a thread opens
By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loves: I sought him, but I found him not.
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.
Tell me, O you whom my soul loves, where you feed, where you make your flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turns aside by the flocks of your companions?
from Song of Solomon 3:1
It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.
from Song of Solomon 1:7
Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land in which no man dwells, neither does any son of man pass thereby.
from Isaiah 13:20
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.
No man that has a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come near to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he has a blemish; he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God.
from Leviticus 10:3
They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God: for the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and the bread of their God, they do offer: therefore they shall be holy.
from Leviticus 21:21
And the priest shall burn it upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire to the LORD.
from Leviticus 21:6 · a strong link
You offer polluted bread upon my altar; and you say, How have we polluted you? In that you say, The table of the LORD is contemptible.
from Leviticus 3:11
Therefore whoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
from Malachi 1:7
Speak to the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey in the distance, yet he shall keep the Passover to the LORD.
from I Corinthians 11:27
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
Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods: for in the thing in which they dealt proudly he was above them.
from John 10:29
For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
from Exodus 18:11 · a strong link
Since there is none like you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is great in might.
from Psalms 95:3
And he said, Tomorrow. And he said, Be it according to your word: that you may know that there is none like to the LORD our God.
from Jeremiah 10:6
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.
And every creature in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be to him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever.
from Luke 2:14
And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look on it.
For I saw, and there was no man; even among them, and there was no counselor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word.
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?
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, do you not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
from Luke 18:7 · a strong link
And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are your ways, you King of saints.
And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon has fallen, has fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality.
And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great has fallen, has fallen, and has become the habitation of demons, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
from Revelation of John 14:8 · a strong link
Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if perhaps she may be healed.
Declare among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.
from Jeremiah 51:8
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.
He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
He that finds his life shall lose it: and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it.
from John 12:25 · a strong link
According to my eager expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.
from Matthew 10:39
For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
from Philippians 1:20
And it happened, when the time had come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,
from Isaiah 50:7
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Song of Solomon 3:1 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