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.”

Also call to mind your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of difficulty come, and before the years arrive when you 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.

do this before the light of the sun and the moon and the stars grows dark, and dark 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.

That will be the time when the palace guards will tremble, and strong men are bent over, and the women who grind cease because they are few, and those who look out of windows no longer see clearly.

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.

That will be the time when the doors are shut in the street, and the sound of grinding stops, when men are startled at the voice of a bird, and the singing of girls' voices fades away.

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.

That will be the time when men become afraid of heights and of dangers along on the road, and when the almond tree blossoms, and when grasshoppers drag themselves along, and when natural desires fail. Then man goes to his eternal home and the mourners go down 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.

Call to mind your Creator before the silver cord is cut, or the golden bowl is crushed, or the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the water wheel is broken 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.

before the dust returns to the earth where it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

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

“A mist of vapor,” says the Teacher, “everything is vanishing vapor.”

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.

The Teacher was wise and he taught the people knowledge. He studied and contemplated and set in order many proverbs.

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

The Teacher sought to write using vivid, upright 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 wise people are like goads. Like nails driven deeply are the words of the masters in collections of their proverbs, which are taught 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.

My son, be aware of something more: the making of many books, which has no end and much study brings weariness to the body.

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.

The end of the matter after everything has been heard, is that you must fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of mankind.

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 deed into judgment, along with every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.