Ecclesiastes 12

¹ Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the hard days come and the years arrive when you will say, “I take no pleasure in them.”

² Remember him before the sun and the light, the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain.

³ On that day, the guards of the house will tremble, and the strong men will bend low. The women who grind will stop because they are few, and those who look through the windows will grow dim.

⁴ The doors to the street will be shut when the grinding sound grows faint. A person will rise at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of music will fall silent.

⁵ They will also fear what is high, and terrors will be along the way. The almond tree will blossom, the grasshopper will drag itself along, and the caper berry will fail, for a person is going to their eternal home, and mourners will circle the square.

⁶ Remember him before the silver cord is snapped and the golden bowl is broken, before the pitcher is shattered at the spring and the wheel is broken at the well.

⁷ Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the breath will return to God who gave it.

⁸ Breath of breaths, said the Teacher; everything is breath.

⁹ Besides being wise, the Teacher also taught knowledge to the people. He weighed, investigated, and arranged many proverbs.

¹⁰ The Teacher sought to find pleasing words, and what he wrote with integrity were words of truth.

¹¹ The words of the wise are like goads, and collections of sayings are like firmly planted nails. They were given by one shepherd.

¹² Besides this, my son, take care: there is no end to making many books, and much study wears out the body.

¹³ The end of the matter; everything has been heard: fear God and keep his commandments, for this is everything for a human being.

¹⁴ For God will bring every deed to judgment, including everything hidden, whether good or evil.

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