a thread opens
How fair is your love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is your love than wine! and the smell of your ointments than all spices!
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.
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for your love is better than wine.
from Song of Solomon 4:10
Ho, every one that thirsts, come to the waters, and he that has no money; come, buy, and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
from Song of Solomon 1:2
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus:
from Isaiah 55:1
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.
I was mute, I opened not my mouth; because you did it.
from Leviticus 10:3
But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
from Psalms 39:9 · a strong link
Take, my brothers, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
from Job 2:10
Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
from James 5:10
For whoever will save his life shall lose it; but whoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.
from Matthew 5:11 · a strong link
He that finds his life shall lose it: and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it.
from Mark 8:35
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
As you have given him power over all flesh, so that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him.
from John 10:29
I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which you have given me; for they are yours.
from John 17:2
But I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not: and when you are converted, strengthen your brothers.
from John 17:9 · a strong link
So when they had dined, Jesus says to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, love you me more than these? He says to him, Yes, Lord; you know that I love you. He says to him, Feed my lambs.
from Luke 22:32 · 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
You shall not delay to offer the first of your ripe fruits, and of your liquors: the firstborn of your sons shall you give to me.
from Exodus 23:19
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 I saw, and, look, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
And around the throne were twenty-four seats: and upon the seats I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white apparel; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.
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
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
from Hebrews 3:6
There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.
from Hebrews 10:23
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
from I Corinthians 10:13 · a strong link
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
from Ephesians 6:12 · a strong link
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
And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
And when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden bowls full of odors, which are the prayers of saints.
from Revelation of John 15:2 · a strong link
And again, when he brings in the firstbegotten into the world, he says, And let all the angels of God worship him.
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation:
from Hebrews 1:6
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Song of Solomon 4:10 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