Remember Him in Your Youth
Remember your Creator while you are young, before the body's slow failure, trembling guards, darkened windows, the broken pitcher, and the dust returns to the earth and the spirit to God. Everything is fleeting; still, fear God and keep his commands. Every hidden deed is judged.
12 1Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years draw near of which you will say, "I find no pleasure in them," 2before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain; 3on the day when the house's guardians tremble, and the strong men stoop, and the grinding women fall idle because so few remain, and those peering through the windows go dark; a a v3 These verses are an extended poetic picture of the body failing in old age and the approach of death — the trembling hands, bent frame, lost teeth, and dimming eyes. 4when the doors on the street are shut and the sound of the grinding grows faint; when one rises at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low; 5when they are afraid of heights, and terrors lie in the road; when the almond tree blossoms, and the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails—because man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets; 6before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is shattered, or the pitcher is broken at the spring, or the wheel is broken at the well, 7and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. 8"Utterly fleeting," says the Teacher. "Everything is fleeting."
The Teacher's Craft
9The Teacher was wise, and also taught people knowledge—weighing, searching, arranging many proverbs. 10The Teacher sought to find pleasing words, and what he wrote was upright and true. 11Wise sayings are like goads; collected proverbs, like firmly driven nails—given by one Shepherd. 12Beyond these, my son, be warned: making many books has no end, and much study wears out the body.
13End of the matter, all heard: fear God, keep his commands—this is a person's whole duty. b b v13 Ecclesiastes closes where it began — Qoheleth speaks of God in the distant register of one searching "under the sun." Jesus comes to bring our Father near (John 14:9). 14For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil.
