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.”

Remember, also, thy Creator in the days of thy youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, of which thou shalt 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.

before the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars become dark, and 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.

at the time when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows are darkened;

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.

when the doors are shut in the streets, while the sound of the mill is low; when they rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music are 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.

when also they are afraid of that which is high, and terrors are in the way, and the almond is despised, and the locust is a burden, and the caper-berry is powerless; since man goeth to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets; —

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 snapped asunder, and the golden bowl be crushed, or the bucket broken at the fountain, or the wheel shattered at the well,

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

and the dust 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, saith 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.

Moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he considered, and sought out, and set in order, many proverbs.

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

The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words, and to write correctly 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; yea, as nails driven in are the words of members of assemblies, given by one shepherd.

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, by these, my son, be warned! To the multiplying of books there is no end, and much study wearieth 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.

Let us hear the end of the whole discourse! Fear God and keep his commandments! For this is the duty of every 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 the judgment which there is upon every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.