a thread opens
And Balaam said to Balak, Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go: perhaps the LORD will come to meet me: and whatever he shows me I will tell you. And he went to a high place.
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.
And he said to Balak, Stand here by your burnt offering, while I meet the LORD yonder.
from Numbers 23:3
And he said to them, Lodge here this night, and I will bring you word again, as the LORD shall speak to me: and the princes of Moab remained with Balaam.
from Numbers 23:15
Now therefore, please, stay you also here this night, so that I may know what the LORD will say to me more.
from Numbers 22:8
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
Then Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount, and called his brothers to eat bread: and they did eat bread, and stayed all night in the mount.
from Exodus 18:12
So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. And David made Abner and the men that were with him a feast.
from Genesis 31:54
In the third year of his reign, he made a feast to all his princes and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces, being before him:
from II Samuel 3:20
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 the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
from Jude 1:24
Incline your ear, and come to me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
from Hebrews 13:20
And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.
from Isaiah 55:3 · a strong link
For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,
from Jeremiah 32:40
The oath which he swore to our father Abraham,
from Hebrews 6:13
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.
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
And said, O full of all deceit and all mischief, you child of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
from II Peter 2:15
You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and remained not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
from Acts 13:10
The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the weeds are the children of the wicked one;
from John 8:44
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and its fullness.
from Luke 2:14
The LORD reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be its glad.
from Psalms 96:11
Say among the pagans that the LORD reigns: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously.
from Psalms 97:1 · 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?
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
Look, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation.
from Psalms 88:1
You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you: because he trusts in you.
from Isaiah 12:2 · a strong link
Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time, and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied upon the LORD God of their fathers.
from Isaiah 26:3
And they were helped against them, and the Hagarites were delivered into their hand, and all that were with them: for they cried to God in the battle, and he answered their prayer; because they put their trust in him.
from II Chronicles 13:18
For there fell down many slain, because the war was of God. And they dwelt in their steads until the captivity.
from I Chronicles 5:20
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.
Yes doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them as rubbish, so that I may win Christ,
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death;
from Philippians 3:8 · a strong link
Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
from Philippians 3:10 · a strong link
From now on let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
from II Corinthians 4:10
Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and complete what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:
from Galatians 6:17
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Numbers 23:3 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