Charles Ellicott Commentary Ecclesiastes 12

Creator: This occurs as a Divine name in Isaiah 40:23, Isaiah 44:15, and elsewhere. Here it is in the plural, like the Divine name Elohim. (See also Note on Ecclesiastes 12:8.) We have thy Maker in the plural in Job 35:10, Psalms 149:2, and Isaiah 54:5; and Holy One in Proverbs 9:10, Proverbs 30:3, and Hosea 11:12.

Here the style rises, and we have a figurative description of the evil days; but, as sometimes happens in the case of highly wrought poetry, it is much easier to perceive the general effect intended than to account for all the words that produce it. English readers generally have been deeply impressed by Ecclesiastes 12:6-7, understanding them in a general way as speaking of the dissolution of the noble structure of the bodily frame; and they scarcely gain anything by the efforts of commentators to explain to them what exactly is meant by the silver cord and the golden bowl. After using all the help my predecessors have given me, I frankly admit I am unable to give more than a vague account of the figures employed in this whole passage.

Darkened. —See Ecclesiastes 11:8. On darkness of the heavens as a symbol of calamity, compare Isaiah 13:10-11; Jeremiah 4:28–29; Ezekiel 32:7–9; Joel 2:1–10; Amos 8:9–10; and contrast Isaiah 30:26; Isaiah 60:10.

In this verse, we have a description of an afflicted and frightened house: the servants below (keepers of the house; compare to 2 Samuel 20:3) in consternation (the word for tremble occurs twice more in Biblical Hebrew (Esther 5:9; Habakkuk 2:7), but is common in Aramaic); the masters (men of might, translated able men (Exodus 18:21, 25); compare to mighty in power (Job 21:7)) in equal distress; so also the grinding maids below, discontinuing their work (Exodus 11:5; Isaiah 47:1–2); the ladies, who look out at the lattices (Judges 5:8; 2 Samuel 5:16; Proverbs 7:6; 2 Kings 9:30), forced to withdraw. (For the four classes, compare to Isaiah 24:2; Psalms 132:2.)

Expositors have generally understood the house described here as denoting the decaying body of the old man. To the English reader, the grinders of our version suggest teeth in a way that the grinding maidens of the Hebrew does not; and the ladies looking out of the lattices can easily be understood as the eyes. But when it is attempted to carry out the figure and to find anatomical explanations of all the other images employed, the interpretation becomes so forced that some have preferred to understand Ecclesiastes 12:3 as only a general description of the consternation produced by such a tempest as is spoken of in Ecclesiastes 12:2. I cannot help but think that the house does denote the bodily frame, but I regard as unsuccessful the attempts that have been made to carry out this idea into its details.

The first two clauses continue the description of the afflicted house: all communication with the outer world broken off, the double doors towards the street shut, and the cheerful noise of grinding not heard from outside (Jeremiah 25:10–11; Revelation 18:22). If a more detailed explanation of the double doors is to be given, we may understand the verse as speaking of the closing of the lips due to the loss of teeth (Psalms 141:3; Micah 5:7).

He shall rise up. — No satisfactory explanation of this clause has been given. The following are three of the best interpretations that have been proposed:

1. The old man, whose state has been figuratively described before, is said to sleep so badly that the chirping of a bird will awaken him.
2. His voice becomes feeble like the chirping of a bird (Isaiah 29:4).
3. The bird of ill omen raises its voice (Psalms 102:6–7; Zephaniah 2:14).

Each of these interpretations is open to serious objections, which I do not state at length, as I myself have nothing better to propose.

The old man is surrounded by terrors; terrors from above, terrors on his path: everything he previously delighted in no longer has charm for him; the almond causes loathing (for the word rendered “flourished” in our version may also be translated this way); the locust, a favorite food in the East, is now a burden; the caper berry (translated “desire” in our version) fails; for man is going to his eternal home, etc.