Reflections on Ecclesiastes 12

 Ecclesiastes 12 (Contemporary English Version)

1. Keep your Creator in mind while you are young! In years to come, you will be burdened down with troubles and say, "I don't enjoy life anymore."
   
2. Someday the light of the sun and the moon and the stars will all seem dim to you. Rain clouds will remain over your head.
   
3. Your body will grow feeble, your teeth will decay, and your eyesight fail.
   
4. The noisy grinding of grain will be shut out by your deaf ears, but even the song of a bird will keep you awake.
   
5. You will be afraid to climb up a hill or walk down a road. Your hair will turn as white as almond blossoms. You will feel lifeless and drag along like an old grasshopper. We each go to our eternal home, and the streets are filled with those who mourn.
   
6. The silver cord snaps, the golden bowl breaks; the water pitcher is smashed, and the pulley at the well is shattered.
   
7. So our bodies return to the earth, and the life-giving breath returns to God.
   
8. Nothing makes sense. I have seen it all-- nothing makes sense.
   
9. I was a wise teacher with much understanding, and I collected a number of proverbs that I had carefully studied.
   
10. Then I tried to explain these things in the best and most accurate way.
    
11. Words of wisdom are like the stick a farmer uses to make animals move. These sayings come from God, our only shepherd, and they are like nails that fasten things together.
    
12. My child, I warn you to stay away from any teachings except these. There is no end to books, and too much study will wear you out.
    
13. Everything you were taught can be put into a few words: Respect and obey God! This is what life is all about.
    
14. God will judge everything we do, even what is done in secret, whether good or bad.

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Solomon concluded it all in this last chapter with the advise: One should remember their Creator. This speaks of more than simply remembering He exists. It is to revere Him and observe His instructions for life. The time to do this is when one is young and has their whole life before them and can fully enjoy life with God's help and not toward the end of life when the troubles of old age come and there is no delight left for life.

Solomon depicts these waning years of life through figurative language. The sun and light are darkened, he says, referring possibly to the loss of sight. Rain comes, depicting times of trouble, which we have in all periods of our lives, but in old age the clouds return as soon as the rain is past, immediately promising more rain. Continuing with his figurative desciption of old age, he speaks of the guardians of the house, the arms and hands, which tremble, the strong men, the legs, that stoop, the women who grind, which are the teeth, cease to grind, and the ones who watch through the window, which is the eyesight, see dimly.

The doors at the street are shut, depicting possibly the sinking in of the lips due to the loss of teeth. One rises at the sound of a bird, referring maybe to rising early due to the inability in old age to sleep, and the daughters of song grow faint, referring to impaired hearing. Finally, there is the fear of heights and dangers on the road due to loss of energy and stability causing fear of venturing out. The almond tree blossoms, which is the whitening of the hair, and the grasshopper loses its spring, which is the stooped posture of old age and lack of spring in the step. Man is headed to his eternal home and people mourn the loss.

Remember your Creator before the silver cord is snapped and life ceases, and the dust, which was the body, returns to the earth from which it came, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Concluding the whole matter, he says, fear "God and keep His commands, because this is for all humanity."