1 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near, when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them;”
2 Before the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain;
3 in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look out of the windows are darkened,
4 and the doors shall be shut in the street; when the sound of the grinding is low, and one shall rise up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low;
5 yes, they shall be afraid of heights, and terrors will be on the way; and the almond tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goes to his everlasting home, and the mourners go about the streets;
6 before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the spring, or the wheel broken at the cistern,
7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
8 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher. “All is vanity!”
9 Further, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. Yes, he pondered, sought out, and set in order many proverbs.
10 The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words, and that which was written blamelessly, words of truth.
11 The words of the wise are like goads; and like nails well fastened are words from the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.
12 Furthermore, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
13 This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.
14 For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.
7 passages from writers of 2 traditions, in their own words, each with their dates and tradition. The site doesn’t say who is right: read them beside the verses. About these
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Oldest first.
Gregory Thaumaturgusc. 213–270Early church, EastA Metaphrase of the Book of Ecclesiastes · on Ecclesiastes 12:1–7Moreover, it is right that thou shouldest fear God while thou art yet young, before thou givest thyself over to evil things, and before the great and terrible day of God cometh, when the sun shall no longer shine, neither the moon, nor the rest of the stars, but when in that storm and commotion of all things, the powers above shall be moved, that is, the angels who guard the world; so that the mighty men shall fail, and the women shall cease their labours, and shall flee into the dark places of their dwellings, and shall have all the doors shut. … And the good man shall depart with rejoicing to his own everlasting habitation; but the vile shall fill all their places with wailing, and neither silver laid up in store, nor proved gold, shall be of use any more. … And for men who lie on earth there is but one salvation, that their souls acknowledge and wing their way to Him by whom they have been made.
Moreover, it is right that thou shouldest fear God while thou art yet young, before thou givest thyself over to evil things, and before the great and terrible day of God cometh, when the sun shall no longer shine, neither the moon, nor the rest of the stars, but when in that storm and commotion of all things, the powers above shall be moved, that is, the angels who guard the world; so that the mighty men shall fail, and the women shall cease their labours, and shall flee into the dark places of their dwellings, and shall have all the doors shut. … And the good man shall depart with rejoicing to his own everlasting habitation; but the vile shall fill all their places with wailing, and neither silver laid up in store, nor proved gold, shall be of use any more. … And for men who lie on earth there is but one salvation, that their souls acknowledge and wing their way to Him by whom they have been made.
Gregory Thaumaturgus, A Metaphrase of the Book of Ecclesiastes, Metaphrase, chapter 12; translated by S. D. F. Salmond in the Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 6 (New York, 1886); the text of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The edition
Gregory “the Wonder-worker”, bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontus and a pupil of Origen. His Metaphrase retells Ecclesiastes in plain prose, as a teacher would read it to a beginner.
Gregory Thaumaturgusc. 213–270Early church, EastA Metaphrase of the Book of Ecclesiastes · on Ecclesiastes 12:11–14And I know that the mind is no less quickened and stimulated by the precepts of the wise, than the body is wont to be when the goad is applied, or a nail is fastened in it. … But in many words there is no profit. … But, in fine, I shall require to use some such conclusion as this: O men, behold, I charge you now expressly and shortly, that ye fear God, who is at once the Lord and the Overseer of all, and that ye keep also His commandments; and that ye believe that all shall be judged severally in the future, and that every man shall receive the just recompense for his deeds, whether they be good or whether they be evil.
And I know that the mind is no less quickened and stimulated by the precepts of the wise, than the body is wont to be when the goad is applied, or a nail is fastened in it. … But in many words there is no profit. … But, in fine, I shall require to use some such conclusion as this: O men, behold, I charge you now expressly and shortly, that ye fear God, who is at once the Lord and the Overseer of all, and that ye keep also His commandments; and that ye believe that all shall be judged severally in the future, and that every man shall receive the just recompense for his deeds, whether they be good or whether they be evil.
Gregory Thaumaturgus, A Metaphrase of the Book of Ecclesiastes, Metaphrase, chapter 12; translated by S. D. F. Salmond in the Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 6 (New York, 1886); the text of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The edition
Gregory “the Wonder-worker”, bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontus and a pupil of Origen. His Metaphrase retells Ecclesiastes in plain prose, as a teacher would read it to a beginner.
Matthew Henry1662–1714English PresbyterianCommentary on the Whole Bible · on Ecclesiastes 12:1–5The proper season for this duty - in the days of thy youth, … "Begin in the beginning of thy days to remember him from whom thou hadst thy being, and go on according to that good beginning. Call him to mind when thou art young, and keep him in mind throughout all the days of thy youth, and never forget him. Guard thus against the temptations of youth, and thus improve the advantages of it." … The decays and infirmities of old age are here elegantly described in figurative expressions … but the general scope is plain - to show how uncomfortable, generally, the days of old age are. … Thirdly, Then the keepers of the house tremble. The head, which is as the watch-tower, shakes, and the arms and hands, which are ready for the preservation of the body, shake too … Eleventhly, The almond-tree flourishes. The old man's hair has grown white, so that his head looks like an almond-tree in the blossom. … Great care therefore should be taken to pay respect and honour to old people, that they may have something to balance these grievances and nothing may be done to add to them.
The proper season for this duty - in the days of thy youth, … "Begin in the beginning of thy days to remember him from whom thou hadst thy being, and go on according to that good beginning. Call him to mind when thou art young, and keep him in mind throughout all the days of thy youth, and never forget him. Guard thus against the temptations of youth, and thus improve the advantages of it." … The decays and infirmities of old age are here elegantly described in figurative expressions … but the general scope is plain - to show how uncomfortable, generally, the days of old age are. … Thirdly, Then the keepers of the house tremble. The head, which is as the watch-tower, shakes, and the arms and hands, which are ready for the preservation of the body, shake too … Eleventhly, The almond-tree flourishes. The old man's hair has grown white, so that his head looks like an almond-tree in the blossom. … Great care therefore should be taken to pay respect and honour to old people, that they may have something to balance these grievances and nothing may be done to add to them.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on 12:1–7; 1706–1714; the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
An English Presbyterian minister whose commentary on the whole Bible Protestants have read for three centuries.
Matthew Henry1662–1714English PresbyterianCommentary on the Whole Bible · on Ecclesiastes 12:6–7Then shall the silver cord, by which soul and body were wonderfully fastened together, be loosed, that sacred knot untied, and those old friends be forced to part; then shall the golden bowl, which held the waters of life for us, be broken; … Death will resolve us into our first principles, Ecc 12:7. Man is a strange sort of creature, a ray of heaven united to a clod of earth; at death these are separated, and each goes to the place whence it came. … Secondly, The soul, that beam of light, returns to that God who, when he made man of the dust of the ground, breathed into him the breath of life, to make him a living soul (Gen 2:7), and forms the spirit of every man within him. When the fire consumes the wood the flame ascends, and the ashes return to the earth out of which the wood grew. The soul does not die with the body; … it can subsist without it and will in a state of separation from it, as the candle burns, and burns brighter, when it is taken out of the dark lantern.
Then shall the silver cord, by which soul and body were wonderfully fastened together, be loosed, that sacred knot untied, and those old friends be forced to part; then shall the golden bowl, which held the waters of life for us, be broken; … Death will resolve us into our first principles, Ecc 12:7. Man is a strange sort of creature, a ray of heaven united to a clod of earth; at death these are separated, and each goes to the place whence it came. … Secondly, The soul, that beam of light, returns to that God who, when he made man of the dust of the ground, breathed into him the breath of life, to make him a living soul (Gen 2:7), and forms the spirit of every man within him. When the fire consumes the wood the flame ascends, and the ashes return to the earth out of which the wood grew. The soul does not die with the body; … it can subsist without it and will in a state of separation from it, as the candle burns, and burns brighter, when it is taken out of the dark lantern.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on 12:1–7; 1706–1714; the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
An English Presbyterian minister whose commentary on the whole Bible Protestants have read for three centuries.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brownpublished 1871Presbyterian and AnglicanA Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments · on Ecclesiastes 12:12–13many books--of mere human composition, opposed to "by these"; these inspired writings are the only sure source of "admonition." … (over much) study--in mere human books, wearies the body, without solidly profiting the soul. … this is the whole duty of man--literally, "this is the whole man," the full ideal of man, as originally contemplated, realized wholly by Jesus Christ alone; and, through Him, by saints now in part, hereafter perfectly
many books--of mere human composition, opposed to "by these"; these inspired writings are the only sure source of "admonition." … (over much) study--in mere human books, wearies the body, without solidly profiting the soul. … this is the whole duty of man--literally, "this is the whole man," the full ideal of man, as originally contemplated, realized wholly by Jesus Christ alone; and, through Him, by saints now in part, hereafter perfectly
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments, on 12:12–13; 1871; the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
Three ministers, two Scottish Presbyterians and an Irish Anglican, whose commentary on the whole Bible was written to be short and plain.
Keil and Delitzsch1807–1888 and 1813–1890LutheranBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament · on Ecclesiastes 12:7With right, Hofmann … says: "That it is the personal spirit of a man which returns to God; and that it returns to God without losing its consciousness, is an idea foreign to this proverb." … But the comfortless averse of the proverb is yet not without a consoling reverse. For what the author, Ecc 3:21, represents as an unsettled possibility, that the spirit of a dying man does not downwards like that of a beast, but upwards, he here affirms as an actual truth. … The Targ. translates, not against the spirit of the book: "the spirit will return to stand in judgment before God, who gave it to thee." … When He receives back that which was given, He receives it back to restore it again in another manner.
With right, Hofmann … says: "That it is the personal spirit of a man which returns to God; and that it returns to God without losing its consciousness, is an idea foreign to this proverb." … But the comfortless averse of the proverb is yet not without a consoling reverse. For what the author, Ecc 3:21, represents as an unsettled possibility, that the spirit of a dying man does not downwards like that of a beast, but upwards, he here affirms as an actual truth. … The Targ. translates, not against the spirit of the book: "the spirit will return to stand in judgment before God, who gave it to thee." … When He receives back that which was given, He receives it back to restore it again in another manner.
Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, on 12:8, looking back to 12:7; translated by James Martin and others (Edinburgh, 1866–1891); the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, two German Lutheran scholars of Hebrew whose commentary on the Old Testament is still read for its learning.
Keil and Delitzsch1807–1888 and 1813–1890LutheranBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament · on Ecclesiastes 12:13The sentence, … ("fear God"), repeating itself from Ecc 5:6, is the kernel and the star of the whole book, the highest moral demand which mitigates its pessimism and hallows its eudaemonism. … In the same way we have here to explain: for that is every man, viz., according to his destiny and duty; excellently, Luther: for that belongs to all men. … It is a great thought that is thereby expressed, viz., the reduction of the Israelitish law to its common human essence. This has not escaped the old Jewish teachers. What can this mean: zeh kol-haadam? it is asked, Berachoth 6b; and R. Elazar answers: "The whole world is comprehended therein;" and R. Abba bar-Cahana: "This fundamental law is of the same importance to the universe;" and R. Simeon b. Azzai: "The universe has been created only for the purpose of being commanded this."
The sentence, … ("fear God"), repeating itself from Ecc 5:6, is the kernel and the star of the whole book, the highest moral demand which mitigates its pessimism and hallows its eudaemonism. … In the same way we have here to explain: for that is every man, viz., according to his destiny and duty; excellently, Luther: for that belongs to all men. … It is a great thought that is thereby expressed, viz., the reduction of the Israelitish law to its common human essence. This has not escaped the old Jewish teachers. What can this mean: zeh kol-haadam? it is asked, Berachoth 6b; and R. Elazar answers: "The whole world is comprehended therein;" and R. Abba bar-Cahana: "This fundamental law is of the same importance to the universe;" and R. Simeon b. Azzai: "The universe has been created only for the purpose of being commanded this."
Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, on 12:13; translated by James Martin and others (Edinburgh, 1866–1891); the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, two German Lutheran scholars of Hebrew whose commentary on the Old Testament is still read for its learning.
Ecclesiastes 12
Ecclesiastes 12:1–14, World English Bible
Ecclesiastes 12 in the Bible · Told in the Story: Chapter 20, The Preacher
What others have written
7 passages from writers of 2 traditions, in their own words, each with their dates and tradition. The site doesn’t say who is right: read them beside the verses. About these
Oldest first.
Gregory Thaumaturgusc. 213–270Early church, EastA Metaphrase of the Book of Ecclesiastes · on Ecclesiastes 12:1–7Moreover, it is right that thou shouldest fear God while thou art yet young, before thou givest thyself over to evil things, and before the great and terrible day of God cometh, when the sun shall no longer shine, neither the moon, nor the rest of the stars, but when in that storm and commotion of all things, the powers above shall be moved, that is, the angels who guard the world; so that the mighty men shall fail, and the women shall cease their labours, and shall flee into the dark places of their dwellings, and shall have all the doors shut. … And the good man shall depart with rejoicing to his own everlasting habitation; but the vile shall fill all their places with wailing, and neither silver laid up in store, nor proved gold, shall be of use any more. … And for men who lie on earth there is but one salvation, that their souls acknowledge and wing their way to Him by whom they have been made.
Gregory Thaumaturgus, A Metaphrase of the Book of Ecclesiastes, Metaphrase, chapter 12; translated by S. D. F. Salmond in the Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 6 (New York, 1886); the text of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The edition
Gregory “the Wonder-worker”, bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontus and a pupil of Origen. His Metaphrase retells Ecclesiastes in plain prose, as a teacher would read it to a beginner.
Gregory Thaumaturgusc. 213–270Early church, EastA Metaphrase of the Book of Ecclesiastes · on Ecclesiastes 12:11–14And I know that the mind is no less quickened and stimulated by the precepts of the wise, than the body is wont to be when the goad is applied, or a nail is fastened in it. … But in many words there is no profit. … But, in fine, I shall require to use some such conclusion as this: O men, behold, I charge you now expressly and shortly, that ye fear God, who is at once the Lord and the Overseer of all, and that ye keep also His commandments; and that ye believe that all shall be judged severally in the future, and that every man shall receive the just recompense for his deeds, whether they be good or whether they be evil.
Gregory Thaumaturgus, A Metaphrase of the Book of Ecclesiastes, Metaphrase, chapter 12; translated by S. D. F. Salmond in the Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 6 (New York, 1886); the text of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The edition
Gregory “the Wonder-worker”, bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontus and a pupil of Origen. His Metaphrase retells Ecclesiastes in plain prose, as a teacher would read it to a beginner.
Matthew Henry1662–1714English PresbyterianCommentary on the Whole Bible · on Ecclesiastes 12:1–5The proper season for this duty - in the days of thy youth, … "Begin in the beginning of thy days to remember him from whom thou hadst thy being, and go on according to that good beginning. Call him to mind when thou art young, and keep him in mind throughout all the days of thy youth, and never forget him. Guard thus against the temptations of youth, and thus improve the advantages of it." … The decays and infirmities of old age are here elegantly described in figurative expressions … but the general scope is plain - to show how uncomfortable, generally, the days of old age are. … Thirdly, Then the keepers of the house tremble. The head, which is as the watch-tower, shakes, and the arms and hands, which are ready for the preservation of the body, shake too … Eleventhly, The almond-tree flourishes. The old man's hair has grown white, so that his head looks like an almond-tree in the blossom. … Great care therefore should be taken to pay respect and honour to old people, that they may have something to balance these grievances and nothing may be done to add to them.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on 12:1–7; 1706–1714; the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
An English Presbyterian minister whose commentary on the whole Bible Protestants have read for three centuries.
Matthew Henry1662–1714English PresbyterianCommentary on the Whole Bible · on Ecclesiastes 12:6–7Then shall the silver cord, by which soul and body were wonderfully fastened together, be loosed, that sacred knot untied, and those old friends be forced to part; then shall the golden bowl, which held the waters of life for us, be broken; … Death will resolve us into our first principles, Ecc 12:7. Man is a strange sort of creature, a ray of heaven united to a clod of earth; at death these are separated, and each goes to the place whence it came. … Secondly, The soul, that beam of light, returns to that God who, when he made man of the dust of the ground, breathed into him the breath of life, to make him a living soul (Gen 2:7), and forms the spirit of every man within him. When the fire consumes the wood the flame ascends, and the ashes return to the earth out of which the wood grew. The soul does not die with the body; … it can subsist without it and will in a state of separation from it, as the candle burns, and burns brighter, when it is taken out of the dark lantern.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on 12:1–7; 1706–1714; the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
An English Presbyterian minister whose commentary on the whole Bible Protestants have read for three centuries.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brownpublished 1871Presbyterian and AnglicanA Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments · on Ecclesiastes 12:12–13many books--of mere human composition, opposed to "by these"; these inspired writings are the only sure source of "admonition." … (over much) study--in mere human books, wearies the body, without solidly profiting the soul. … this is the whole duty of man--literally, "this is the whole man," the full ideal of man, as originally contemplated, realized wholly by Jesus Christ alone; and, through Him, by saints now in part, hereafter perfectly
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments, on 12:12–13; 1871; the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
Three ministers, two Scottish Presbyterians and an Irish Anglican, whose commentary on the whole Bible was written to be short and plain.
Keil and Delitzsch1807–1888 and 1813–1890LutheranBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament · on Ecclesiastes 12:7With right, Hofmann … says: "That it is the personal spirit of a man which returns to God; and that it returns to God without losing its consciousness, is an idea foreign to this proverb." … But the comfortless averse of the proverb is yet not without a consoling reverse. For what the author, Ecc 3:21, represents as an unsettled possibility, that the spirit of a dying man does not downwards like that of a beast, but upwards, he here affirms as an actual truth. … The Targ. translates, not against the spirit of the book: "the spirit will return to stand in judgment before God, who gave it to thee." … When He receives back that which was given, He receives it back to restore it again in another manner.
Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, on 12:8, looking back to 12:7; translated by James Martin and others (Edinburgh, 1866–1891); the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, two German Lutheran scholars of Hebrew whose commentary on the Old Testament is still read for its learning.
Keil and Delitzsch1807–1888 and 1813–1890LutheranBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament · on Ecclesiastes 12:13The sentence, … ("fear God"), repeating itself from Ecc 5:6, is the kernel and the star of the whole book, the highest moral demand which mitigates its pessimism and hallows its eudaemonism. … In the same way we have here to explain: for that is every man, viz., according to his destiny and duty; excellently, Luther: for that belongs to all men. … It is a great thought that is thereby expressed, viz., the reduction of the Israelitish law to its common human essence. This has not escaped the old Jewish teachers. What can this mean: zeh kol-haadam? it is asked, Berachoth 6b; and R. Elazar answers: "The whole world is comprehended therein;" and R. Abba bar-Cahana: "This fundamental law is of the same importance to the universe;" and R. Simeon b. Azzai: "The universe has been created only for the purpose of being commanded this."
Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, on 12:13; translated by James Martin and others (Edinburgh, 1866–1891); the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, two German Lutheran scholars of Hebrew whose commentary on the Old Testament is still read for its learning.