Passage

Ecclesiastes 12.13

Book: Ecclesiastes · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

11. The words of the wise are as goads; and as nails well fastened are the words of the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. 12. And furthermore, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

13. This is the end of the matter; all hath been heard: Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.

For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:11-14, ASV)

WEB

11. The words of the wise are like goads; and like nails well fastened are words from the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. 12. Furthermore, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

13. This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.

For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:11-14, WEB)

KJV

11. The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. 12. And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh. ^{study: or, reading}

13. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. ^{Let: or, The end of the matter, even all that hath been heard, is}

For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:11-14, KJV)

YLT

11. Words of the wise [are] as goads, and as fences planted [by] the masters of collections, they have been given by one shepherd. 12. And further, from these, my son, be warned; the making of many books hath no end, and much study [is] a weariness of the flesh.

13. The end of the whole matter let us hear:, 'Fear God, and keep His commands, for this [is] the whole of man.

For every work doth God bring into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether good or bad.' (Ecclesiastes 12:11-14, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: the book's closing narrator, who speaks of "the Preacher" in the third person (Ecclesiastes 12:9-10)
Audience: "my son" (Ecclesiastes 12:12), the student of wisdom
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

"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." (Ecclesiastes 12:13, KJV).

The conclusion of the whole matter. After the long search under the sun, the book ends with a command: fear God and keep his commandments. This, it says, is "the whole duty of man," or more literally "the whole of man."

Meaning found in God. The following verse gives the reason: God will bring every work into judgment (12:14). What looked like vapor gains weight because God sees and judges it. The book answers its own question of meaning by turning from life under the sun to the God above it. See Argument from Purpose Meaning and Hope.

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.

H0120 - adam, adam, Strong's H0120
H8085 - shama, shama, Strong's H8085
H1697 - dabar, dabar, Strong's H1697
H0430 - elohim, elohim, Strong's H0430

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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.