a thread opens
And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions.
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.
Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all its young lions, shall say to you, Have you come to take a plunder? have you gathered your company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great plunder?
from I Kings 10:1
Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him, You are like a young lion of the nations, and you are as a monster in the seas: and you came forth with your rivers, and troubled the waters with your feet, and fouled their rivers.
from Ezekiel 38:13
Now, you son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyre;
from Ezekiel 32:2
Thus says the LORD of hosts, Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for skilled women, so that they may come:
from Ezekiel 27:2
Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goes to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:
from Jeremiah 9:17
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
But cursed be the deceiver, which has in his flock a male, and vows, and sacrifices to the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, says the LORD of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the pagans.
from Isaiah 44:6 · a strong link
And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.
from Malachi 1:14
One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
from Zechariah 14:9
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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.
But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
from I John 3:16 · a strong link
Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
from Romans 5:8 · a strong link
For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
from John 15:13 · a strong link
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.
For this cause we also thank God without ceasing, because, when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which is at work also in you that believe.
from I John 2:27
For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart.
from I Thessalonians 2:13 · a strong link
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
from Hebrews 4:12 · a strong link
But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.
from Ephesians 6:17 · a strong link
Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil;
from I Thessalonians 5:8
Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, The Lord knows them that are his. And, Let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
from Hebrews 6:19
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.
Obey your leaders, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
from I Corinthians 12:28 · a strong link
Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD, but did fly upon the plunder, and did evil in the sight of the LORD?
from Hebrews 13:17
And the people flew upon the plunder, and took sheep, and oxen, and calves, and slew them on the ground: and the people did eat them with the blood.
from I Samuel 15:19
But that we write to them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from sexual immorality, and from things strangled, and from blood.
from I Samuel 14:32
Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! look, my soul has not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.
from Acts 15:20
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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.
Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and says of him, Look, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!
from I Chronicles 29:17
Who are Israelites; to whom pertains the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
from John 1:47
For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all that are in the distance, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
from Romans 9:4
And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you, and to your seed after you.
from Acts 2:39
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:
Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the LORD.
from I Corinthians 5:7
Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
from Exodus 13:6
You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shall you eat unleavened bread with it, even the bread of affliction; for you came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that you may remember the day when you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.
from Exodus 12:15 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from I Kings 10:1 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