Ecclesiastes 12:1-8

1 Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them”—

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

3 when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop, when the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows grow dim;

4 when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades; when people rise up at the sound of birds, but all their songs grow faint;

5 when people are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets; when the almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags itself along and desire no longer is stirred. Then people go to their eternal home and mourners go about the streets.

6 Remember him—before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at the well,

7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

8 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher.^[a]“Everything is meaningless!”

Ecclesiastes 12:1-8 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.

Cross References

• 1. Ecclesiastes 11:8
• 2. S 2 Samuel 19:35
• 3. Jeremiah 25:10
• 4. S Job 17:13; Job 10:21
• 5. Jeremiah 9:17; Amos 5:16
• 6. S Genesis 2:7; Genesis 3:19; Job 34:15; S Psalms 146:4
• 7. Ecclesiastes 3:21
• 8. S Job 20:8; Zechariah 12:1
• 9. Ecclesiastes 1:1
• 10. S Ecclesiastes 1:2

Footnotes

• [a] Or "the leader of the assembly" ; also in verses 9 and 10