Ecclesiastes 12:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
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;
properly · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
Creator
בּ֣וֹרְאֶ֔יךָbor.'Ei.kha
H1254
(absolutely) to create · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
days
בִּימֵ֖יbi.Mei
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
youth
בְּחוּרֹתֶ֑יךָbe.chu.ro.Tei.kha
H979
youth (collectively and abstractly) · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
evil
הָֽרָעָ֔הha.ra.'Ah
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
days
יְמֵ֣יye.Mei
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · noun, common masculine plural construct
come
יָבֹ֙אוּ֙ya.Vo.'u
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
years
שָׁנִ֔יםsha.Nim
H8141
a year (as a revolution of time) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
nigh
וְהִגִּ֣יעוּve.hi.Gi.'u
H5060
properly · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 3rd person common plural
say
תֹּאמַ֔רto.Mar
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
pleasure
חֵֽפֶץChe.fetz
H2656
pleasure · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Lamentations 3:27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
Ecclesiastes 11:8 But if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that cometh is…
Psalms 71:17-18 O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Luke 18:16 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.
Psalms 34:11 Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
2 Timothy 3:15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ…
1 Samuel 16:12-13 And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the LORD said, Arise, a…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 12:1-7
Here is, I. A call to young people to think of God, and mind their duty to him, when they are young: Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. This is, 1. The royal preacher's application of his sermon concerning the vanity of the world and every thing in it. "You that are young flatter yourselves with expectations of great things from it, but believe those that have tried it; it yields no solid satisfaction to a soul; therefore, that you may not be deceived by this vanity, nor too much disturbed by it, remember your Creator, and so guard yourselves against the mischiefs that arise from the vanity of the creature." 2. It is the royal physician's antidote against the particular disea…
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth,.... Or "Creators" (b); as "Makers", Job 35:10; for more than one were concerned, as in the creation of all things in general, so of man in particular, Genesis 1:26; and these are neither more nor fewer than three; and are Father, Son, Spirit; the one God that has created men, Malachi 2:10; the Father, who is the God of all flesh, and the Father of spirits; the former both of the bodies and souls of men, Jeremiah 31:27; the Son, by whom all things are created; for he that is the Redeemer and husband of his church, which are characters and relations peculiar to the Son, is the Creator, Isaiah 43:1; and the Holy Spirit not only garnished the he…
With Ecc 12:1 (where, inappropriately, a new chapter begins, instead of beginning with Ecc 11:9) the call takes a new course, resting its argument on the transitoriness of youth: "And remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth, ere the days of evil come, and the years draw nigh, of which thou shalt say: I have no pleasure in them." The plur. majest. בּוראיך = עשׂים as a designation of the Creator, Job 35:10; Isa 54:5; Psa 149:2; in so recent a book it cannot surprise us, since it is also not altogether foreign to the post-bibl. language. The expression is warranted, and the Midrash ingeniously interprets the combination of its letters.
(Note: It finds these things expressed in it, partly…
The Church Fathers
"The wheel of our life": The ceaseless advance of our earthly life by which we are continuously moved from the day of our birth right up to death as if by the always turning wheel of a carriage. [Thus] Solomon, when he said well, "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth before the time of affliction comes," a little further on added, "And the wheel above the cistern is broken, and the dust returns to the earth it came from."
When the punishing evil comes, the years arrive in which you have no pleasure. Nobody has pleasure in being punished. When the years of promise arrive, the good have pleasure in them. They have pleasure in enjoying the promises, since they have acted exactly in accordance with the promises. In a similar way, those who are prone to amusement and only recognize what can be experienced with the senses have not pleasure in the time of hunger, but only in the time of excess. The righteous have pleasure even in the times of retribution.
Ecclesiastes knew of the Lord's coming at the end of the world when he said, "Rejoice, O young man, while you are young." Subsequently [he said], "Ward off grief from your heart, and put away trouble from your presence. Remember your Creator, before the evil days come, before the sun is darkened, and the light, and the moon, and the stars; and they who look through the windows go blind" (this signifies the power of sight). [Remember] "before the silver cord is snapped" (he means the cluster of the stars, silvery in appearance). [Remember before] "the golden fillet shrinks back" (here is indicated the sun with its golden aspect, for the fillet-like flower is a well-known plant, with ray-like shoots of foliage circling it), "and they shall rise up at the voice of the sparrow, and they shall see from the height, and terrors shall be in the way." What shall they see? "Then they will see the Son of man coming upon clouds of heaven," and they will mourn, tribe by tribe. What happens when the Lord comes? "The almond tree will bloom, and the locust will grow sluggish, and the caper berry will be scattered abroad." According to the interpreters the blooming of the almond tree signifies the passing of winter; our bodies, after the winter, then, are to flourish with a heavenly bloom.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Children · Should: Remember God — Should: Remember God
Man · 17:7;42:5;43:7;45:12;64:8; — 17:7;42:5;43:7;45:12;64:8;
Old Age · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Procrastination · Motives for avoiding: The present the best time — Motives for avoiding: The present the best time
Readings, Select · OLD AGE — OLD AGE
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
This beautiful prose poem, which uses many metaphors in Hebrew, describes the torturous deterioration of aging (in continuation of 11:7-10).
12:1-2 Don’t . . . forget your Creator: Reverence for God can give wisdom (Prov 1:7) and guidance as to what will be beneficial in this life and pleasing to God at the judgment (Eccl 12:13-14). It is better to remember God when young, when wisdom can make a real difference in life’s results.
Rashi on Ecclesiastes 12:1
So remember your Creator. There1Mishnayos Avos 3:1. we learned, Akavya the son of Mahalalel says, reflect upon three things, etc. And he expounded it from this verse, “so remember your Creator [=בּוֹרְאֶךָ,” that you will give an accounting and reckoning before Him; and remember your pit, your grave [=בּוֹרֶךָ, a place of earth, maggots, and worms; and remember your well [=בְּאֵרֶךָ, the well that flows from its source, that is, the putrid drop of semen and whiteness.
The evil days. The days of old age and feebleness.2The days of old age are referred to as “evil days” because it is more difficult to serve God in those days than it is during one’s youth. (Metsudas Dovid)
