a thread opens
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
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.
Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
from Ecclesiastes 3:7 · a strong link
Therefore thus says the LORD; Look, against this family do I devise an evil, from which you shall not remove your necks; neither shall you go haughtily: for this time is evil.
from Amos 5:13
The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
from Micah 2:3 · a strong link
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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.
No man that has a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come near to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he has a blemish; he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God.
from Leviticus 10:3
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 21:21
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
Command the children of Israel, and say to them, My offering, and my bread for my sacrifices made by fire, for a pleasing aroma to me, shall you observe to offer to me in their due season.
from Leviticus 3:11
And the LORD smelled a pleasing aroma; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again strike any more everything living, as I have done.
from Numbers 28:2
And he shall split it with its wings, but shall not divide it in two: and the priest shall burn it upon the altar, upon the wood upon the fire: it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
from Genesis 8:21
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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,
In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight:
from Jude 1:24 · a strong link
By which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
from Colossians 1:22
And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
from Hebrews 10:10
Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, Sacrifice and offering you would not, but a body have you prepared me:
from John 17:19
For many deceivers have entered into the world, who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
from Hebrews 10:5 · a strong link
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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
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.
from II Peter 2:15
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
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Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
And every creature in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be to him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever.
from Luke 2:14
For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
Let them give glory to the LORD, and declare his praise in the islands.
from Romans 11:36
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And shall not God give justice to his own elect, which cry day and night to him, though he bear long with them?
The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some men count slowness; but is patience toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
from Luke 18:7
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 II Peter 3:9
These things have you done, and I kept silence; you thought that I was altogether such a one as yourself: but I will reprove you, and set them in order before your eyes.
from Romans 9:22
For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
from Psalms 50:21
In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
from Ecclesiastes 12:14 · a strong link
And he commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.
from Romans 2:16 · a strong link
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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.
Whom have I in heaven but you? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside you.
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
Because your loving devotion is better than life, my lips shall praise you.
from Psalms 73:25 · a strong link
Hear me, O LORD; for your loving devotion is good: turn to me according to the multitude of your tender mercies.
from Psalms 63:3 · a strong link
But do you for me, O GOD the Lord, for your name’s sake: because your mercy is good, deliver me.
from Psalms 69:16
Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for your name’s sake.
from Psalms 109:21
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Ecclesiastes 3:7 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