Ecclesiastes 12:4 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ecclesiastes 12:4
And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low;
something swinging · noun, common feminine dual absolute
shut
וְסֻגְּר֤וּve.su.ge.Ru
H5462
to shut up · conjunction + verb, pual sequential perfect, 3rd person common plural
streets
בַּשּׁ֔וּקba.Shuk
H7784
a street (as run over) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
sound
ק֣וֹלKol
H6963
a voice or sound · noun, common masculine singular construct
grinding
הַֽטַּחֲנָ֑הha.ta.cha.Nah
H2913
a hand mill · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
low
שָׁפָלshâphâl
H8217
depressed
up
וְיָקוּם֙ve.ya.Kum
H6965
to rise (in various applications · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine singular
voice
לְק֣וֹלle.Kol
H6963
a voice or sound · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
bird
הַצִּפּ֔וֹרha.tzi.Por
H6833
a little bird (as hopping) · definite article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
daughters
בְּנ֥וֹתbe.Not
H1323
a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms… · noun, common feminine plural construct
musick
הַשִּֽׁירha.Shir
H7892
a song · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
low
וְיִשַּׁ֖חוּve.yi.Sha.chu
H7817
to sink or depress (reflexive or causative) · conjunction + verb, niphal, 3rd person masculine plural
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
Jeremiah 25:10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the s…
2 Samuel 19:35 I am this day fourscore years old: and can I discern between good and evil? can thy servant taste what I eat or what I drink? can I hear any…
Revelation 18:22 And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoev…
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…
doors--the lips, which are closely shut together as doors, by old men in eating, for, if they did not do so, the food would drop out (Job 41:14; Psa 141:3; Mic 7:5).
in the streets--that is, toward the street, "the outer doors" [MAURER and WEISS].
sound of . . . grinding--The teeth being almost gone, and the lips "shut" in eating, the sound of mastication is scarcely heard.
the bird--the cock. In the East all mostly rise with the dawn. But the old are glad to rise from their sleepless couch, or painful slumbers still earlier, namely, when the cock crows, before dawn (Job 7:4) [HOLDEN]. The least noise awakens them [WEISS].
daughters of music--the organs that produce and that enjoy mu…
And the doors shall be shut in the streets,.... The Midrash and Jarchi interpret these of the holes of the body; in which they are followed by our learned and ingenuous countryman, Dr. Smith; who, by them, understands the inlets and outlets of the body; and, by the "streets", the ways and passages through which the food goes, and nourishment is conveyed; and which may be said to be shut, when they cease from their use: but it seems much better, with Aben Ezra and others, to interpret them of the lips; which are sometimes called the doors of the mouth, or lips, Psalm 141:3; which are opened both for speaking and eating; but, in aged persons, are much shut as to either; they do not choose to s…
The Church Fathers
"Bird" can here mean the Savior in his human nature.…But also the message of truth itself can be called "bird" for this time. It can be compared for this time with a bird that comes from on high, from where truth came to the listeners. Since, however, now even the perfect listeners are lifted up and strive for what is above the earth, the "bird on the roof" calls to them. Standing above the cosmos it has announced the perfect, the encounter with truth "from face to face."
"The daughters of song" are false teachers, the daughters only of the voice but not of the spirit, not of wisdom, not of knowledge, not of light. Because of their unmanliness and their feminization in the treatment of the perishable they are called daughters.They will be brought low. Like darkness ends when light appears, they will be unveiled as nothing when the "call of the bird," that is, of the "market" or the Savior or the divine teacher, the "rising" [human being], is here. It turns out that the teaching [of the daughters of song] is valid only for this present life and that—to say briefly what has been treated extensively by people elsewhere—human wisdom, which promises a program of nice speeches and good rhetoric, lasts only as long as the voice. Since, however, this voice will vanish, because no air is moving any more when they rise above the sphere of the air, they will be brought low. The "daughters of song" will be seen as nothing, since the wise teachers are not called daughters or daughters of song, but "sons of light," and "sons of wisdom."
"And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low. "When the voice of the grinder is weak and the teaching of a tutor has stopped, then in turn all things will stop. Even the doors are closed in the streets, as according to the unwieldy virgins of the Gospel [Cfr. Matth. 25, 1-12.], and each one regards her doors as closed to her in the street, so that she can not buy oil. Or even, while the virgins are wandering in the streets, husbands close each room when they have entered into it. For if the road is thin and narrow, which leads to life and that which leads to death is wide and open, justly, the charity of most being cold, the door of teachings is closed in the streets. [Cfr. Matth. 7, 13.] But let us use the following verse, in which he says, "and he rises to the sound of a bird", (or of a sparrow), if we seem to be a sinner to the voice of the bishop or elder so to show that we are in repentance. But this could also be different again, if we do not follow the context of this chapter, it can be taken to mean the real resurrection, when the death will rise up to the voice of the arch-angel. And it is not surprising, if we compare the trumpet of an angel to a sparrow, when all night is compared to Christ, if it is clement. And also this is not too surprising, if my memory serves me right, when I have never read of a sparrow in a bad light. In the tenth Psalm a righteous man says, "I trust in God, just as you say to my spirit: fly to the mountain like a sparrow." [Ps. 10, 1.] And in another place: "I woke and I was made as a sparrow alone on a roof" [Ps. 101, 8.]. Nor is it seen in a bad light in another place: "and even the sparrow found a home for himself" [Ps. 83, 4.]. Differently: they want to see this as the closed doors in the street, as the weak steps of an old man, because he always sits and cannot walk. The weakness of the voice of the grinder is interpreted as in his jaws, because he cannot chew food, and scarcely reduced in spirit, his voice is heard only quietly. More precisely he shows him to rise to the sound of a bird, because now with cold blood and dry organs by which sleep is nourished, he wakes to a soft sound, and in the middle of the night, when the cock crows, he rises quickly; but he is not able to move…
Dictionary and topics
Allegory — Used only in Gal. 4:24, where the apostle refers to the history of Isaac the free-born, and Ishmael the slave-born, and makes use of it allegorically. Every parable is an allegory. Nathan (2 Sam.…
Bird — Birds are divided in the Mosaic law into two classes, (1) the clean (Lev. 1:14-17; 5:7-10; 14:4-7), which were offered in sacrifice; and (2) the unclean (Lev. 11:13-20). When offered in sacrifice,…
Daughter — This word, besides its natural and proper sense, is used to designate, (1.) A niece or any female descendant (Gen. 20:12; 24:48; 28:6). (2.) Women as natives of a place, or as professing the religion…
Birds · General references — General references
Insanity · Sent as a — Sent as a
Old Age · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
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).
From the eyes the allegory proceeds to the mouth, and the repugnance of the old man to every noise disturbing his rest: "And the doors to the street are closed, when the mill sounds low; and he rises up at the voice of a bird; and all the daughters of song must lower themselves." By the door toward the street the Talm. and Midrash understand the pores or the emptying members of the body, - a meaning so far from being ignoble, that even in the Jewish morning prayer a Beracha is found in these words: "Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the world, who hast wisely formed man, and made for him manifold apertures and cavities. It is manifest and well known before the throne of Thy Majesty,…
The NLT translates the Hebrew metaphors (guards . . . strong men . . . servants . . . women) and also provides an interpretation of these poetic elements (legs . . . shoulders . . . teeth . . . eyes).
Rashi on Ecclesiastes 12:4
And the doors [to the street] will be shut. These refer to his orifices.
When the sound of the grinding is low. The sound of the mill grinding the food in his intestines, and that refers to the stomach.
And when one will awaken at the sound of a bird. For even the voice of a bird awakens him from his sleep once he has become old.
And muffled will be the daughters [sounds] of song. All the sounds of musical instruments seem to him like conversation. Its apparent meaning is its simple interpretation, ‘יִשַּׁחוּ’ is like יִשְׁפְּלוּ [=will be brought low]. All the singers and songstresses will be low in his eyes, and as Barzily of Gilad said to Dovid, “or can I still listen to the voice of s…