Ecclesiastes 12

1 Remember your Creator while you are young, before days of trouble come and you grow old, saying, “I'm not enjoying life anymore.”

While you are still young, keep thinking about [God], who created you. Do that before [you are old] and you experience many troubles, during the years when you say “I no [longer] enjoy being alive.”

2 Before the light fades—sun, moon, and stars—and rain clouds return to darken the skies.

[When you become old], the light from the sun and moon and stars will [seem] dim [to you], and [it will seem that the rain] clouds [always] return [quickly] after it rains.

3 Before the guards of the house tremble and the strong men are bent over, the grinders stop working because there are only a few left, and the ones looking through the windows only see dimly,

Then your [arms that you use to protect] [MET] your bodies will shake/tremble, and your [legs that support] [MET] your bodies will become weak. Many of your [teeth that you use to] grind/chew [your food] will fall out, and your [eyes that you use to] look out of windows will not see clearly.

4 and the doors to the street are shut. Before the sound of the grinding mill grows low, and you wake up early when the birds are singing, but you can hardly hear them.

Your [ears] [MET] will not hear the noise in the streets, and you will not be able to hear clearly the sound of people grinding grain with millstones. You will be awakened in the morning by hearing the birds singing/chirping, [but] you will not be able to hear well the songs that (the birds/people) sing.

5 Before you develop a fear of heights and worry about going out on the streets; when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper crawls along, and desire fails, for everyone has to go to their eternal home as the mourners go up and down the street.

You will be afraid to be in high places and afraid of dangers on the roads that you walk on. [Your hair] will become [white like] [MET] the flowers of almond trees. [When you try to walk], you will drag yourself along like [MET] grasshoppers, and you will no longer desire [to have sex]. Then you will [die and] go to your eternal home, and people who will mourn for you will be in the streets.

6 Before the silver cord is snapped and the golden bowl is broken; before the water jug is smashed at the spring, or the pulley is broken at the well.

[Think much about God now, because] soon our lives will end, [like] [MET] silver chains or golden bowls that break easily, or like pitchers/jugs that are broken at the water fountain, or like broken pulleys at a well.

7 Then the dust returns to the earth from which it came, and the breath of life returns to God who gave it.

Then our corpses will [decay and] become dirt again, and our spirits will return to God, the one who gave us our spirits.

8 “Everything passes! It's all so hard to understand!” says the Teacher.

[So] I say [again] that it is difficult to understand why everything happens; everything is mysterious.

9 Not only was the Teacher a wise man, he also taught what he knew to others. He thought about many proverbs, studying them and arranging them.

I was considered to be a very wise man, and I taught the people many things. I assembled/collected and wrote down many proverbs, and I carefully thought about and studied them.

10 The Teacher looked for the best way to explain things, writing truthfully and honestly.

I searched for the right words, and what I have written is reliable and true.

11 The words of the wise are like cattle prods. Their collected sayings are like nails driven home, given by one shepherd.

The things that [I and other] wise people say [teach people what they should do]; they are like [SIM] (goads/sharp sticks that people use to strike animals to direct where they should go). They are like [SIM] nails that stick out of pieces of wood. They are given to us by [God, who is like] [MET] our shepherd.

12 In addition, my student, take care, for there's no end to book writing, and too much study wears you out.

[So], my son, pay careful attention to what I have written, and choose carefully what you read that others have written, [because] writing proverbs/books is endless, and [trying to] study them all will cause you to become exhausted.

13 To sum up now that everything has been discussed: Respect God by keeping his commandments, for that's what everyone should do.

[Now] you have heard all [that I have told you], and here is the conclusion: Revere God, and obey his commandments, because those commandments summarize everything that people should do.

14 God is going to judge us for everything we do, including what we do secretly, whether good or bad.

And do not forget that God will judge everything that we do, good things and bad things, [even] things that we do secretly.