Atlas Biblica

    Isaiah · 22 verses

    Isaiah 38

    Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

    The chapter

    What happens here

    Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

    The sun’s shadow goes back ten steps on Ahaz’s stairway, while Hezekiah’s recovery is finally attended by a lump of pressed figs.

    The shadow turns backvv. 1–8

    Hezekiah is told to put his house in order, which is a remarkably brisk way to announce a death. He turns his face to the wall, prays, and weeps bitterly; the answer is fifteen more years, deliverance from the king of Assyria, and a sign with the sun’s shadow on Ahaz’s stairway. The sunlight goes back the ten steps it had descended—a clock, one might say, with rather grand ambitions.

    A life pulled from the loomvv. 9–20

    Hezekiah’s writing gives the illness its own strange wardrobe: a shepherd’s tent picked up, a life rolled like a weaver’s work, bones broken like a lion’s doing, and a voice chirping like a swallow or crane. He had thought himself cut off from the living, but now says that love has delivered him from the pit and that the living can give thanks. The ending is musical: stringed instruments in the house of the LORD, all the days of his life.

    The practical postscriptvv. 21–22

    After the prayer, the tears, the fifteen years, and the sun performing its backward trick, Isaiah’s instruction is wonderfully concrete: prepare a lump of pressed figs and apply it to the boil. Hezekiah, meanwhile, asks what sign will show that he will go up to the house of the LORD. The chapter leaves both the fig and the question sitting neatly at the end.

    The text

    Read it

    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. Isa 38:1In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’”

    2. Isa 38:2Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,

    3. Isa 38:3saying, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

    4. Isa 38:4And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying,

    5. Isa 38:5“Go and tell Hezekiah that this is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: ‘I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.

    6. Isa 38:6And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.

    7. Isa 38:7This will be a sign to you from the LORD that He will do what He has promised:

    8. Isa 38:8I will make the sun’s shadow that falls on the stairway of Ahaz go back ten steps.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had descended.

    9. Isa 38:9This is a writing by Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

    10. Isa 38:10I said, “In the prime of my life I must go through the gates of Sheol and be deprived of the remainder of my years.”

    11. Isa 38:11I said, “I will never again see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living; I will no longer look on mankind with those who dwell in this world.

    12. Isa 38:12My dwelling has been picked up and removed from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver; He cuts me off from the loom; from day until night You make an end of me.

    13. Isa 38:13I composed myself until the morning. Like a lion He breaks all my bones; from day until night You make an end of me.

    14. Isa 38:14I chirp like a swallow or crane; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weak as I look upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security.”

    15. Isa 38:15What can I say? He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done this. I will walk slowly all my years because of the anguish of my soul.

    16. Isa 38:16O Lord, by such things men live, and in all of them my spirit finds life. You have restored me to health and have let me live.

    17. Isa 38:17Surely for my own welfare I had such great anguish; but Your love has delivered me from the pit of oblivion, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

    18. Isa 38:18For Sheol cannot thank You; Death cannot praise You. Those who descend to the Pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

    19. Isa 38:19The living, only the living, can thank You, as I do today; fathers will tell their children about Your faithfulness.

    20. Isa 38:20The LORD will save me; we will play songs on stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the house of the LORD.

    21. Isa 38:21Now Isaiah had said, “Prepare a lump of pressed figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.”

    22. Isa 38:22And Hezekiah had asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the house of the LORD?”

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 241 passages were voted onto 21 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 12 Chronicles 32:24In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. So he prayed to the LORD, who spoke to him and gave him a sign.
    • 5Psalms 34:5–6Those who look to Him are radiant with joy; their faces shall never be ashamed.
    • 51 John 5:14–15And this is the confidence that we have before Him: If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
    • 12 Kings 20:1–11In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’”
    • 3Hebrews 5:7During the days of Jesus’ earthly life, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence.
    • 5Revelation 7:17For the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd. ‘He will lead them to springs of living water,’ and ‘God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”
    • 17Isaiah 43:25I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.
    • 3Hebrews 6:10For God is not unjust. He will not forget your work and the love you have shown for His name as you have ministered to the saints and continue to do so.
    • 5Luke 1:13But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.
    • 3Psalms 18:20–27The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness; He has repaid me according to the cleanness of my hands.
    • 19Deuteronomy 6:7And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
    • 12 Samuel 17:23When Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and set out for his house in his hometown. He put his affairs in order and hanged himself. So he died and was buried in his father’s tomb.
    • 14Isaiah 59:11We all growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but find none, for salvation, but it is far from us.
    • 17Jonah 2:6To the roots of the mountains I descended; the earth beneath me barred me in forever! But You raised my life from the pit, O LORD my God!
    • 17Micah 7:18–19Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?
    • 18Ecclesiastes 9:10Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, for in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.

    Onward

    Keep reading

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