Ecclesiastes 12:6

Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. OR EVER (I:E., BEFORE EVER) THE SILVER CORD ... - connected with Ecclesiastes 12:1, 'Remember thy Creator before that the silver cord of life is snapped asunder.' BE LOOSED. [So the Qeri' reads yeeraateeq (H7368)'. But the Kethibh has y-r-ch-q, be removed, namely, by God; or, as others point it, yeeraacheeq.] OR THE GOLDEN BOWL ... OR THE PITCHER BE BROKEN AT THE FOUNTAIN. A double image, to represent death, as in Ecclesiastes 12:1 old age was symbolically represented....

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 12:6. _OR EVER THE SILVER CORD BE LOOSED_] We have already _had_ all the _external_ evidences of _old age_, with all its attendant infirmities; next follow what takes place _in_ the body, in order to produce what is called _death_, or the separation of body and soul. 1. _THE SILVER CORD_. - The _medulla oblongata_ or _spinal marrow_, from which all the nerves proceed, as itself does from the _brain_. This is termed a _cord_, from its _exact similitude_ to one; and a _silver cord_, from its _colour_, as it strikingly exhibits the _silver gray_; and from its _preciousness_. This is said to be _loosed_; as the _nervous system_ became a little before, and at the article of death, wholly debilitated. The last _loosing_ being the fall of the

BE LOOSED - The termination of life is signified generally by the snapping of the silver cord by which the lamp hangs from the ceiling; by the dashing in pieces of the cup or reservoir of oil; by the shattering of the pitcher used to bring water from the spring; and by the breaking of the wheel by which a bucket is let down into the well. Others discern in the silver cord, the soul which holds the body in life; in the bowl, the body; and in the golden oil (compare Zechariah 4:12) within it, the spirit....

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...

OR EVER THE SILVER CORD BE LOOSED,.... As the above are the symptoms and infirmities of old age; these in this verse are the immediate symptoms of death, or what attend it, or certainly issue in it. Some by "the silver cord" understand the string of the tongue; and to this purpose is the Targum, "before thy tongue is dumb from speaking;'' and it is observed q in favour of this sense, that the failing of the tongue is no fallacious sign of death, of which there is no mention at all in this account, unless here; and the tongue may not unfitly be called a "cord", both from the notation of the word because it binds, and because it scourges like a cord, Job 5:21; and is compared to silver, Proverbs 10:20, and in this verse rather the head than the back is treated of. But best, the bond of un

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...

OR, &C. New figures now (in Ecclesiastes 12:6) introduced, referring to the _arrival_ (Structure, above) of death itself. THE SILVER CORD: i.e. the spinal cord. THE GOLDEN BOWL: i.e. the head, or skull. PITCHER: the failure of the heart. THE WHEEL. On which the bucket is brought up by. rope from the cistern, or well....