a thread opens
But woe to them that are with child, and to them that nurse, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this 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.
For, look, the days are coming, in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the paps which never gave suck.
from Luke 21:23
Samaria shall become desolate; for she has rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
from Luke 23:29
Then Menahem struck Tiphsah, and all that were in it, and its coasts from Tirzah: because they opened not to him, therefore he struck it; and all the women in it that were with child he ripped up.
from Hosea 13:16 · a strong link
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.
And say, Thus says the Lord GOD; Look, I am against you, O Sidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of you: and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.
from Leviticus 10:3
And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honored upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so.
from Ezekiel 28:22
What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
from Exodus 14:4 · a strong link
For certain people have crept in unnoticed, who were long ago designated for this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into sensuality, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
from Romans 9:22 · a strong link
And this is life eternal, so that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
from Jude 1:4
And this is the testimony, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
from John 17:3 · 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,
And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me to his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
from Jude 1:24
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
from II Timothy 4:18
And it happened after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said to him, Abraham: and he said, Look, here I am.
from Matthew 6:13
By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
from Genesis 22:1 · a strong link
And said, By myself have I sworn, says the LORD, for because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son:
from Hebrews 11:17
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 in process of time it happened, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the LORD.
from Jude 1:11
All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they shall offer to the LORD, them have I given you.
from Genesis 4:3
The firstfruit also of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, shall you give him.
from Numbers 18:12
Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you have come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest:
from Deuteronomy 18:4
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and everything that moves in it.
from Luke 2:14
Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD has comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.
from Psalms 69:34 · a strong link
Sing, O you heavens; for the LORD has done it: shout, you lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it: for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.
from Isaiah 49:13 · a strong link
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?
But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
from Luke 18:7
For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth.
from Jeremiah 20:11 · a strong link
For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
from Psalms 47:2
Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods: for in the thing in which they dealt proudly he was above them.
from Psalms 95:3
But he gives more grace. Therefore he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
from Exodus 18:11
The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honor is humility.
from James 4:6
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
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 John 12:25
And another of his disciples said to him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
from Matthew 19:29 · a strong link
Neither shall he go in to any dead body, nor defile himself for his father, or for his mother;
from Matthew 8:21
This is the law, when a man dies in a tent: all that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days.
from Leviticus 21:11 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Luke 21:23 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