Ecclesiastes 12:1-7

Remember Your Creator in Your Youth

1 Remember also your Creator in ¹the days of your youth, before ²the evil days come and the years draw near of which ³you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;

2 before ⁴the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain,

3 in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and ⁵those who look through the windows are dimmed,

4 and ⁶the doors on the street are shut—when ⁷the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all ⁸the daughters of song are brought low—

5 they are afraid also of what is high, and ⁹terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, ^[a] and desire fails, because man is going to his ¹⁰eternal ¹¹home, and the ¹²mourners go about the streets—

6 before the silver cord is snapped, or ¹³the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is ¹⁴shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern,

7 and ¹⁵the dust returns to the earth as it was, and ¹⁶the spirit returns to God ¹⁷who 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.

Cross References

• 1. 12:1 [Lam. 3:27]
• 2. 12:1 [ch. 11:8]
• 3. 12:1 [2 Sam. 19:35]
• 4. 12:2 [Job 3:9; Isa. 5:30; Ezek. 32:7, 8]
• 5. 12:3 [Gen. 27:1; 48:10; 1 Sam. 3:2]
• 6. 12:4 [Ps. 141:3]
• 7. 12:4 [Jer. 25:10; Rev. 18:22]
• 8. 12:4 [ch. 2:8]
• 9. 12:5 [Prov. 26:13]
• 10. 12:5 [Ps. 143:3]
• 11. 12:5 [Job 17:13; 30:23; Isa. 14:18]
• 12. 12:5 [2 Chr. 35:25; Jer. 9:17; Matt. 9:23]
• 13. 12:6 [Zech. 4:2, 3]
• 14. 12:6 [Isa. 30:14]
• 15. 12:7 Ps. 90:3; 103:14; See ch. 3:20; Job 34:15
• 16. 12:7 [ch. 3:21]
• 17. 12:7 [Job 34:14; Isa. 57:16; Zech. 12:1]; See Gen. 2:7

Footnotes

• [a] 12:5 Or 'is a burden'