John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 38:12

"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 wilt thou make an end of me." — Isaiah 38:12 (ASV)

My dwelling is departed. He proceeds with his complaints, depicting his life with a beautiful metaphor, for he compares it to a shepherd’s tent. Indeed, such is the general condition of human life; but he is not relating so much what happens to everyone universally as what has happened to him as an individual. The use of tents is more common in those countries than in ours, and shepherds often change their residence as they drive their flock from one place to another. Therefore, he does not say absolutely that people dwell in a frail lodging-house while they pass through the world. Instead, he means that after he had lived comfortably in a royal palace, his lot was changed, just as if a shepherd’s tent were pitched for two days in one field and then removed to another.

I have cut off, as a weaver, my life. It is worthy of observation that he indiscriminately ascribes the cause of his death sometimes to himself and sometimes to God, but at the same time explains the reasons. For when he speaks of himself as the author, he does not complain of God or protest that God has robbed him of his life, but accuses himself and acknowledges deep blame. His words are equivalent to the proverbial saying, “I have cut this thread for myself, so that I alone am the cause of my death.” And yet, not without reason, he soon afterwards ascribes to God what he had acknowledged to have proceeded from himself. For although we give God reasons for dealing severely with us, yet He is the judge who inflicts punishment. Therefore, in our afflictions, we ought always to praise His judgment, because He performs His office when He chastises us as we deserve.

From lifting up He will cut me off. Some translate מדלה (middallah) “through leanness” or “through sickness,” and others translate it “by taking away.” The former derive this noun from דלל (dalal), which means “to diminish,” and the latter from דלה (dalah), which means “to carry off by lifting up.” But let my readers consider if the phrase “lifting up” is not more appropriate. For Hezekiah seems to complain that his life, while it was progressing, was suddenly cast down, just as if God were to cause the sun to set while it was still ascending in the sky.

From day even to night. He now adds that in a short time he was brought down. By this, he again expresses the severity of God’s wrath, because He consumes people by the breath of a moment. For to be laid low in a single day means that people die very rapidly.