UST by section ECC 12:1

⌂ ← ECC 12:1–12:14 ║ ═ ©

Ecclesiastes 12

12 Therefore, while you are still young,

be certain to live your life without forgetting the God who gave you your life.

Do this before your old age makes your life difficult, painful, and saddening.

At that time, you might say to yourself,

“I no longer enjoy being alive.”

2 Do this before the light from the sun, moon, and stars fades out,

and the clouds completely disappear, having given all their rain.

3 At that time, the men who stand guard at the entrances of houses will shake in utter fear.

The men who have a reputation for strength in battle will cower.

The women who mill grain will cease their task, because too few of them remain.

People looking out from their windows will have somber expressions on their faces.

4 Everybody will lock the front doors of their houses.

At that time, the sound of people grinding grain with millstones will be too faint to hear.

People will awaken in the morning to the crowing of predatory birds.

People will writhe in grief as they publicly sing mournful songs.

5 People will even fear birds as they circle up high.

It will be too dangerous to walk the roads.

The flowers of almond trees will become white as they ripen and rot.

Grasshoppers will drag themselves on the ground, unable to jump any longer.

The medicinal properties of the caperberry will fail to heal.

(This is all happening because people are dying.

Their surviving relatives bury their dead bodies,

and people circle the streets as they grieve in public.)

6 Remember God now, before your life ends—

just like an expensive silver chain that eventually snaps

or a golden bowl that inevitably falls and breaks apart;

like a ceramic jug that shatters when people use it to draw water from a well,

or the water wheel of a reservoir that slowly decays.

7 At that time, our corpses will decay and become dirt again,

and our spirits will return to God, who first gave us our spirits.

8 So, once again, the Teacher said: “Every aspect of human life is as frustratingly temporary and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath! Everything is absolutely vaporous!”

9 So, not only did people recognize that this Teacher was a very wise man, but he also taught his fellow Israelites many truths. He contemplated and pondered many things during his life, and, in the process, wrote down many of the proverbs that he had collected. 10 As he taught and wrote, the Teacher labored so that he would only use the most suitable words, which might also be pleasant and enjoyable to hear. In the end, he succeeded, and the things that he wrote have proven to be reliable and true.

11 Wise people teach us and write to us in a way that provokes a change in one's thinking and lifestyle, just like the sharp tools that people use to spur large animals to move where they ought to. The inherited, written collections of the things that wise people have taught are as sharp and enduring as nails that someone firmly drives into a piece of wood. Ultimately, God is the one who gives humanity these wise insights into life. 12 However, my child, understand that you will discover nothing profitable or true by reading or listening to the teachings of so-called wise people other than those that your own people have passed on to you. After all, people will never stop writing books, and attempting to study them all will only exhaust you.

13 So, this is the last and most fundamental of the Teacher's lectures,

now that you've heard everything he has to teach you:

Fearfully know, trust, and submit yourself to God,

so that you live your life the way he asks you to.

Do this because this kind of relationship with God

is truly what it means to be human!

14 This is because, in the end, God will justly prosecute

everything that humans have ever done,

even things that people have done secretly—

good decisions and evil decisions alike.

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