Isaiah 38:12

12 My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me as 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 will you make an end of me.

Isaiah 38:12 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 38:12

Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's
tent
Or, my habitation ^F11; meaning the earthly house of his tabernacle, his body; this was just going, in his apprehension, to be unpinned, and removed like a shepherd's tent, that is easily taken down, and removed from place to place. Some understand it of the men of his age or generation; so the Targum,

``from the children of my generation my days are taken away; they are cut off, and removed from me; they are rolled up as a shepherd's tent;''

which being made of skins, as tents frequently were, such as the Arabian shepherds used, were soon taken down, and easily rolled and folded up and carried elsewhere: I have cut off like a weaver my life;
who, when he has finished his web, or a part of it, as he pleases, cuts it off from the loom, and disposes of it: this Hezekiah ascribes to himself, either that by reason of his sins and transgressions he was the cause of his being taken away by death so soon; or this was the thought he had within himself, that his life would now be cut off, as the weaver's web from the loom; for otherwise he knew that it was the Lord that would do it, whenever it was, as in the next clause: he will cut me off with pining sickness;
which was now upon him, wasting and consuming him apace: or, "will cut me off from the thrum" {l}; keeping on the metaphor of the weaver cutting off his web from the thrum, fastened to the beam of his loom: from day even tonight wilt thou make an end of me;
he means the Lord by "he" in the preceding clause, and in this he addresses him; signifying that the affliction was so sharp and heavy upon him, which was the first day of it, that he did not expect to live till night, but that God would put a period to his days, fill them up, and finish his life, and dispatch him out of this world.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 (yrwd) "habitatio mea", Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius.
F12 (yneuby hldm) "a liciis resecturus est me", Piscator; "a primis filis resecat me", Vitringa.

Isaiah 38:12 In-Context

10 I said, In the noontide of my days I shall go into the gates of Sheol: I am deprived of the residue of my years.

11 I said, I shall not see Yah, Yah in the land of the living: I shall see man no more with the inhabitants of the world.

12 My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me as 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 will you make an end of me.

13 I quieted [myself] until morning; as a lion, so he breaks all my bones: From day even to night will you make an end of me.

14 Like a swallow [or] a crane, so did I chatter; I did moan as a dove; my eyes fail [with looking] upward: Lord, I am oppressed, be my collateral.