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You will be afraid to stand on high places.
    You will worry about danger in the streets.
When you are old, your hair will become white,
    like the flowers on an almond tree.
You will feel too tired to move yourself,
    like an old grasshopper.
    You will not want to have sex.
Finally, we will all die and go to our home in the ground.
    Many people will weep at our funeral.
Remember to serve God while you are young,
    because one day your life will finish.
It will be like a silver chain that breaks;
    like a gold bowl that breaks;
    like a water pot at the well that breaks into pieces;
    like a rope at the well that breaks apart.[a]
Our bodies go back into the ground as dust.
The breath of our life goes back to God,
    who gave it to us.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. 12:6 In verses 1-6, the Teacher uses different pictures to describe what happens to people in old age.
  2. 12:7 See Ecclesiastes 3:19; Genesis 2:7.