a thread opens
Because they met you not with bread and with water in the way, when you came forth out of Egypt; and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.
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.
Because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, so that he should curse them: however our God turned the curse into a blessing.
from Deuteronomy 23:4
Nevertheless the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam; but the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because the LORD your God loved you.
from Nehemiah 13:2
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
from Deuteronomy 23:5
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 said to me, You are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
from Leviticus 10:3
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 49:3 · a strong link
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 Isaiah 44:23 · a strong link
For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found in it, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
from Isaiah 49:13
Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
from Isaiah 51:3 · a strong link
Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.
from Isaiah 52:9
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,
Now to him that is able to do immeasurably more than all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
from Jude 1:24 · a strong link
Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from where also he received him in a figure.
from Ephesians 3:20 · a strong link
And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and look behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.
from Hebrews 11:19
And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk you in it, when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left.
from Genesis 22:13
Good and upright is the LORD: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.
from Isaiah 30:21 · a strong link
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.
Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And why he slew him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
from Jude 1:11 · a strong link
An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.
from I John 3:12
Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate you? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against you?
from Proverbs 29:27
I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in the LORD.
from Psalms 139:21
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:)
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 Acts 10:36
Which in his times he shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;
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
And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now has come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brothers is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
from Romans 8:33 · a strong link
Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all.
Who being the radiance of his glory, and the exact imprint of his nature, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself made purification for our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
from I Chronicles 29:11 · a strong link
Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say to him, What do you do?
from Hebrews 1:3
Look, he takes away, who can hinder him? who will say to him, What do you do?
from Ecclesiastes 8:4
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
And they sent out to him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that you are true, and teach the way of God in truth, neither care you for any man: for you regard not the person of men.
from Deuteronomy 33:9
And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.
from Matthew 22:16
No grain offering, which you shall bring to the LORD, shall be made with leaven: for you shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire.
from Mark 8:15
And its remainder shall Aaron and his sons eat: with unleavened bread shall it be eaten in the holy place; in the court of the tent of meeting they shall eat it.
from Leviticus 2:11
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Deuteronomy 23:4 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