My 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.
Parallel translations
- WEB My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me.
- KJV Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
- NKJV My life span is gone, Taken from me like a shepherd’s tent; I have cut off my life like a weaver. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until night You make an end of me.
- NASB “Like a shepherd’s tent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me; As a weaver I rolled up my life. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until night You make an end of me.
- NLT My life has been blown away like a shepherd’s tent in a storm. It has been cut short, as when a weaver cuts cloth from a loom. Suddenly, my life was over.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Hezekiah compares his life to a tent struck and cloth cut from the loom. He feels his life being abruptly ended by God.
Overview
Through vivid images of a folded tent and severed weaving, the king expresses how fragile and quickly ended life is. He sees God's hand in his approaching death. These metaphors capture the brevity of human life and cast the sufferer back upon the God who holds his days.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- 2 Cor 5:1Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is dismantled, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
- Heb 1:12You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed; but You remain the same, and Your years will never end.”
- Ps 73:14For I am afflicted all day long and punished every morning.
- Ps 119:23Though rulers sit and slander me, Your servant meditates on Your statutes.
- Ps 102:23–24He has broken my strength on the way; He has cut short my days.
- Ps 31:22In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from Your sight!” But You heard my plea for mercy when I called to You for help.
- Ps 102:11My days are like lengthening shadows, and I wither away like grass.
- Job 4:20They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; unnoticed, they perish forever.
- Job 14:2Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.
- Isa 1:8And the Daughter of Zion is abandoned like a shelter in a vineyard, like a shack in a cucumber field, like a city besieged.
- Isa 13:20She will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there.
- Job 7:3–7So I am allotted months of futility, and nights of misery are appointed me.
- Job 9:25–26My days are swifter than a runner; they flee without seeing good.
- Job 6:9that God would be willing to crush me, to unleash His hand and cut me off!
- 2 Cor 5:4So while we are in this tent, we groan under our burdens, because we do not wish to be unclothed but clothed, so that our mortality may be swallowed up by life.
- 2 Pet 1:13–14I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of my body,
- Job 17:1“My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; the grave awaits me.
- Ps 89:45–47You have cut short the days of his youth; You have covered him with shame. Selah
- Jas 4:14You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 38:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.