a thread opens
Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
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.
My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.
from Lamentations 5:10
For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as a hearth.
from Job 30:30 · a strong link
For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones are consumed.
from Psalms 102:3
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
Blessed is the man whom you choose, and cause to approach to you, so that he may dwell in your courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, even of your holy temple.
from Leviticus 21:17
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
from Psalms 65:4
You have turned for me my mourning into dancing: you have put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;
from Psalms 23:6 · a strong link
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
from Psalms 30:11
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
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,
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
from Jude 1:24
I have manifested your name to the men which you gave me out of the world: yours they were, and you gave them me; and they have kept your word.
from John 10:29
Father, I will that they also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am; that they may see my glory, which you have given me: for you loved me before the foundation of the world.
from John 17:6
You are they which have continued with me in my temptations.
from John 17:24
For we have not a high priest which is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
from Luke 22:28
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.
And the sons of Eliab; Nemuel, and Dathan, and Abiram. This is that Dathan and Abiram, which were famous in the congregation, who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah, when they strove against the LORD:
from Jude 1:11
These were the renowned of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel.
from Numbers 26:9 · a strong link
And they rose up before Moses, with some of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown:
from Numbers 1:16
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
from Numbers 16:2
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Surely his salvation is near them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.
from Luke 2:14
For I, says the LORD, will be to her a wall of fire around, and will be the glory in the midst of her.
from Psalms 85:9 · a strong link
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the its light.
from Zechariah 2:5
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
For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: look, it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.
from Deuteronomy 32:41
Thus says the Lord GOD; Because that Edom has dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and has greatly offended, and revenged himself upon them;
from Isaiah 34:5
Thus says the Lord GOD; Because that Moab and Seir do say, Look, the house of Judah is like to all the pagans;
from Ezekiel 25:12
Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon,
from Ezekiel 25:8
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 father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
So when they had dined, Jesus says to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, love you me more than these? He says to him, Yes, Lord; you know that I love you. He says to him, Feed my lambs.
from Matthew 10:37
For you were as sheep going astray; but are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
from John 21:15
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
from I Peter 2:25 · a strong link
When I say to the wicked, You shall surely die; and you give him not warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand.
from Isaiah 53:6
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Lamentations 5:10 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