a thread opens
When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night sees sleep with his eyes:)
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.
It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he gives his beloved sleep.
from Ecclesiastes 8:16
I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for you, LORD, only make me dwell in safety.
from Psalms 127:2
I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
from Psalms 4:8
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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.
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
I will accept you with your sweet savor, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries in which you have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the pagans.
from Ezekiel 28:22
And it shall happen in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river to the stream of Egypt, and you shall be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel.
from Ezekiel 20:41
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:
from Isaiah 27:12 · a strong link
For all the land which you see, to you will I give it, and to your seed for ever.
from Genesis 15:18
The LORD God of heaven, which took me from my father’s house, and from the land of my relatives, and which spoke to me, and that swore to me, saying, To your seed will I give this land; he shall send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife to my son from there.
from Genesis 13:15
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 of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
from Jude 1:24
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
from Romans 16:25
But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness;
from II Corinthians 4:5
And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: to which also they were appointed.
from I Corinthians 1:23 · a strong link
Why? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone;
from I Peter 2:8
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.
But I have a few things against you, because you have there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.
from Jude 1:11
And Israel remained in Acacia, and the people began to commit prostitution with the daughters of Moab.
from Revelation of John 2:14 · a strong link
And they pitched by Jordan, from Beth-jesimoth even to Abel-acacia in the plains of Moab.
from Numbers 25:1
Therefore, look, I will open the side of Moab from the cities, from his cities on his frontiers, the glory of the country, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim,
from Numbers 33:49
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
from Luke 2:14 · a strong link
For you were once darkness, but now are you light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
from Luke 1:79
To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in me.
from Ephesians 5:8 · a strong link
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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?
Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to repay with affliction those who afflict you;
from Luke 18:7
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, do you not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
from II Thessalonians 1:6
Then the angel of the LORD answered and said, O LORD of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which you have had indignation these seventy years?
from Revelation of John 6:10 · a strong link
O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme your name for ever?
from Zechariah 1:12
Remember, Lord, the reproach of your servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people;
from Psalms 74:10
Arise, O God, plead your own cause: remember how the foolish man reproaches you daily.
from Psalms 89:50
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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.
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
How is it that you do not understand that I spoke it not to you concerning bread, that you should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
from Mark 8:15
Then Jesus said to them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
from Matthew 16:11
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Ecclesiastes 8:16 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