Ecclesiastes 12 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Remember Your Creator in Your Youth

Ecc 12:1Remember 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”;

Ecc 12:2

Ecc 12:2before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain,

Ecc 12:3

Ecc 12:3in 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,

Ecc 12:4

Ecc 12:4and 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—

Ecc 12:5

Ecc 12:5they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along,[fn] and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets—

Ecc 12:6

Ecc 12:6before 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,

Ecc 12:7

Ecc 12:7and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Ecc 12:8

Ecc 12:8Vanity[fn] of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.

Fear God and Keep His Commandments

Ecc 12:9

Ecc 12:9Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care.

Ecc 12:10

Ecc 12:10The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth.

Ecc 12:11

Ecc 12:11The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd.

Ecc 12:12

Ecc 12:12My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

Ecc 12:13

Ecc 12:13The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.[fn]

Ecc 12:14

Ecc 12:14For God will bring every deed into judgment, with[fn] every secret thing, whether good or evil.

See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

ESV Footnotes

(12:5)

Or is a burden

(12:8)

The Hebrew term hebel can refer to a “vapor” or “mere breath” (three times in this verse); see note on 1:2

(12:13)

Or the duty of all mankind

(12:14)

Or into the judgment on

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