Remember Your Creator in Your Youth
1Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;
2before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain,
3in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed,
4and the doors on the street are shut—when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low—
5they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along,12:5 Or is a burden and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets—
6before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern,
7and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
8Vanity12:8 The Hebrew term hebel can refer to a “vapor” or “mere breath” (three times in this verse); see note on 1:2 of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.
Fear God and Keep His Commandments
9Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care.
10The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth.
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