Ecclesiastes 11:7-12:8

Jubilee Bible 2000

⁷ ¶ Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun,

⁸ but if a man lives many years and rejoices in them all; yet if afterwards he remembers the days of darkness, for they shall be many, he shall say that everything that shall have happened to him is vanity.

⁹ Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.

¹⁰ Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart and put away evil from thy flesh; for childhood and youth are vanity.

12 ¶ Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth while the evil days do not come nor the years draw near when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

² before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain:

³ In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble and the strong men shall bow themselves and the grinders cease because they are few and those that look out of the windows are darkened;

⁴ and the doors outside shall be shut because the voice of the grinder is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird and all the daughters of song shall be humbled;

⁵ when they shall also be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and appetite shall fail: because man goes to the home of his age, and the mourners shall go about the streets;

⁶ before the silver chain is broken, and the golden bowl is broken, and the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel is broken at the cistern;

⁷ and the dust returns to the earth as it was before and the spirit returns unto God who gave it.

⁸ ¶ Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.