Ecclesiastes 12

1 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.”

And remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of evil come, and the years overtake [you] in which you shall say, I have no pleasure in them.

2 [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.

While the sun and light are not darkened, nor the moon and the stars; nor the clouds return after the rain:

3 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.

in the day wherein the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the mighty men shall become bent, and the grinding [women] cease because they have become few, and the [women] looking out at the windows be dark;

4 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.

and they shall shut the doors in the marketplace, because of the weakness of the voice of her that grinds [at the mill]; and he shall rise up at the voice of the sparrow, and all the daughters of song shall be brought low;

5 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.

and they shall look up, and fears [shall be] in the way, and the almond tree shall blossom, and the locust shall increase, and the caper shall be scattered: because man has gone to his eternal home, and the mourners have gone about the market:

6 [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.

before the silver cord be [let go], or the choice gold be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel run down to the cistern;

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

[before] the dust also return to the earth as it was, and the spirit return to God who gave it.

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

Vanity of vanities, said the Preacher; all is vanity.

9 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.

And because the Preacher was wise above [others, so it was] that he taught man excellent knowledge, and the ear will trace out the parables.

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

The Preacher sought diligently to find out acceptable words, and a correct writing, [even] words of truth.

11 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.

The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails firmly fastened, which have been given from one shepherd by agreement.

12 [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.

And moreover, my son, guard yourself by means of them: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

13 [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.

Hear the end of the matter, the sun: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole man.

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

For God will bring every work into judgment, with everything that has been overlooked, whether [it be] good, or whether [it be] evil.