a thread opens
The hands of the compassionate women have boiled their own children: they were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
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.
Can a woman forget her nursing child, so that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yes, they may forget, yet will I not forget you.
from Lamentations 4:10
Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for you are my servant: I have formed you; you are my servant: O Israel, you shall not be forgotten of me.
from Isaiah 49:15 · a strong link
Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen:
from Isaiah 44:21
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.
Speak to Aaron, saying, Whoever he be of your seed in their generations that has any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.
from Leviticus 10:3
And he spoke to Korah and to all his company, saying, Even tomorrow the LORD will show who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near to him: even him whom he has chosen will he cause to come near to him.
from Leviticus 21:17
And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, You take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: why then lift you up yourselves above the congregation of the LORD?
from Numbers 16:5
And put fire in it, and put incense in them before the LORD tomorrow: and it shall be that the man whom the LORD does choose, he shall be holy: you take too much upon you, you sons of Levi.
from Numbers 16:3
According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, so that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
from Numbers 16:7
Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
from Ephesians 1:4 · a strong link
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,
Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
from Jude 1:24 · a strong link
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
from II Corinthians 4:14
Whom we preach, admonishing everyone, and teaching everyone in all wisdom; that we may present everyone mature in Christ Jesus:
from Ephesians 5:27
And we beg you, brothers, to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you;
from Colossians 1:28
But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
from I Thessalonians 5:12
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.
But I have a few things against you, because you have there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.
from Jude 1:11
But that we write to them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from sexual immorality, and from things strangled, and from blood.
Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it upon the ground as water.
from Acts 15:20
Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it upon the earth as water.
from Deuteronomy 15:23
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
from Luke 2:14
And the angel of the LORD said to him, Why do you ask thus after my name, seeing it is secret?
from Isaiah 9:6 · a strong link
And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, please, your name. And he said, Why is it that you do ask after my name? And he blessed him there.
from Judges 13:18
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?
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, do you not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
from Luke 18:7 · a strong link
Beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place to wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.
To me belongs vengeance, and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
from Romans 12:19 · a strong link
Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon you, and accomplish my anger upon you: and I will judge you according to your ways, and will recompense you for all your abominations.
from Deuteronomy 32:35
Yes, all Israel have transgressed your law, even by departing, so that they might not obey your voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
from Ezekiel 7:8
Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.
from Daniel 9:11
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.
He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
He that finds his life shall lose it: and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it.
from John 12:25 · a strong link
For whoever will save his life shall lose it; but whoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.
from Matthew 10:39 · a strong link
And every one that has forsaken houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life.
from Mark 8:35
And he said to them, Truly I say to you, There is no man that has left house, or parents, or brothers, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake,
from Matthew 19:29 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Lamentations 4:10 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