¹⁰ Our days may come to seventy years,^(A)
    or eighty,^(B) if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,^(C)
    for they quickly pass, and we fly away.^(D)

¹¹ Woe^(A) to those who rise early in the morning
    to run after their drinks,
who stay up late at night
    till they are inflamed with wine.^(B)
12 They have harps and lyres at their banquets,
    pipes^(C) and timbrels^(D) and wine,
but they have no regard^(E) for the deeds of the Lord,
    no respect for the work of his hands.^(F)

12 Remember^(A) your Creator
    in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble^(B) come
    and the years approach when you will say,
    “I find no pleasure in them”—
² before the sun and the light
    and the moon and the stars grow dark,
    and the clouds return after the rain;
³ when the keepers of the house tremble,
    and the strong men stoop,
when the grinders cease because they are few,
    and those looking through the windows grow dim;
⁴ when the doors to the street are closed
    and the sound of grinding fades;
when people rise up at the sound of birds,
    but all their songs grow faint;^(C)
5 when people are afraid of heights
    and of dangers in the streets;
when the almond tree blossoms
    and the grasshopper drags itself along
    and desire no longer is stirred.
Then people go to their eternal home^(D)
    and mourners^(E) go about the streets.