a thread opens
And the shapes of the locusts were like to horses prepared to battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
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.
Your crowned are as the locusts, and your captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun rises they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.
Set up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars.
from Nahum 3:17
Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the LORD has both devised and done that which he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
from Jeremiah 51:27
He that dashes in pieces has come up before your face: keep the fortress, watch the way, make your loins strong, fortify your power mightily.
from Jeremiah 51:12
You are my battle axe and weapons of war: for with you will I break in pieces the nations, and with you will I destroy kingdoms;
from Nahum 2:1
a thread opens
As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.
Thus says the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.
from I Corinthians 8:4
Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name: he shall thoroughly plead their cause, so that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.
from Isaiah 44:6 · a strong link
Do not fear, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel; I will help you, says the LORD, and your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
from Jeremiah 50:34
For your Maker is your husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.
from Isaiah 41:14
a thread opens
By this we perceive the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit:
from I John 3:16
And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has he reconciled
from I Peter 3:18
Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
from Colossians 1:21
a thread opens
But the anointing which you have received of him remains in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall remain in him.
However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.
from I John 2:27
This know also, that in the last days difficult times shall come.
from John 16:13
And Jacob called to his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
from II Timothy 3:1
When you are in tribulation, and all these things have come upon you, even in the latter days, if you turn to the LORD your God, and shall be obedient to his voice;
from Genesis 49:1
For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.
from Deuteronomy 4:30
They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.
from Deuteronomy 31:29
a thread opens
And God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, varieties of tongues.
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone;
from I Corinthians 12:28
And he saw them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the cornerstone?
from Ephesians 2:20
This is the stone which was set at nothing of you builders, which has become the cornerstone.
from Luke 20:17 · a strong link
The wicked flee when no man pursues: but the righteous are bold as a lion.
from Acts 4:11
And all these your servants shall come down to me, and bow down themselves to me, saying, Get you out, and all the people that follow you: and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger.
from Proverbs 28:1
a thread opens
I know also, my God, that you try the heart, and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy your people, who are present here, to offer willingly to you.
But the LORD said to Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.
from I Chronicles 29:17
Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
from I Samuel 16:7
Hell is naked before him, and destruction has no covering.
from Hebrews 4:13 · a strong link
If I ascend up into heaven, you are there: if I make my bed in hell, look, you are there.
from Job 26:6 · a strong link
a thread opens
Clean out therefore the old leaven, so that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:
And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover, his disciples said to him, Where will you that we go and prepare that you may eat the Passover?
from I Corinthians 5:7
Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the LORD your God: for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night.
from Mark 14:12
This day came you out in the month Abib.
from Deuteronomy 16:1
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Revelation of John 9:7 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