Ecclesiastes 12:14

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. A summary of the second, and the more important part. The whole forms the epilogue, an epitome of the book. Verse 13. HEAR THE CONCLUSION - the conclusion of the discourse: the grand inference of the whole book. FEAR GOD - the antidote to following creature-idols and "vanities," whether self-righteousness (; ) or wicked oppression and other evils (Ecclesiastes 8:12), or mad mirth (;...

8-14 Solomon repeats his text, VANITY OF VANITIES, ALL IS VANITY. These are the words of one that could speak by dear-bought experience of the vanity of the world, which can do nothing to ease men of the burden of sin. As he considered the worth of souls, he gave good heed to what he spake and wrote; words of truth will always be acceptable words. The truths of God are as goads to such as are dull and draw back, and nails to such as are wandering and draw aside; means to establish the heart, that we may never sit loose to our duty, nor be taken from it. The Shepherd of Israel is the Giver of inspired wisdom. Teachers and guides all receive their communications from him. The title is applied in Scripture to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The prophets sought diligently, what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferi...

Verse Ecclesiastes 12:14. _FOR GOD SHALL BRING EVERY WORK INTO JUDGMENT_] This is the _reason_ why we should "fear God and keep his commandments." 1. Because there will be a _day of judgment_. 2. Every soul of man shall stand at that bar. 3. God, the infinitely wise, the heart-searching God, will be judge. 4. He will bring to light every _secret thing_ - all that has been done since the creation, by all men; whether _forgotten_ or _registered_; whether _done in secret_ or _in public_. 5. All the works of the _godly_, as well as all the works of the _wicked_, shall be judged in that day; the _good_ which the _godly_ strove to _conceal_, as well as the _evil_ which the _wicked_ endeavoured to _hide_. This, then, will be the _conclusion_ of the whole

This passage is properly regarded as the Epilogue of the whole book; a kind of apology for the obscurity of many of its sayings. The passage serves therefore to make the book more intelligible and more acceptable. Here, as in the beginning of the book Ecclesiastes 1:1, the Preacher speaks of himself Ecclesiastes 12:8 in the third person. He first repeats Ecclesiastes 12:8 the mournful, perplexing theme with which his musings began Ecclesiastes 1:2; and then states the encouraging practical conclusion...

EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 12:1 The division into chapters is unfortunate here, as this verse is closely connected with Ecclesiastes 12:10 of the preceding chapter. REMEMBER NOW THY CREATOR IN THE DAYS OF THY YOUTH. Set God always before thine eyes from thy earliest days; think who made thee, and what thou wast made for, not for self-pleasing only, not to gratify thy passions which now are strong; but that thou mightest use thy powers and energy in accordance with the laws of thy being as a creature of God's hands, responsible to him for the use of the faculties and capacities with which he has endowed thee. The word for "Creator" is the participle of the Verb _bara, _which is that used in...

FOR GOD SHALL BRING EVERY WORK INTO JUDGMENT,.... Not in this life, but in the day of the great judgment, as the Targum explains it; that is, whatever has been done by men, from the beginning of the world, or will be to the end; all being observed and taken notice of by the omniscient God, who has registered them in the book of his remembrance, and, being Judge, will be able to bring them all into account at that awful day: which is here given as a reason why men should fear God, and keep his commandments; WITH EVERY SECRET THING; that has been committed in secret by men, and is unknown to others, even every secret thought of the heart; see 1 Corinthians 4:5; or, "with every secret" or "hidden man" w; whose works are hidden from men, and are not known to be what, they are, and who thought to hide themselves from, God; but these, with their works, shall be brought

Ecclesiastes 12:1. _Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth:_ Now we get on solid ground. There is an irony in the advice, «Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes.» There is no irony here; there is solid, sound advice: «Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.» May every young man take this advice, and carry it out! Ecclesiastes 12:1. _While the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble,_ These a

CHAPTER 12 _ 1. Youth and old age (Ecclesiastes 12:1)_ 2. The concluding epilogue (Ecclesiastes 12:9) Ecclesiastes 12:1. Childhood and youth are vanity! That is the concluding sentence of the previous chapter. The vanities of life, the doom and darkness of the grave are uppermost in his mind, and the final word he speaks, ere he closeth with his epilogue, is the same with which he began his search, the search which brought out so many things, yet nothing in reality--as in the beginning of the book, so now he cries out, “Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, all is vanity” (verse 8). He has come back in all his reasoning to the place from which he started. On

EPILOGUE. Ecclesiastes 12:9 is an editor's praise of Qoheleth, who is identified with Solomon, the sage compiler of proverbial wisdom, who wrote words of truth in a pleasing and elegant (acceptable) style; uprightly may also refer to correctness of form. Ecclesiastes 12:11_ a_ reminds us of the stimulus of a good teacher; Socrates called himself the gadfly of Athens, and the words of Pericles were said to have a sting in them. Ecclesiastes 12:11_ b_ may be rendered Like nails driven home are collections of sayings made by one master; the only difficulty is that Shepherd in OT usually refers to God. As to what lies beyond these (_cf. mg._) th

SECRET. hidden. EVIL. Hebrew. _ra'a'._ App-44....