Ecclesiastes 12
1
Remember a now your Creator in the days of your youth,
Before the difficult days come,
And the years draw near b when you say,
"I have no pleasure in them":
2
While the sun and the light,
The moon and the stars,
Are not darkened,
And the clouds do not return after the rain;
3
In the day when the keepers of the house tremble,
And the strong men bow down;
When the grinders cease because they are few,
And those that look through the windows grow dim;
4
When the doors are shut in the streets,
And the sound of grinding is low;
When one rises up at the sound of a bird,
And all c the daughters of music are brought low.
5
Also they are afraid of height,
And of terrors in the way;
When the almond tree blossoms,
The grasshopper is a burden,
And desire fails.
For man goes to d his eternal home,
And e the mourners go about the streets.
6
Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed,
Or the golden bowl is broken,
Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain,
Or the wheel broken at the well.
7
f Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,
g And the spirit will return to God h who gave it.
8
"Vanity i of vanities," says the Preacher,
"All is vanity."
9
And moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yes, he pondered and sought out and j set in order many proverbs.
10
The Preacher sought to find acceptable words; and what was written was upright - words of truth.
11
The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd.
12
And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and k much study is wearisome to the flesh.
13
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
l Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man's all.
14
For m God will bring every work into judgment,
Including every secret thing,
Whether good or evil.
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Cross References
2 Chronicles 34:3
For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images.
Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.
Lamentations 3:27
It is good for a man to bear The yoke in his youth.
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Cross References
2 Samuel 19:35
I am today eighty years old. Can I discern between the good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear any longer the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be a further burden to my lord the king?
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Cross References
2 Samuel 19:35
I am today eighty years old. Can I discern between the good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear any longer the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be a further burden to my lord the king?
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Cross References
Job 17:13
If I wait for the grave as my house, If I make my bed in the darkness.
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Cross References
Genesis 50:10
Then they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and they mourned there with a great and very solemn lamentation. He observed seven days of mourning for his father.
Jeremiah 9:17
Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Consider and call for the mourning women, That they may come; And send for skillful wailing women, That they may come.
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Cross References
Genesis 3:19
In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.
Job 34:15
All flesh would perish together, And man would return to dust.
Psalms 90:3
You turn man to destruction, And say, "Return, O children of men.
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Cross References
Ecclesiastes 3:21
Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth?
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Cross References
Numbers 16:22
Then they fell on their faces, and said, "O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and You be angry with all the congregation?
Numbers 27:16
Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation.
Job 34:14
If He should set His heart on it, If He should gather to Himself His Spirit and His breath.
Isaiah 57:16
For I will not contend forever, Nor will I always be angry; For the spirit would fail before Me, And the souls which I have made.
Zechariah 12:1
The burden of the word of the LORD against Israel. Thus says the LORD, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him:
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Cross References
Psalms 62:9
Surely men of low degree are a vapor, Men of high degree are a lie; If they are weighed on the scales, They are altogether lighter than vapor.
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Cross References
1 Kings 4:32
He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand and five.
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Cross References
Ecclesiastes 1:18
For in much wisdom is much grief, And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 6:2
That you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.
Deuteronomy 10:12
And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?
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Cross References
Ecclesiastes 11:9
Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, And let yo...
Matthew 12:36
But I say to you that for every idle word men m...
Acts 17:30
Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked,...
Acts 17:31
"because He has appointed a day on which He wil...
Romans 2:16
In the day when God will judge the secrets of m...
1 Corinthians 4:5
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until ...
2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat...
New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.