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.
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 Lamentations 4:10
Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.
from Lamentations 2:20
And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet: you shall not mourn nor weep; but you shall pine away for your iniquities, and mourn one toward another.
from Psalms 78:64
And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
from Ezekiel 24:23
a thread opens
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
from Acts 20:21
And he said, It is a light thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give you for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.
from Luke 24:47
And the Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
from Isaiah 49:6 · a strong link
Thus says the LORD, The labor of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you, and they shall be yours: they shall come after you; in chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down to you, they shall make supplication to you, saying, Surely God is in you; and there is none else, there is no God.
from Isaiah 60:3
O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come to you from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things in which there is no profit.
from Isaiah 45:14
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
Go therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit:
from Acts 2:38 · a strong link
All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before you.
from Matthew 28:19
Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
from Psalms 22:27
And I give to them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
from Isaiah 45:22
That as sin has reigned to death, even so might grace reign through righteousness to eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
from John 10:28
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
And I saw heaven opened, and look, a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he does judge and make war.
from Psalms 96:13 · a strong link
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;
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,
By stretching forth your hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of your holy child Jesus.
from Acts 4:27 · a strong link
Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
from Acts 4:30
Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor bronze in your purses,
from Acts 3:6
And he said to them, When I sent you without purse, and pouch, and shoes, lacked you anything? And they said, Nothing.
from Matthew 10:9 · a strong link
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.
And do not grieve the holy Spirit of God, by whom you are sealed to the day of redemption.
from Acts 7:51
Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have fretted me in all these things; look, therefore I also will recompense your way upon your head, says the Lord GOD: and you shall not commit this lewdness above all your abominations.
from Ephesians 4:30
But they rebelled, and troubled his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.
from Ezekiel 16:43
But they rebelled against me, and would not listen to me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.
from Isaiah 63:10
But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my Sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.
from Ezekiel 20:8
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
I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,
from I Timothy 2:7
Again, think you that we excuse ourselves to you? we speak before God in Christ: but we do all things, beloved, for your building up.
from Romans 9:1
For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord has given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed:
from II Corinthians 12:19
Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord has given me to edification, and not to destruction.
from II Corinthians 10:8 · 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