Corinthians 5:7
And you shall offer that day when you wave the sheaf a he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering to the LORD.
from Exodus 12:5
And if his offering is of the flocks, namely, of the sheep, or of the goats, for a burnt sacrifice; he shall bring it a male without blemish.
from Leviticus 23:12
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Lamentations 1:4 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