Ecclesiastes 12:3

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1 Remember^a now your Creator in the days of your youth,
Before the¹ difficult days come,
And the years draw near ^bwhen you say,
“I have no pleasure in them”:

2 While the sun and the light,
The moon and the stars,
Are not darkened,
And the clouds do not return after the rain;

3 In the day when the keepers of the house tremble,
And the strong men bow down;
When the grinders cease because they are few,
And those that look through the windows grow dim;

4 When the doors are shut in the streets,
And the sound of grinding is low;
When one rises up at the sound of a bird,
And all ^athe daughters of music are brought low.

5 Also they are afraid of height,
And of terrors in the way;
When the almond tree blossoms,
The grasshopper is a burden,
And desire fails.
For man goes to ^ahis eternal home,
And ^bthe mourners go about the streets.

6 Remember your Creator before the silver cord is¹ loosed,
Or the golden bowl is broken,
Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain,
Or the wheel broken at the well.

7 ^aThen the dust will return to the earth as it was,
^bAnd the spirit will return to God ^cwho gave it.

8 “Vanity^a of vanities,” says the Preacher,
“All is vanity.”

The Whole Duty of Man

9 And moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yes, he pondered and sought out and ^aset in order many proverbs.

Commentaries:

Adam Clarke

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Ecclesiastes 12:4 >>

Ecclesiastes 12:3

In the day when the keepers of the house - The Body of man is here compared to a House: - mark the metaphors and their propriety.

1. The keepers shall tremble - the hands become paralytic, as is constantly the case, less or more, in old age.

2. The strong men shall bow - The legs become feeble, and unable to support the weight of the body.

3. The grinders cease because they are few - The teeth decayed and mostly lost; the few that remain being incapable of properly masticating hard substances or animal food. And so they cease; for soft or pulpy substances, which are requisite then, require little or no mastication; and these aliments become their ordinary food.

4. Those that look out of the windows - The optic nerves, which receive impressions, through the medium of the different humours of the eye, from surrounding objects - they are darkened; the humours becoming thick, flat, and turbid, they are no longer capable of transmitting those images in that clear, distinct manner, as formerly. There may be an allusion here to the pupil of the eye. Look into it, and you will see your own image in extreme minature looking out upon you; and hence it has its name pupillus, a little child, from pupus, a baby, a doll; because the image in the eye resembles such. The optic nerve being seated at the bottom of the eye, has the images of surrounding objects painted upon it; it looks out through the different humors. The different membranes and humours which compose the eye, and serve for vision, are, the tunica conjunctiva, the tunica sclerotica, the cornea, the iris, the pupil, the choroides, and the retina. The iris is perforated to admit the rays of light, and is called the pupil; the retina is a diffusion of the optic nerve in the bottom of the eye, on which the images are painted or impressed that give us the sensation we term sight or vision. All these membranes, humours, and nerves, are more or less impaired, thickened, or rendered opaque, by old age, expressed by the metaphor, "Those that look out of the windows are darkened."

**Other Adam Clarke entries containing Ecclesiastes 12:3:**

Numbers 4:36
Galatians 4:31

<< Ecclesiastes 12:2

Ecclesiastes 12:4 >>

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The Whole Duty of Man

Ecclesiastes 12:3

Other Adam Clarke entries containing Ecclesiastes 12:3:

A Verse and a Thought,Every Morning

**Other Adam Clarke entries containing Ecclesiastes 12:3:**

A Verse and a Thought,
Every Morning