Bibliotheca
Sacra 148 (1991) 298-317
Copyright © 1991
by
Ecclesiastes 12:1-8-Death,
an
Impetus for Life
Barry C. Davis
Bible Teacher
Deerfield
In the Book of Ecclesiastes the author described
his search for
the key to the meaning of life. That search,
however, became an ex-
ercise in futility because the
more he sought for the answers to life,
the more he discovered that life itself is unfair,
that human wisdom
is woefully insufficient, and that death
continually laughed in his
face. Furthermore he realized that of those three
barriers- injus-
tice, ignorance, and
death-death by far is the most devastating. As
Fuerst wrote, "Death is clearly the major
problem, which intensifies
and exacerbates all others; the spectre
of death mocks the brave
plans of the living. Man cannot argue with this spectre, and cannot
combat it. It will win in the end.1
Death has a voracious, insatiable appetite. Much
like a vicious
animal, it silently stalks its prey and then strikes
with great fury
and often little warning. It tears asunder hopes
and dreams, and de-
clares that life itself is
"vanity," "futility ," "meaninglessness," or
"emptiness" (lb,h,). Thus death "can
make a man hate life, not be-
cause he wants to die, but because it renders life so
futile.”2
Since death cannot be circumvented, Solomon
argued that the
1 Wesley J. Fuerst, The Books of Ruth, Esther, Ecclesiastes, The
Song of Songs, La-
mentations: The Five Scrolls (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1975), p. 151.
2 J. Stafford Wright, "The
Interpretation of Ecclesiastes," in Classical
Evangelical
Essays in Old
Testament Interpretation, ed. Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. (
Baker
Book House, 1972), p. 143.
Ecclesiastes 12: 1-8-Death, an Impetus for Life 298
key to life and living is to be found in facing
death and dying. Going
to a wake will help one become awake to the
realities of life (7:2, 4).
Perhaps
to his surprise, Solomon discovered that the meaning of life
can be found only by facing the inevitable reality
of death.
Ecclesiastes includes numerous references to
death and dying.3
The
most thorough treatment on the process and finality of death is
in 12:1-8, a passage that graphically depicts the decay
of life with
its frailty, fear, and ultimately its finality.
Before discussing this
passage six principles on death and life will be
presented.
Principles on the Death-Life
Phenomenon
Principal
One: All die
(
inescapable finality to death; "the
inclusiveness of the grave [is]
universal."4 Whether human or animal, wise or foolish, righteous or
unrighteous, clean or unclean, sacrificer
or nonsacrificer, good or bad,
swearer or the one who refuses
to swear oaths, each one must face the
fate of death Being a human may have its advantages
over being an
animal, and being wise may have its advantages over
being foolish
in being able to live longer. Yet ultimately death
functions as the
great equalizer. Thus the one certainty of life is
death.5
Principal Two: Death has certain advantages over
life
(4:1-3;
7:1-2,
26). In life, wickedness abounds; in death, there is no suffering
and there are no snares to entrap a person. In
life, there is constant
oppression, often with none to offer comfort; in
death, there is a sense
of escape.
For the living, there is seldom relief-the innocent are
unable to "throw off an oppressive yoke, and in
the absence of hope,
life becomes intolerable."6
Contemplating these truths, Solomon con-
cluded that death is to be
preferred to life and nonexistence to either
3 2:14-16; 3:2 19-22; 4:1-3; 5:15-16; 6:3-4,
6; 7:1-2, 4,17,26; 8:8, 10, 12-13; 9:2-3, 4-6,
10-12;
12:1-7.
4 J. Barton Payne, The Theology of the Older Testament (
Publishing
House, 1971), p. 453.
5 Ecclesiastes does not soften the harsh
reality of death. In fact little by way of a
theology of the afterlife is presented, leaving
it to be understood primarily as a mys-
tery. Moreover,
when the subject of the afterlife is addressed (9:5-6, 10), it is pre-
sented as a
contrasting existence to the present life, as a place where all earthly expe-
riences cease (Michael
A. Eaton, Ecclesiastes: An Introduction and Commentary
[
death the human spirit returns to God (12:7),
no one is able to show what that exis-
tence will be like (
6 James L. Crenshaw, "The Shadow of Death
in Qoheleth," in Israelite Wisdom,
ed. John G. Gammie
et al. (Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1978), p. 208.
300
Bibliotheca Sacra / July-September 1991
death or life.7 The quest to find
meaning to life by investigating life
itself, therefore, becomes a hopeless and vain effort.8
Principle
Three: Death cannot be avoided, but it is best not to
act foolishly and to rush it (3:2; 6:6;
mans desire to control death and, to a limited
extent, they are able to
forestall it. They are capable of acting in ways
that would seem to
hasten death on the one hand or to extend life on the
other (
plans. In the
ultimate sense, it is controlled by God (3:2;
Remarkably, despite principle two (that death
has certain ad-
vantages over life), the author of Ecclesiastes
never encouraged the
shortening of life, by either unintentional or
intentional means. To
the contrary, he urged people to refrain from
wickedness or foolish-
ness which conceivably could hasten the end of their
lives (
Furthermore
he avoided offering suicide as an option-a lure which
"would seem irresistible for one who hates life and falls
into de-
spair's vice-like grip."9 A voiding such extremes, he offered princi-
ples four and five as
positive affirmations of life in the face of death.
Principle Four: Studying the reality of death can be
instructive
on how to live life to the fullest (7:4; 12:1-7).
"The mind of the wise
is in the house of mourning" rather than in
"the house of pleasure"
(7:4). Such a perspective
forces the individual to face the reality of
death toward which all life inevitably points. A
soberness or an at-
titude of reflection thereby
is thrust on the individual. "Sorrow pen-
etrates the heart, draws the
thought upwards, purifies, trans-
forms."10 By advocating the study
of death, Qohelet challenged his
readers to face life in light of their
mortality. Also he urged them to
7 Qohelet's conclusion regarding the preference of
nonexistence over present exis-
tence appears on the
surface to be at variance with the Old Testament Israelite's
aversion to Sheol, the
place of the dead. Knudson states that "the Israelites looked
forward to it [Sheol]
with unconcealed dread. Almost any kind of earthly existence
was to be preferred to it" (Albert C.
Knudson, The Religious Teaching of the
Old Tes-
tament [
the place of the dead as the place to be.
Rather, he preferred nonsuffering as the
"place" to be. The dead and the never-alive do not face
the miseries of this life.
Their
fate, moreover, is not a question mark but a reality; it is not something to be
feared by the child of God but something to be
experienced. (Compare principle five
in which Qohelet
argued that there are advantages to being alive when compared to
being dead.)
8 J. Coert Rylaarsdam, The Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, The Song of Solomon,
The Lay-
man's Bible Commentary (Richmond, VA: John
Knox Press, 1908), p. 110. See Ecclesi-
astes 1:13-2:11.
9 Crenshaw, 'The Shadow of Death in Qoheleth,"
p. 210.
10 Franz Delitzsch, Commentary
on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, Biblical
Commentary
on the Old Testament, trans. M. C. Easton (
Publishing
House, 1988), p. 315.
Ecclesiastes 12: 1-8-Death, an Impetus for Life 301
consider their fate early in life (12:1) while
there is still time to
make a difference in how they live. The longer the
delay, the more
old age will rob them of the ability to make
changes necessary to
live life to the fullest to the glory of God (vv.
1-5).
Principle
Five: Life has certain advantages over death (9:4-6,
10).
While One is alive, there is a hope of finding meaning to life
and the Possibility of attaining success in life
that carries beyond
the grave. Qohelet
illustrated this truth by maintaining that even
the lowest of the low (i.e., the dog)11 that is alive is better off than
the greatest (if the great (i.e., the lion)12 that is dead (9:4). By this
contrast he reinforced the superiority of life to
death. Whereas life
offers hope, death shatters all dreams. Death allows
no further
opportunity for obtaining any reward in this life or
the next.-
Principle Six: Living solely for this life is
meaningless
(
6:3-5;
health, and family) and religious credits does nothing
to ensure an
enduring reward or a meaningful existence after
the grave. Riches in
fact deceive title individual who places his or her
trust in them (
16).
They are inherently unsatisfying-they are never
enough;
someone always desires to take them away; and
they produce worry
and misery it this life. Riches also are
temporary-they provide no
true security. They cannot be taken into the next
life; they are as
fleeting as the wind.
Having a long life with many descendants (6:3-5)
does not guar-
antee earthly satisfaction,
much less eternal rewards. The joy of
children's laughter may fade through the years and
children's love
for their father may turn to resentment or
apathy-the resultant
tragedy being that none of a man's children may
care enough even to
save face by giving him a decent burial.13
Such a man, as Kidner
states, would "have the things men dream of-which
in Old Testa-
11 Crenshaw
describes the Hebrew view of "dog" as follows: "The lowly cur
[9:4b],
restricted to a life of scavenging on the
perimeters of human existence, functioned as a
tern of opprobrium. The epithet 'dog,' was
hurled in the faces of male prostitutes,
who belonged, in the speaker's opinion,
outside the domain of human beings (Deut.
ence
of nobility 1:1 Sam. 24:14)" ("The Shadow of Death in Qoheleth," p. 209).
12 In direct contrast
to the dog, which was despised by the Hebrews, the lion enjoyed
an exalted status. "To the Jews the
lion was the mightiest of beasts, having a king's
regal bearing (P:v
30:29-31). Thus it symbolized leadership (Gn 49:9,
10; Nm 24:9)"
(Walter
A. Elwell, ed. Baker
Encyclopedia of the Bible, 2 vols. [
Book House, 198~], 1:107-8).
13 Eichrodt argues that the Israelites attached much
significance to having a proper
burial. He states that they saw a direct
relationship between the absence or inade-
quacy of a burial
and the realization of a less desirable position in the afterlife
(Walther
Eichrodt, Theology
of the Old Testament, trans. J. A. Baker, 2 vols.
[
302 Bibliotheca
Sacra / July-September 1991
ment terms meant children by
the score, and years of life by the thou-
sand-and still depart unnoticed, unlamented and
unfulfilled."14
These
tragic situations are compounded by the fact that even if
an individual is religious, he is quickly
forgotten after he dies
(
uuo the shadowy, elusive
specter of the next. .
An Introduction to 12:1-8 on
Death and Life
Many attempts have been made to unify
Ecclesiastes 12:1-8 un-
der one analogical scheme.16 Some scholars have advocated that
the passage describes physiological changes. Others
have suggested
that it pictures a funeral, and still others have
indicated that it de-
picts a ruined house. The
wisest approach seems to be that suggested
by Gordis who maintains
that "most plausibly, old age is pictured
here without one line of thought being maintained
throughout."17
Fuerst concurs, stating that "it is better not to
insist on ...the pres-
ence of just one dominant
figure of speech."18 Perhaps Solomon saw
death and dying as such debilitating and devastating
events that he
determined to portray them through a multiplicity
of analogies
with great rapidity to ensure that the thrust of his
message was
clearly understood.
Because of the diversity of illustrative
material in the passage,
it is necessary to analyze each of the images
separately to determine
its specific point of reference.19 In doing so, the various conundrums
will be clarified and the integrity of the passage
maintained.20
The
passage is framed by references to God as the Originator of
life. Despite the inequities of life and the terrors
of death, God is
14 Derek Kidner, A Time to Mourn, and a
Time to Dance (
Varsity
Press, 1976), p. 59.
15 This verse may
be understood either as focusing solely on the wicked who in some
way make a pretense of being religious or as
presenting the wicked in the first half
and the righteous in the second half. For a
discussion of these two positions see
Delitzsch, Commentary on
the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, pp. 345-47, and Cren
shaw, Ecclesiastes:
A Commentary
(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1987), p. 154.
16 For a
discussion of some of the more common approaches toward unification, see
Delitzsch, Commentary on
the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, and Robert Gordis,
Ko-
,lleleth-The Man and
His World
(New York: Schoken Books, 1968)
17 Gordis, Koheleth-The
Man and His World, p. 339.
18 Fuerst, The Books of
Ruth, Esther, Ecclesiastes, The Song of Songs, Lamentations:
rhe Five Scrolls, p. 152.
19 R. N. Whybray, Ecclesiastes, The
New Century Bible Commentary (Grand
Rapids:
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1989), pp. 163-64.
20 Kidner, A Time to Mourn,
and a Time to Dance, p. 101.
Ecclesiastes 12: 1-8-Death, an Impetus for Life 303
ever the Creator of both the living (v. 1)21 and the dead (v. 7). God's
sovereignty is thus recognized as a regulating
element in all human
activities. If God is present at the beginning and
the ending of life,
He
most certainly is there throughout the totality of life. God thus
can give meaning to an otherwise meaningless
existence; He can even
help individuals make sense out of the senselessness
of death.
To aid the flow of thought through the passage, Qohelet em-
ployed threee
times the temporal marker rw,xE
dfa ("before") (vv. 1-2,
6)
to denote the transitions between the
temporal-psychological
shifts in the passage. While signaling a new thought,
the words
also recall the command of verse 1, "Remember
also your Creator."
The
primary activity to undertake throughout all phases of life is to
consider God and His involvement in the
life-death phenomenon.
The Days before the End
(12:1)
"Remember also" (rkoz;U) provides a transition
from the injunction
to live life to the fullest because it is short
and the future is uncertain
(11:1-10)
to a serious enjoinder to live life wisely precisely because it
is short and. the future is certain (12:1-7). That
future certainty is the
fact that every individual will die. Furthermore the
process of dy-
ing is an experience filled
not with pleasure but with sorrow.
"Remember" (rkoz;) is the most
appropriate choice for this solemn
religious adjuration.22 Though the Qal form of
this verb normally
refers "to inner mental acts, either with or
without reference to con-
comitant external acts,"23 the context of this passage (and of the en-
tire book) implies that action subsequent to the
mental activity must
be undertaken. Readers are challenged to remember,
not for the sake
of reminising but for
the purpose of revolutionizing their lives,
bringing them into conformity with God's eternal
and sovereign plan.
Various commentators have sought to emend j~yx,r;
ator") in the Masoretic Text to read "your well" or "your
cistern"--
euphemistic terms for one's wife.24 These commentators argue that
the verse is recommending "the enjoyment of
marital relations."25
21 See below for
a discussion of the arguments for and against j~yx,r;
God as Creator.
22 Gordis, Koheleth-The
Man and His World, p. 340.
23 Theological
Wordbook of the Old Testament, ed. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L.
Archer,
Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, 2 vols. (Chicago: Moody
Press, 1980), s.v. "rkazA," by
Andrew
Bowling, 1:241.
24 Proverbs
25 Both Whybray and Gordis discuss and
reject this view that requires an emended
text (Whybray, Ecclesiastes,
p. 163, and Gordis, Koheleth-The
Man and His World,
p.
340).
304 Bibliotheca
Sacra / July-September 1991
Others
have suggested "your pit" as a possible alternative, thereby
implying the grave. Still others have offered
"your vigor, well-be-
ing."26 These options are
similar in phonics but not in orthography.27
Though there is no textual support for these alternative read-
ings,28 those who recommend an
emended text do so because they be-
lieve that an "allusion
to God the Creator ill fits this context."29
However,
strong arguments based on the context may be made in fa-
vor of the reading
"your Creator." First, in 11:5, God is first men-
tioned since 9:7. Then the
Person of God is kept before the minds of
the readers in the concluding verses of the book
(11:5, 9; 12:1, 7, 13-
14).
Second, the reference to God provides an effective inclusio
to the
discussion of death, picturing God both as the One
from whom life
comes (v. 1) and as the One to whom life returns (v.
7). Third, though
in 11:9-10 Qohelet urged
his readers to enjoy the pleasures of life, he
counterbalanced that charge by a solemn
warning to remember the
judgment of God. To shift away from that
God-oriented perspective
in 12:1 to encourage the embracing of one's wife
would be contrary to
his argument.30 Fourth, remembering
one's "grave" or one's "well-be-
ing" might be shown to
fit the context of 12:1-7, but their use would
weaken the impact of the text.
In contrast to the alternative renderings, the
term j~yx,r;
able plural of majesty ,31 is highly appropriate in this context. Since
the theme of 12:1-8 is death, the end of physical
life, what better
way is there for expressing the nonfinality
of that death than to re-
mind the readers that God is Creator? Death is
pictured not as the
end but rather as the beginning of an everlasting
existence.
Readers are to remember God early in their lives
("in the days
of your youth")32 "because childhood and the prime of life are fleet-
ing" (
26 Crenshaw
discusses these various alternatives and selects "your wife" as his
pre-
ferred translation (Ecclesiastes:
A Commentary, pp. 184-85).
27 Kidner, A Time to Mourn, and a
Time to Dance, p. 100.
28 Eaton, Ecclesiastes:
An Introduction and Commentary, p. 148.
29 Crenshaw, Ecclesiastes:
A Commentary, p. 184.
30 Qohelet commended spousal love-making in 9:9 in a somewhat
less somber context.
'To
reintroduce it here would be an unnecessary (and incongruous) redundancy.
31 Whybray
suggests that j~yx,r;
says that the singular should be read (Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar, ed. E. Kautzsch
and A. E. Cowley, 2d
32 Qohelet did not define the age of "youth," except
as a contrast to what follows
1:12:2-5).
Furthermore he did not indicate that an older person cannot or should not re-
member his God, but rather he seems to imply
that the older an individual becomes,
the more difficult It is to change his life
when he does remember
Ecclesiastes
12:1-8—Death, an impetus for Life 305
aging process brings with it a decline that impacts
the vigor and
drive of one’s life.33 Pleasure and hope are inversely proportional to
age. Thus people ought to turn to God while there
is still time to dis-
cover the meaning of life and alter the course of
their lives.34 Gold-
berg suggests the intent behind Qohelet's
concern as follows: "We are
encouraged...to commit ourselves to our Creator
while we have our
wits about us, while we can still enjoy life, and
before we lose the
fullest capacity to even think of God's purposes
and desires."35
In verse 1 the first of the three rw,xE
dfa ("before") temporal
clauses, "before the evil days come,"
highlights the time of life be-
fore the onslaught of death's decay is noticeable.
This summarizes
in an overview fashion what is described in detail
in verses 2-7,
namely, that in his dying the individual will have no
delight.
To what do "the evil days" refer?
Rather than being a reference
to moral perversion 36 or the darkness of Sheol, 37 as some suggest,
"evil days" synonymous with "old age, in which
there is no plea-
sure."38 Such a view is
contextually appropriate because of its con-
trast to "in the days of
your youth" and because of its continuation of
the argument (11:6-10) that the early years of life
provide opportu-
nities for enjoyment whereas
the later years do not.
Furthermore the closing chapter of one's life
reduces dramati-
cally the of opportunity for
accomplishing the desires of one's heart.
They
are in fact times of "no delight"--times in which there is an
absence or impossibility39 (Nyxe) of delight. This
"delight" (Cp,H,) is an
emotion-laden word that implies an
attraction to some object, hence
a "desire" or a "longing" for
something.40
It conveys the idea of
"delight" or "pleasure" and may be used
"in reference to a person's
great interest."41
33
Eaton, Ecclesiastes: An Introduction and Commentary,
p. 148.
34
Interestingly Qohelet did not suggest that the act of
"remembering" God acts ei-
ther
as a deterrent to or as a cosmetic against the ravages of old age; it is not an
elixir
from
the mythical fountain of youth. The assumption is that everyone who lives long
enough
will experience the natural debilitating effects of the aging process.
35
Louis Goldberg, Ecclesiastes, Bible Study
Commentary (
Publishing House, 1983), p. 132.
36
Eaton, Ecclesiastes: An Introduction and Commentary, p. 148.
37
George A. Barton, A Critical and Exegetical
Commentary on the Book of Ecclesi-
astes,
International Critical Commentary (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1908), pp.
185-
86.
38
Gordis, Koheleth-The
Man and His World, p. 341.
39
Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, s.v.
"Nyixa,"
by Jack B. Scott, 1:37.
40
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A
Hebrew and English Lexicon
of
the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955), p. 343.
41
Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, s.v.
"CpeHA,"
by Leon J. Wood, 1:311.
306 Bibliotheca
Sacra / July-September 1991
The fact that an individual will lose his
delight in life seems to
indicate that he may tend to focus too much on
his infirmities to the
detriment of enjoying what God has created.42 He will have lost the
proper perspective on life and will have run counter
to the commands
to rejoice while growing up, to follow the
impulses of one's heart and
the desires of one's eyes, and to enjoy life with
one's own spouse (9:9;
11:9).
As Hengstenberg perceptively summarizes this message:
"How
mournful a thing must it be to pass into the
ranks of those who are
here described, without having tasted of the feast
of joys prepared
by the Creator for all those who remember
Him."43
The Days of the
Ending (12:2-5)
The second thematic marker (rw,xE
dfa, "before") shifts the
reader's thinking from that time of life before
the individual is
fully aware of the aging process to that time when he
is painfully
aware of his personal decay. Verses 2-5 include a
series of
metaphors that reveal 'that the signs forewarning
old age are no
longer mere warnings; they have become realities.
The beginning metaphor is that "the sun,
the light, the moon,
and the stars are darkened" (v. 2). Because
the passage speaks of ag-
ing and the dying process,
this verse should not be thought of as re-
ferring to the future cosmic
judgment in which the sun, moon, and
stars will be destroyed (Rev. 6:12-13). In addition,
this clause
should not be considered a reference to the loss of
one's family, draw-
ing on the symbolism of Genesis 37:9-10