Ecclesiastes 12:1-7

1 So remember your creator while you are young, before the evil days come, and the years approach when you will say, "They no longer give me pleasure";

2 before the sun and the light grow dim, also the moon and the stars; before the clouds return after the rain;

3 on the day when the guards of the house are trembling, and men of courage are bent over double; when the women stop grinding grain, because there are so few; when the women at the windows can no longer see out;

4 when the doors to the streets are kept shut; when the noise from the grain-mill fades; when a person is startled by the chirp of a bird, yet their singing is hard to hear;

5 when they will be afraid to go up a hill, and terrors will stalk the way, even though the almond tree is in bloom; when the locust can only drag itself along, and the caper berry has no [aphrodisiac] effect -because the person is headed for his eternal home, and the mourners are already gathering in the marketplace

6 before the silver cord is snapped the bowl of gold is cracked, the pitcher is shattered at the spring, the pulley is broken at the cistern,

7 the dust returns to earth, as it was, and the spirit returns to God, who gave it!

Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ECCLESIASTES 12

This chapter begins with advice to young men, which is continued from the preceding; and particularly to remember their Creator in the days of their youth; enforced from the consideration of the troubles and inconveniences of old age, Ec 12:1; which, in an allegorical way, is beautifully described, Ec 12:2-6; and from the certainty of death, when it would be too late, Ec 12:7. And then the wise man returns to his first proposition, and which he kept in view all along, that all is vanity in youth or old age, Ec 12:8; and recommends the reading of this book, from the diligence, pains and labour, he used in composing it; from the sententious matter in it; from the agreeable, acceptable, and well chosen words, in which he had expressed it; and from the wisdom, uprightness, truth, efficacy, and authority of the doctrines of it, Ec 12:9-11; and from its preference to other books, which were wearisome both to author and reader, Ec 12:12. And it is concluded with the scope and design, the sum and substance of the whole of it, reducible to these two heads; the fear of God, and obedience to him, Ec 12:13; and which are urged from the consideration of a future judgment, into which all things shall be brought, Ec 12:14.