a thread opens
He couched, he lay down as a lion, and as a great lion: who shall stir him up? Blessed is he that blesses you, and cursed is he that curses you.
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.
Look, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain.
from Numbers 24:9 · a strong link
Benjamin shall torn flesh as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the plunder.
from Numbers 23:24
And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty-two thousand men.
from Genesis 49:27
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,
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
By which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
from Colossians 1:22
And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
from Hebrews 10:10
Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, Sacrifice and offering you would not, but a body have you prepared me:
from John 17:19
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? says the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of young bulls, or of lambs, or of he goats.
from Hebrews 10:5 · a strong link
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 first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in his mother’s milk.
from Numbers 18:12
That you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which you shall bring of your land that the LORD your God gives you, and shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which the LORD your God shall choose to place his name there.
from Exodus 23:19
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
Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD has comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.
from Psalms 96:11
For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found in it, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
from Isaiah 49:13
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?
But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
from Luke 18:7
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
from Jeremiah 20:11 · a strong link
No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, says the LORD.
from Romans 8:31 · a strong link
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 Isaiah 54:17 · a strong link
But I will hope continually, and will yet praise you more and more.
from Daniel 6:20
Cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great reward.
from Psalms 71:14
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.
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
Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
from Mark 8:15 · a strong link
But now you rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
from I Corinthians 5:6 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Numbers 24:9 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