a thread opens
Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin clings to their bones; it has withered, it has become like a stick.
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.
Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
from Lamentations 4:8
My flesh and my skin has he made old; he has broken my bones.
from Lamentations 5:10
Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria has devoured him; and last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.
from Lamentations 3:4
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.
I was mute, I opened not my mouth; because you did it.
from Leviticus 10:3
But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
from Psalms 39:9 · a strong link
Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; constant in prayer;
from Job 2:10
Trust in him at all times; you people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.
from Romans 12:12
I poured out my complaint before him; I showed before him my trouble.
from Psalms 62:8 · a strong link
A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and pours out his complaint before the LORD. Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come to you.
from Psalms 142:2
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,
And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.
from Jude 1:24
Blessed is the man to whom the LORD imputes not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
from Revelation of John 14:5 · a strong link
(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
from Psalms 32:2
Because the law works wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
from Romans 5:13
If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.
from Romans 4:15
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.
Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men:
from Jude 1:11
Our father died in the wilderness, and he was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together against the LORD in the company of Korah; but died in his own sin, and had no sons.
from Numbers 16:1
But among these there was not a man of them whom Moses and Aaron the priest numbered, when they numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.
from Numbers 27:3 · a strong link
And the space in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, until we had come over the brook Zered, was thirty-eight years; until all the generation of the warriors were wasted out from among the host, as the LORD swore to them.
from Numbers 26:64 · a strong link
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
Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood.
from Isaiah 9:6
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:
from Acts 20:28
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?
Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to repay with affliction those who afflict you;
from Luke 18:7
If I sharpen my glittering sword, and my hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to my enemies, and will reward them that hate me.
from II Thessalonians 1:6
If he turn not, he will sharpen his sword; he has bent his bow, and made it ready.
from Deuteronomy 32:41
And it shall be to them as a false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths: but he will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.
from Psalms 7:12
And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, which brings their iniquity to remembrance, when they shall look after them: but they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
from Ezekiel 21:23
And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.
from Ezekiel 29:16
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.
Who said to his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brothers, nor knew his own children: for they have observed your word, and kept your covenant.
from Luke 14:26
Men do therefore fear him: he respects not any that are wise of heart.
from Deuteronomy 33:9
He takes the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the perverse is carried headlong.
from Job 37:24
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He takes the wise in their own craftiness.
from Job 5:13
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
from I Corinthians 3:19 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Lamentations 4:8 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