a thread opens
Lift up your feet to the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy has done wickedly in the sanctuary.
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.
A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the pagans have come into your inheritance; your holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.
from Psalms 74:3
And they burnt the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its fine vessels.
from Psalms 79:1
Your holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
from II Chronicles 36:19
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.
They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God: for the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and the bread of their God, they do offer: therefore they shall be holy.
from Leviticus 10:3
And the priest shall burn it upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire to the LORD.
from Leviticus 21:6 · a strong link
In that you have brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when you offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations.
from Leviticus 3:11
And that I also have walked contrary to them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:
from Ezekiel 44:7
And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live.
from Leviticus 26:41
And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.
from Deuteronomy 30:6
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
And brings it not to the door of the tent of meeting, to offer an offering to the LORD before the tabernacle of the LORD; blood shall be imputed to that man; he has shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people:
from Psalms 32:2
And the uncircumcised male whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.
from Leviticus 17:4
And it happened by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him.
from Genesis 17:14
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.
Which have forsaken the right way, and have gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
from Jude 1:11 · a strong link
And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. Spots they are and blemishes, reveling with their own deceivings while they feast with you;
from II Peter 2:15
In which they think it strange that you run not with them to the same flood of debauchery, speaking evil of you:
from II Peter 2:13
Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conduct in Christ.
from I Peter 4:4 · 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
And he has on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
from Isaiah 9:6 · a strong link
Therefore God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name:
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?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies.
from Luke 18:7
He is near that justifies me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is my adversary? let him come near to me.
from Romans 8:33 · a strong link
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
from Isaiah 50:8
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
from Romans 8:32
Look, what kind of love the Father has bestowed upon us, so that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him not.
from I John 4:10
Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
from I John 3:1
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
Meditate upon these things; give yourself wholly to them; that your profiting may appear to all.
from John 21:15
Let your light so shine before men, so that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven.
from I Timothy 4:15
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
from Matthew 5:16 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Psalms 74:3 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