Ecclesiastes 12:3

In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE - namely, the hands and arms which protected the body, as guards do a palace, are now palsied. STRONG MEN ... BOW - as Samson. Like supporting pillars, the feet and knees (), the strongest members STRONG MEN ... BOW - as Samson. Like supporting pillars, the feet and knees (), the strongest members (). GRINDERS - the molar teeth. CEASE - are idle. Because they are few...

1-7 We should remember our sins against our Creator, repent, and seek forgiveness. We should remember our duties, and set about them, looking to him for grace and strength. This should be done early, while the body is strong, and the spirits active. When a man has the pain of reviewing a misspent life, his not having given up sin and worldly vanities till he is forced to say, I have no pleasure in them, renders his sincerity very questionable. Then follows a figurative description of old age and its infirmities, which has some difficulties; but the meaning is plain, to show how uncomfortable, generally, the days of old age are. As the four verses, Ecclesiastes 12:2, are a figurative description of the infirmities that usually accompany old age, ver. Ecclesiastes 12:6 notices the circumstances...

Verse Ecclesiastes 12:3. _IN THE DAY WHEN THE KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE_] The BODY of _man_ is here compared to a HOUSE: - mark the metaphors and their propriety. 1. _THE KEEPERS SHALL TREMBLE_ - the _hands_ become paralytic, as is constantly the case, less or more, in old age. 2. _THE STRONG MEN SHALL BOW_] The _legs_ become feeble, and unable to support the weight of the body. 3. _THE GRINDERS CEASE BECAUSE THEY ARE FEW_] The _teeth_ decayed and mostly lost; the _few_ that remain being incapable of properly masticating hard substances or animal food. And so they _cease_; for soft or pulpy substances, which are requisite then, require little or no mastication; and these aliments become their ordinary food. 4. Those that look out of the windows

The body in old age and death is here described under the figure of a decaying house with its inmates and furniture. This verse is best understood as referring to the change which old age brings to four parts of the body, the arms (“the keepers”), the legs (“the strong men”), the teeth (“the grinders”), and the eyes....

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...

IN THE DAY WHEN THE KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE SHALL TREMBLE,.... By the "house" is meant the human body; which is a house of clay, the earthly house of our tabernacle, in which the soul dwells, Job 4:19 2 Corinthians 5:1. The Targum interprets the keepers of the house, of the knees and the trembling of them; but the Midrash and Jarchi, much better, of the ribs; man being fenced with bones and sinews, as Job says, Job 10:11; though trembling cannot be well ascribed to them, they being so fixed to the backbone: rather therefore, as Aben Ezra, the hands and arms are meant; which work for the maintenance of the body, and feed it with food, got and prepared by them; and which protect and defend it from injuries; for all which

Ecclesiastes 12:1. _Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;_ Do not give God the dregs of life. Do not offer in sacrifice to him anything that is worn out. Remember that, among the first fruits which the Jews were to bring to the priest to be offered on God's altar, there were to be «green ears of corn, dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears.» The Lord delights to have the hearts of his people while they are yet children. The Lord says, through Hosea the prophet, «I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms;» as if, while they were but little, God had taught them to take their first steps in walking. There is also that passage in the prophecy of Jeremiah, «I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when

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

ECCLESIASTES 11:1 TO ECCLESIASTES 12:8. CLOSING COUNSELS. It is well to do and to get all one can, in the way of industry and pleasure, before old age draws on. Ecclesiastes 11:1 and Ecclesiastes 11:2 are best taken as referring either to merchandise or generosity, though bread has also been interpreted as seed sown on irrigated land (_cf._ Ecclesiastes 11:4 and Ecclesiastes 11:6) or even as human semen, and...

KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE: i.e. the arms of the body. HOUSE. The human body is often compared to. house (Isaiah 38:12. Job 4:19. 2 Corinthians 5:1; 2 Corinthians 5:2; 2 Peter 1:13). TREMBLE. Occurs only here, Esther 5:9 ("move"), and Habakkuk 2:7 ("vex"). See App-76. THE STRONG MEN:. i.e. the legs. Hebrew. _geber._ App-14. THE GRINDERS: i.e. the teeth. CEASE. fail, or become unfit for use. Hebrew....