Isaias 38:21
Now Isaias had ordered that they should take a lump of figs, and lay it as it plaster upon the wound, and that he should be healed.
Open Isaias 38:21 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et jussit Isaias ut tollerent massam de ficis, et cataplasmarent super vulnus, et sanaretur.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Καὶ εἶπεν Ἠσαίας πρὸς Ἑζεκίαν Λάβε παλάθην ἐκ σύκων καὶ τρίψον καὶ κατάπλασαι, καὶ ὑγιὴς ἔσῃ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּ֣אמֶר יְשַׁעְיָ֔הוּ יִשְׂא֖וּ דְּבֶ֣לֶת תְּאֵנִ֑ים וְיִמְרְח֥וּ עַֽל הַשְּׁחִ֖ין וְיֶֽחִי
The Fathers on this verse
Tertullian The Chaplet, or De Corona, Chapter VIII
Hold fast in the meantime this persuasion, while I examine a question which comes in our way. For I already hear it is said, that many other things as well as crowns have been invented by those whom the world believes to be gods, and that they are notwithstanding to be met with both in our present usages and in those of early saints, and in the service of God, and in Christ Himself, who did His work as man by no other than these ordinary instrumentalities of human life. Well, let it be so; nor shall I inquire any further back into the origin of this things. Let Mercury have been the first who taught the knowledge of letters; I will own that they are requisite both for the business and commerce of life, and for performing our devotion to God. …
St Methodius The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity, Chapter V
The vine, and that not in a few places, refers to the Lord Himself, and the fig-tree to the Holy Spirit, as the Lord “maketh glad the hearts of men,” and the Spirit healeth them. And therefore Hezekiah is commanded first to make a plaster with a lump of figs, that is, the fruit of the Spirit, that he may be healed, that is, according to the apostle, by love; for he says, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance;” which, on account of their great pleasantness, the prophet calls figs. Micah also says, “They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid.” Now it is certain that those who have taken refuge and rested under the Spirit, and under the shadow of the Word, shall not be alarmed, nor frightened by him who troubles the hearts of men.