Passage

Ecclesiastes 12.1

Book: Ecclesiastes · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

1. Remember also thy Creator in the days of thy youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

before the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars, are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain; 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 shall be darkened, (Ecclesiastes 12:1-3, ASV)

WEB

1. Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near, when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;

Before the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain; 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 who look out of the windows are darkened, (Ecclesiastes 12:1-3, WEB)

KJV

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;

While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: 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, ^{the grinders: or, the grinders fail, because they grind little} (Ecclesiastes 12:1-3, KJV)

YLT

1. Remember also thy Creators in days of thy youth, While that the evil days come not, Nor the years have arrived, that thou sayest, 'I have no pleasure in them.'

While that the sun is not darkened, and the light, And the moon, and the stars, And the thick clouds returned after the rain. 3. In the day that keepers of the house tremble, And men of strength have bowed themselves, And grinders have ceased, because they have become few. And those looking out at the windows have become dim, (Ecclesiastes 12:1-3, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Qohelet, "the Preacher" (Ecclesiastes 1:1), traditionally Solomon
Audience: the young man addressed from Ecclesiastes 11:9, "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth"
Location: Jerusalem, where the Preacher "was king over Israel" (Ecclesiastes 1:12)
Time period: traditionally c. 970-930 BC (Solomon's reign); many scholars date the book later, c. 450-200 BC

Theological reading

This command turns the address to the young man (Ecclesiastes 11:9-10) toward the poem on old age and death that follows (Ecclesiastes 12:2-7). The "evil days" are the days of decline described there, when the senses fail and "the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it" (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Ra here means hard or painful, not morally wicked.

"Remember" in the Hebrew Bible is commonly practical, a turning of attention that issues in action, as when "God remembered Noah" (Genesis 8:1). The young man is told to orient his life toward God while he still has strength, not merely to recall that God exists. The previous verse has already warned him that "for all these things God will bring thee into judgment" (Ecclesiastes 11:9).

"Creator" is a participle of bara, the verb of Genesis 1:1. The book that spends its length on what can be observed "under the sun" grounds its final appeal in creation: the one who made the young man is the one he answers to. The Hebrew form, bor'eykha, is plural in form ("your Creators"); the codex sets out what that does and does not show in Trinity Plural-Hebrew-Noun Stack.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

H1254 - bara, bara, Strong's H1254
H7451 - ra, ra, Strong's H7451

Quoted in

Concepts:

People:

Avery Austin (God Logic)

Passages:

Ecclesiastes 11.10

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.