Albert Barnes Commentary Ecclesiastes 12:4

"and the doors shall be shut in the street; when the sound of the grinding is low, and one shall rise up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low;" — Ecclesiastes 12:4 (ASV)

And the doors ... is low - The house is viewed from the outside. The way of entry and exit is stopped: little or no sound issues to tell of life stirring within. The old man, as he grows older, has less in common with the rising generation; mutual interest and social contact decline. Some take the doors and the sound of the mill as figures of the lips and ears and of the speech.

He shall rise ... - Here the metaphor of the house fades from view. The verb may either be taken impersonally (“they shall rise,” compare the next verse): or as definitely referring to an old man, who as the master of the house rises out of sleep at the first sound in the morning.

All the daughters of musick - that is, Singing women (Ecclesiastes 2:8).

Be brought low - that is, Sound faintly in the ears of old age.