a thread opens
Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night in which it was said, A boy is conceived.
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.
Why then have you brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had breathed my last, and no eye had seen me!
from Job 3:3
Cursed be the day in which I was born: let not the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.
from Job 10:18
Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on interest, nor men have lent to me on interest; yet every one of them does curse me.
from Jeremiah 20:14 · a strong link
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.
Speak to Aaron, saying, Whoever he be of your seed in their generations that has any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.
from Leviticus 10:3
Blessed is the man whom you choose, and cause to approach to you, so that he may dwell in your courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, even of your holy temple.
from Leviticus 21:17
My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise you with joyful lips:
from Psalms 65:4
How excellent is your loving devotion, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of your wings.
from Psalms 63:5
Oh how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for them that fear you; which you have worked for them that trust in you before the sons of men!
from Psalms 36:7
You will show me the path of life: in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
from Psalms 31:19 · 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,
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
According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, so that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
from Colossians 1:22
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you, and peace, be multiplied.
from Ephesians 1:4 · a strong link
You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, so that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
from I Peter 1:2
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,
from John 15:16
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.
And in process of time it happened, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the LORD.
from Jude 1:11
All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they shall offer to the LORD, them have I given you.
from Genesis 4:3
The firstfruit also of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, shall you give him.
from Numbers 18:12
You shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven; they are the firstfruits to the LORD.
from Deuteronomy 18:4
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Saying, Blessed be the King that comes in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.
from Luke 2:14 · a strong link
The stone which the builders refused has become the head stone of the corner.
from Luke 19:38
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone;
from Psalms 118:22 · a strong link
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?
Cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great reward.
from Luke 18:7
But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.
from Hebrews 10:35 · a strong link
Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; constant in prayer;
from Hebrews 3:6
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
from Romans 12:12 · a strong link
So that my glory may sing praise to you, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you for ever.
from Psalms 16:9
Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.
from Psalms 30:12
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.
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives to the death.
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
from Revelation of John 12:11 · a strong link
This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on you, that you by them might wage the good warfare;
from II Corinthians 10:3
But you know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he has served with me in the gospel.
from I Timothy 1:18
For this cause have I sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.
from Philippians 2:22 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Job 3:3 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