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.
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.
- BSB 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.
- 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 5:1For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
- Heb 1:12And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
- Ps 73:14For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.
- Ps 119:23Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.
- Ps 102:23–24He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days.
- Ps 31:22For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.
- Ps 102:11My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.
- Job 4:20They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it.
- Job 14:2He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
- Isa 1:8And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
- Isa 13:20It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.
- Job 7:3–7So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.
- Job 9:25–26Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.
- Job 6:9Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!
- 2 Cor 5:4For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
- 2 Pet 1:13–14Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;
- Job 17:1My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
- Ps 89:45–47The days of his youth hast thou shortened: thou hast covered him with shame. Selah.
- Jas 4:14Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
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.