a thread opens
And the next to him was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king’s face, and which sat the first in the kingdom;)
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.
Since you are sent of the king, and of his seven counselors, to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of your God in your hand;
from Esther 1:14
And when he came to the den, he cried with a mournful voice to Daniel: and the king spoke and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is your God, whom you serve continually, able to deliver you from the lions?
from Ezra 7:14
Therefore he is able also to save them completely that come to God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them.
from Daniel 6:20
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 let the priests also, which come near to the LORD, sanctify themselves, lest the LORD break forth upon them.
from Leviticus 10:3
And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD.
from Exodus 19:22
And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.
from Exodus 24:5
And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.
from Exodus 18:12
And the LORD said to Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through to the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish.
from Exodus 24:11
And he struck the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he struck of the people fifty thousand and seventy men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had struck many of the people with a great slaughter.
from Exodus 19:21 · a strong link
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,
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
from Jude 1:24
You have heard how I said to you, I go away, and come again to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go to the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
from John 10:29 · a strong link
I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
from John 14:28
For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help them that are tempted.
from John 14:18
Because you have kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
from Hebrews 2:18
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.
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
The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
from Luke 1:79 · a strong link
Seek him that makes the seven stars and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night: that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:
from Matthew 4:16
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?
A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the director of music upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite. O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you:
from Luke 18:7 · a strong link
O my God, I cry in the daytime, but you hear not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
from Psalms 88:1 · a strong link
My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, Where is your God?
from Psalms 22:2
Why should the pagans say, Where is now their God?
from Psalms 42:3
Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people.
from Psalms 115:2
And Moses said to the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for you brought up this people in your might from among them;)
from Exodus 32:12 · a strong link
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.
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
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
from Psalms 73:25
For now we see in a mirror, dimly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
from Matthew 5:8 · a strong link
But we all, with open face seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
from I Corinthians 13:12 · a strong link
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit;
from II Corinthians 3:18 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Esther 1:14 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