a thread opens
I sleep, but my heart wakes: it is the voice of my beloved that knocks, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.
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.
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be despised.
from Song of Solomon 5:2
He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.
from Song of Solomon 8:7 · a strong link
So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said to him,
from Proverbs 6:35
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 there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which the LORD your God has blessed you.
from Exodus 18:12
And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite within your gates; since he has no part nor inheritance with you.
from Deuteronomy 12:7 · a strong link
When you have made an end of tithing all the tithes of your increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your gates, and be filled;
from Deuteronomy 12:12 · 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,
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
from Jude 1:24 · a strong link
You are all fair, my love; there is no spot in you.
from Ephesians 5:27
Look, you are fair, my love; look, you are fair; you have doves’ eyes.
from Song of Solomon 4:7
Look, you are fair, my love; look, you are fair; you have doves’ eyes within your locks: your hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead.
from Song of Solomon 1:15 · a strong link
As a piece of a pomegranate are your temples within your locks.
from Song of Solomon 4:1
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
They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them.
from II Peter 2:15
Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise you, when you do well to yourself.
from Proverbs 28:4
And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have much goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
from Psalms 49:18 · a strong link
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
from Luke 2:14
And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Look I and the children which God has given me.
from Isaiah 9:6 · a strong link
And I will wait upon the LORD, that hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
from Hebrews 2:13 · 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?
Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusts in God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.
from Luke 18:7
And he spoke a parable to them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
from I Timothy 5:5
For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he has gained, when God takes away his soul?
from Luke 18:1
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
from Job 27:8 · a strong link
But Abraham said, Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and you are tormented.
from Matthew 16:26 · a strong link
But woe to you that are rich! for you have received your comfort.
from Luke 16:25 · 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.
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
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 John 12:25 · a strong link
Whoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
from Mark 8:35
For whoever will save his life shall lose it: but whoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
from Luke 17:33
Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
from Luke 9:24
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Song of Solomon 5:2 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