My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me like a shepherd’s tent: This is a simile in which Hezekiah pictures his life being removed like a shepherd taking down his tent. New International Version translates “Like a shepherd’s tent my house has been pulled down and taken from me.” My dwelling (New Jerusalem Bible “My home”) is literally “My generation.” It is probably is a figure of speech for Hezekiah’s life in this context, so Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version say “My life.” It is parallel with my life in the third line. Plucked up refers to pulling up tent pegs, while removed points to packing up the tent. In some languages it may be necessary to render these passive verbs as active ones. If so, an alternative model for these two lines is “God had removed my dwelling/life from me like a shepherd who pulls up the pegs of his tent and packs it.” For tent see the comments on 13.20 and 33.20.

Like a weaver I have rolled up my life: This is another simile. Here Hezekiah compares his life to the way in which a weaver rolls up the cloth he has finished weaving. Revised English Bible changes this to “you have rolled up my life like a weaver,” but both Hebrew Old Testament Text Project and de~Waard recommend keeping the Hebrew text. Translators may expand this line by saying “Like a person who weaves cloth and who rolls it up [or, folds it up] when he has finished, in the same way I had rolled up [or, folded up] my life.” This imagery does not suggest suicide since the rest of the verse makes it clear that God was bringing Hezekiah’s life to an end.

He cuts me off from the loom is another image for Hezekiah’s imminent death. He was like a piece of cloth cut off from a loom. A loom is a device on which someone weaves a piece of cloth. The pronoun he may refer to God (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) or the weaver (so Revised English Bible, Bible en français courant). Contemporary English Version says “You cut me off like thread from a weaver’s loom.” Bible en français courant renders this line and the previous one as “My life is at the end of the roller like a piece of cloth that the weaver rolls up after cutting the threads.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (also New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) uses a passive verb here to avoid identifying the pronoun: “now it [my life] is being cut off from the loom.” Since the pronoun he may refer to God or the weaver, possible alternative models for this line are “God [or, the weaver] cut me off from the loom” and “[Like finished cloth] I was cut off from the loom.”

From day to night thou dost bring me to an end: Modern versions vary in the way they render this line since the Hebrew here is unclear. The phrase from day to night means “constantly.” New International Version translates it as “day and night,” but Good News Translation leaves it implied. The pronoun thou refers to God. Translators may make this explicit by saying “you, LORD.” If the pronoun he in the previous line also refers to God, then there is a sudden change in pronoun reference, but this is typical of Hebrew poetry. Thou dost bring me to an end refers to God ending Hezekiah’s life. The Hebrew verb here means “to bring to completion.” Revised English Bible renders it “torment,” which fits the context, but translators should not follow this. For Good News Translation this line expresses an impression that the king had: “I thought God was ending my life” (similarly Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

In verses 12-14 Revised Standard Version uses present tense while Good News Translation has the past. The choice of tense depends on whether Hezekiah is praying while he is sick (present tense) or after he has been healed (past tense). The Hebrew grammar supports either tense here. Like most scholars, we prefer the past tense. Hezekiah is describing his past suffering.

Translation examples for this verse are:

• My home [or, life] was taken up and packed away like a shepherd’s tent.
I rolled up my life like a weaver does with a piece of cloth.
I was cut off as cloth from the loom.
The LORD brought me to an end constantly.

• Like a shepherd’s tent is pulled up and taken away, so was my home.
Like a weaver rolling up cloth cut from the loom, so I rolled up my life.
Day in [and] day out God made an end of me.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .