Ecclesiastes 12

Ec 12:1-14.

1. As

Ec 11:9, 10

showed what youths are to shun, so this verse shows what they are to

follow.

Creator--"Remember" that thou art not thine own, but God's property;

for He has created thee

(Ps 100:3).

Therefore serve Him with thy "all"

(Mr 12:30),

and with thy best days, not with the dregs of them

(Pr 8:17; 22:6;

Jer 3:4;

La 3:27).

The Hebrew is "Creators," plural, implying the plurality of

persons, as in

Ge 1:26;

so Hebrew, "Makers"

(Isa 54:5).

while . . . not--that is, before that

(Pr 8:26)

the evil days come; namely, calamity and old age, when one can no

longer serve God, as in youth

(Ec 11:2, 8).

no pleasure--of a sensual kind

(2Sa 19:35;

Ps 90:10).

Pleasure in God continues to the godly old

(Isa 46:4).

2. Illustrating "the evil days"

(Jer 13:16).

"Light," "sun," &c., express prosperity; "darkness," pain and

calamity

(Isa 13:10; 30:26).

clouds . . . after . . . rain--After rain sunshine (comfort) might be

looked for, but only a brief glimpse of it is given, and the gloomy

clouds (pains) return.

3. keepers of the house--namely, the hands and arms which

protected the body, as guards do a palace

(Ge 49:24;

Job 4:19;

2Co 5:1),

are now palsied.

strong men . . . bow--

(Jud 16:25, 30).

Like supporting pillars, the feet and knees

(So 5:15);

the strongest members

(Ps 147:10).

grinders--the molar teeth.

cease--are idle.

those that look out of the windows--the eyes; the powers of vision,

looking out from beneath the eyelids, which open and shut like the

casement of a window.

4. doors--the lips, which are closely shut together as

doors, by old men in eating, for, if they did not do so, the food

would drop out

(Job 41:14;

Ps 141:3;

Mic 7:5).

in the streets--that is, toward the street, "the outer doors"

[MAURER and

WEISS].

sound of . . . grinding--The teeth being almost gone, and the lips

"shut" in eating, the sound of mastication is scarcely heard.

the bird--the cock. In the East all mostly rise with the dawn. But

the old are glad to rise from their sleepless couch, or painful slumbers

still earlier, namely, when the cock crows, before dawn

(Job 7:4)

[HOLDEN]. The least noise awakens them

[WEISS].

daughters of music--the organs that produce and that enjoy music; the

voice and ear.

5. that which is high--The old are afraid of ascending a hill.

fears . . . in the way--Even on the level highway they are full of

fears of falling, &c.

almond . . . flourish--In the East the hair is mostly

dark. The white head of the old among the dark-haired is like

an almond tree, with its white blossoms, among the dark trees

around [HOLDEN]. The almond tree flowers on

a leafless stock in winter (answering to old age, in

which all the powers are dormant), while the other trees are

flowerless. GESENIUS takes the Hebrew for

flourishes from a different root, casts off; when the old

man loses his gray hairs, as the almond tree casts its

white flowers.

grasshoppers--the dry, shrivelled, old man, his backbone sticking

out, his knees projecting forwards, his arms backwards, his head down,

and the apophyses enlarged, is like that insect. Hence arose the fable,

that Tithonus in very old age was changed into a grasshopper

[PARKHURST].

"The locust raises itself to fly"; the old man about to

leave the body is like a locust when it is assuming its winged form, and

is about to fly [MAURER].

a burden--namely, to himself.

desire shall fail--satisfaction shall be abolished. For "desire,"

Vulgate has "the caper tree," provocative of lust; not so well.

long home--

(Job 16:22; 17:13).

mourners--

(Jer 9:17-20),

hired for the occasion

(Mt 9:23).

6. A double image to represent death, as in

Ec 12:1-5,

old age: (1) A lamp of frail material, but gilded

over, often in the East hung from roofs by a cord of silk and

silver interwoven; as the lamp is dashed down and broken, when

the cord breaks, so man at death; the golden bowl of the lamp answers

to the skull, which, from the vital preciousness of its

contents, may be called "golden"; "the silver cord" is the spinal

marrow, which is white and precious as silver, and is attached to

the brain. (2) A fountain, from which water is drawn by a

pitcher let down by a rope wound round a wheel; as, when the

pitcher and wheel are broken, water can no more be drawn, so life

ceases when the vital energies are gone. The "fountain" may mean

the right ventricle of the heart; the "cistern," the left; the pitcher,

the veins; the wheel, the aorta, or great artery

[SMITH]. The circulation of the blood, whether

known or not to Solomon, seems to be implied in the language put

applies to those who have not "remembered their Creator in youth." They

have none of the consolations of God, which they might have obtained in

youth; it is now too late to seek them. A good old age is a blessing to

the godly

(Ge 15:15;

Job 5:26;

Pr 16:31; 20:29).

7. dust--the dust-formed body.

spirit--surviving the body; implying its immortality

(Ec 3:11).

8-12. A summary of the first part.

Vanity, &c.--Resumption of the sentiment with which the book began

(Ec 1:2;

1Jo 2:17).

9. gave good heed--literally, "he weighed." The "teaching the

people" seems to have been oral; the "proverbs," in

writing. There must then have been auditories assembled to

hear the inspired wisdom of the Preacher. See the

explanation of Koheleth in the

Introduction,

and