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 (i.e., the sun meaning father,
the moon meaning mother, and the stars meaning
brothers). Rather,
it should be understood as being generically
suggestive of one or more
of the following: "a time of affliction and
sadness,"44 "the fading
capacity for joy,"45 "the more general desolations of old age,"46 or the
failing of one's eyesight "so that the
lights of all sorts become
dim."47 Most simply,48
the clause is expressing metaphorically the
42
H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Ecclesiastes (
1968), p. 274.
43
Ernest W. Hengstenberg, A Commentary on
Ecclesiastes (reprint,
James and Klock,
1977), p. 245.
44
J. M. Fuller, ed., Proverbs-Ezekiel, The Bible
Commentary (
Book House, 1972), p. 111.
45
Eaton, Ecclesiastes: An Introduction and Commentary, p. 148.
46
Kidner, A Time to
Mourn, and a Time to Dance, p. 101.
47
Barton, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary
on the Book of Ecclesiastes, p. 186.
48
Simplicity and caution are perhaps the best guides in attempting to understand
these
and the following analogies regarding old age. Kidner
agrees: "If some obscuri-
ties
in these lines can be clarified, so much the better for kindling our imagination;
but
Ecclesiastes 12:1-8
Death, an Impetus for Life 307
loss of joy and excitement in life.49
Solomon next pictured old age as clouds that
return after50 the
rain. Delitzsch succinctly
describes the Hebrew concept of the cloud
image when he states, "A cloudy day is = a day
of misfortune, Joel ii.
2,
Zeph. i. 15; an overflowing
rain is a scourge of God, Ezek. xiii. 13,
xxxviii.
22:”51 Ecclesiastes 12:2 may have in mind a Middle Eastern
winter rainstorm, which is normally followed by blue
skies that
promise good weather. However, "the
unexpected return of the
clouds soon after a storm, once more shutting out the
light, is a bad
sign and brings gloom, both literally and
psychologically."52 This
imagery is not depicting gradually failing
eyesight or the onset of
glaucoma,53 but rather the repetitive gloom into which the elderly
may be prone to fall as they encounter setback
after setback in the fi-
nal years of their lives.
Much as an elderly person recovers from one
injury or illness only to be subjected to another, the
individual's
hopes and dreams are continually being dashed. Thus
as Kidner
comments, "the clouds will always gather
again, and time will no
longer heal, but kill."54
so
much the worse if they tempt us into treating this graceful poem as a laboured cryp-
togram,
or forcing every detail into a single rigid scheme" (A Time to Mourn,
and a
Time to Dance, p. 101).
Furthermore stepping
beyond the bounds of simplicity and caution may lead to an
allegorical
hermeneutic. The reader must be wary of commentators who pull from
these
analogies more than can be justifiably proven. For example Plumptre
states that
"the sun may be
the Spirit, the Divine light of the body, the moon as the Reason that
reflects
the light, the stars as the senses that give but a dim light in the absence of
the
sun and moon" (E. H. Plumptre, Ecclesiastes:
or the Preacher, with Notes and In-
troduction
[
decrying
various attempts at interpreting these figures and calling those attempts
"wholly or for the
most part unfortunate," also oversteps the bounds of careful
hermeneutics.
He suggests that the sun, light, moon, and stars may be understood as
alluding,
respectively, to the spirit, the light of self-examination, the soul, and the
five
senses (Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, pp. 403-5).
49
Leupold states, "In the Scriptures 'light' is
quite generally a symbol of joy and,
when
it is sent by God, a token of favor. Just as clearly the Scriptures let
darkness be
synonymous
with judgment and punishment, cf., Joel 3:4;
Jer.
4:33; Ezek 32:7; Rev. 6:12" (Exposition of Ecclesiastes, pp.
276-77).
50
Eaton suggests that rHaxa
("after") may mean "with," though he recognizes that
such
a translation is not normally associated with rHaxa
(Ecclesiastes: An Introduction
and
Commentary, p. 148, n.).
51
Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and
Ecclesiastes, p. 405.
52
Whybray, Ecclesiastes, p. 164.
53
Crenshaw. Ecclesiastes: A Commentary, p. 185.
54 Kidner, A Time to Mourn,
and a Time to Dance, p. 102.
returning
clouds are representative of "the despair and terror of imminent
death" that
the
individual faces "at the close of those miserable years" (Daniel C.
Fredericks,
"Life's Rise and Demise in Ecclesiastes
11:1-12:8," paper presented to the Evangelical
Theological Society,
308 Bibliotheca
Sacra / July-September 1991
The metaphors in verse 3 have been variously
interpreted by
some as "a household falling into decay or
house struck by a violent
storm."55 Other commentators
understand the verses to be picturing
the deterioration of the human body as it ages56--the watchmen rep-
resenting the arms, the mighty men the legs, the
grinding ones the
teeth, and those at the window the eyes.57 The uncertainties in
these images, therefore, result in a general lack of
agreement among
scholars regarding how best to depict each
individual image.58
What can be noted, however, is that Qohelet did not play fa-
vorites. He did not picture the
decaying process of old age as solely
the lot of one sex as opposed to the other. In
fact, of the four meta-,
phors in this verse, he
relates two of them to the male population
and the other two to females. Thus the terrors
associated with dying
are a reality of life for all people.
"The watchmen of the house" who
"tremble" are those who pre-
serve, protect, and guard the house. Their function
is to ensure that
everyone within the house is safe and secure. Yet
these men
"tremble," "quake," are "in terror,"
or "quiver."59 What might cause
this trembling is the degeneration of the nervous
and muscular sys-
tem of the body60 or a powerful outside
force that greatly intimi-
dates the watchmen, causing them to cower in fear.
What then is the impact on the house? What is
the impact on
the elderly when the guardians tremble? Protection
against a
dreaded enemy decreases. Vulnerability to attack
increases and
there is a subsequent increase in the potential for
catastrophe or ul-
timate destruction to occur.
The second of the two male-oriented metaphors is
that "mighty
rnen stoop." Because lyiHa ("mighty") has a broad semantic range in-
cluding strength, efficiency,
ability, wealth, force, army, and
55 Whybray, Ecclesiastes, p. 164.
56 The words
found in the Egyptian Ptah-hotep's preface to his
Instruction to his son
may
be of interest at this point. He wrote, "Feebleness has arrived; dotage is
coming. .
..The eyes are weak, the ears are deaf, the strength is disappearing. ...The heart is
forgetful.
...All taste is gone" (cited by R. B. Y. Scott, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes,
The An-
chor
Bible [
for
Barzillai's description of his physical deterioration
at the age of 80.
57 Fuller, Proverbs-Ezekiel,
p. 111, and Rylaarsdam, The
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, The
Song of Solomon,
p. 132.
58
Crenshaw, Ecclesiastes: A Commentary, p. 186. J'
59 Brown,
Driver, and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament,
p.
266; and Theological Wordbook of the Old
Testament, s.v. "faUz,"
by Andrew Bowling,
1238.
60 Plurnptre
suggests that the trembling may be caused by "the unsteady gait of age,
perhaps
even of paralysis" (Ecclesiastes: or The Preacher, with Notes and Introduc-
tion,
pp. 214-15).
Ecclesiastes
12:1-8-Death, an Impetus for Life 309
virtue,61 determining exactly who these men are is difficult. They
undoubtedly are men of high standing, at least in
the house, if not in
the city. Whybray
indicates that they "may be masters, but are
probably the stalwart men-servants."62
Why would such honorable (and perhaps strong)
men stoop? Are
they doing so because of old age or are they bending
over in abject sub-
mission to some outside force? The verb tvafA ("stoop," here in the
Hithpael form) is best
translated "bend themselves,"63 and there-
fore would seem to favor the latter position. They
are not naturally
bent over nor do they choose to be, but rather
forces working contrary
to their will impose conditions to which they
finally succumb.
The next metaphor states that "the grinding
ones [feminine
form] stand idle because they are few." An
often held view of this
metaphor argues that "the grinding
ones" (tnoHEF.oha) are teeth. If this is
true, then Delitzsch is
correct when he states that "they [the teeth]
stand no longer in a row; they are isolated, and (as
is to be supposed)
are also in themselves defective.”64 This view, however, does not
seem to fit the pattern of development in this
verse. The other three
metaphors in the verse are more easily understood
as references to
actual people rather than as references to body parts.
A second view of this metaphor presents
"the grinding ones" as
women (i.e., female servants) who make flour for the
household's
bread.65 This metaphor thus suggests that the women
are no longer
able to complete their work because they are few in
number and ap-
parently need a full complement
of laborers to function properly.66
Though
this view is plausible, it has one major weakness, as Cren-
shaw poins
out. Would not one expect the grinders to work even
more diligently if they are few in number, unless
the implication is
that the residents of the house are also few in
number and have lit-
tle need for food?67
If Crenshaw's implication is correct, then the
metaphor changes
its focus from the visible grinders to an
unspecified group of people in
the house who no longer possess the wherewithal to
support a flour-
61
Brown, Driver, and Briggs, A Hebrew and English
Lexicon of the Old Testament,
pp. 298-99; and Theological Wordbook of the
Old Testament, s.v. “lUH"
by Carl Philip
Weber, 1:271-72.
62
Whybray, Ecclesiastes, p. 164.
63 Brown, Driver, and
Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, p.
736.
64
Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and
Ecclesiastes, p. 407.
65 Whybray, Ecclesiastes, p. 164.
66 Hengstel
berg, A Commentary on Ecclesiastes, p. 246.
67
Crenshaw., Ecclesiastes: A Commentary, p. 186.
310 Bibliotheca
Sacra / July-September 1991
ishing household. Whereas such
a shift of focus is possible, it would
seem to lessen the impact of the metaphor, making
the reference to
the aging process indirect rather than direct.
An alternative suggestion is that the grinders
themselves have
become few through attrition due to old age,
incapacitation, or
death. Under such conditions, there would be much
sadness among
the remaining grinders because so many of their
friends are no longer
around to make their work a joy. So the remaining
grinders, them-
selves too weary to carry on, have just given up.
The fourth metaphor in this verse (and the
second one directed
toward women) states that "those who look through
windows grow,
dim." Most commentators agree that "those
who look through win-
dows" is a reference to
the women of the household who, according to
Middle
Eastern custom, were not allowed to mingle with the men in
the business of the household and so they peered
through the lat-
tice-work of the house.68 That they "grow dim" means either (a)
that others outside the house have a more difficult
time seeing them
in the windows because they go to the windows no
more,69 (b) that it
has become dark,70 or (c) that they
themselves have a harder time
seeing, for their eyes have lost their brilliance.71 In each case, the
women are becoming progressively isolated from the
outside world,
shut off from whatever joys and pleasures they once
knew.
The writer continued this isolation-fear imagery
as he began
verse 4 by stating that for the aging person "the
doors on the street
are shut." Immediately the reader grasps the
idea that life is not as
it once was or as it should be. What once allowed
people or objects to
go in or out no longer does so. The doors are
closed-perhaps through—
perhaps through inattentiveness or a lack of
care by those re-
sponsible for opening them, or
perhaps through their own inability
to be opened any more.
"Doors" (MyitalAd;) is a dual form meaning
"literally 'double doors,'
only found at the entrance to cities, temples and
exceptionally grand
houses,"72 most houses apparently
having had only one door.73 The
doors may remain shut as a picture of a
self-enclosed, self-isolated
group of people or may refer symbolically, as many
suggest, to the
lips or the ears.74
68
Gordis, Koheleth-The
Man and His World, p. 342.
69
Ibid., p. 343.
70
Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and
Ecclesiastes, p. 405.
71
Barton, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary
on the Book of Ecclesiastes, p. 188.
72
Whybray, Ecclesiastes, p. 165.
73 Crenshaw,
Ecclesiastes: A Commentary, p. 186.
74
Fuller, Proverbs-Ezekiel, p. 111. Those who accept the lips or ears
metaphor do so
Ecclesiastes
12:1-8—Death, an impetus for Life 311
"The sound of the grinding mill is
low" because few people are
working there (cf. v. 3). Such a condition would
be discouraging to
the elderly because what they remember as a
cheerful indicator of
the exciting activities of business is now more and
more being shut out
I of their lives. They in turn find
themselves "increasingly cut off
from the hum of daily life."75
The Hebrew of 12:4, however, does not isolate
the metaphor of
the grinding mill from the previous metaphor of the
doors on the
street being shut. Rather, it uses the sound of the
mill being low to
explain why the doors are closed. The B
in lpaw;Bi (''as. . . low") func-
tions as a temporal
preposition indicating that the doors on the
street are shut "when" or "at the same
time as'' the activity of the
grinding mill decreases dramatically. If the
grinders in verse 3 are
understood as a reference to teeth, then that lends
credibility to the
view that “doors" here refer to lips. On the
other hand if the
grinders in verse 3 are women who prepare flour
for bread, then the
house imagery better fits the closing of the doors in
this verse. This
latter view seems preferable.
Having completed what
ning with verse 3b and
ending with verse 4a,76 the symbolism shifts
to picture death from still another angle, the
chirping of birds-"one
will arise at the sound of the bird." Whybray offers two possible in-
terpretations for this illustration:
"either that the elderly get up
early in the morning...or that their voice becomes
high like that of
a bird."77 What is so discouraging
or sad about arising when birds
sing or about the pitch of one's voice being
elevated? The latter
would be merely a statement of fact and therefore not
necessarily a
source of worry, but simply rather a reminder that one
has aged. The
former (rising when birds sing) only becomes a matter
of dread if it
implies that one is awakened by every little
sound. Kidner points
out, however, that if the previous metaphors imply
that deafness
because of the dual nature of those organs. The closure of the lips
would imply that
little is ingested in the way of food or that little is allowed to
pass out in the way of
speech. The shutting off of the ears, of course, would suggest
that the hearing of the
older
person has diminished greatly. Those who favor the lips and ears metaphor
here
in 12:4 tend also to argue for the eyes symbolism of verse 3 in reference to
"those
who
look through windows grow dim." Hence they do not understand
"doors" to be
eyes
despite what might seem to be a logical metaphoric relationship due to the du-
alism of the doors and the dual nature of
the eyes (or of the eyelids).
75 Eaton, Ecclesiastes: An Introduction and Commentary,
p. 149.
76
the
limited milling (either ceasing or its sound is decreasing) which frame the
com-
ments about the openings in the houses of
the millers ('windows' and 'doors')" ("Life's
Rise and
Demise in Ecclesiastes 11:1-12:8," p. 21).
77 Whybray, Ecclesiastes, p.
165. See also Crenshaw, Ecclesiastes: A Commentary,
pp. 186-87.
312 Bibliotheca
Sacra / July-September 1991
Accompanies
old age, then the elderly person would "hardly be wak-
ened or startled by the
sparrow."78
The music metaphor is continued in the
final portion of verse 4:
“all the daughters of song will sing softly." This may refer to female
singers, to song birds, or to musical notes.79 That they "will sing
softly" may mean that the sound is faint to the
ears of the elderly,80
that for the elderly "all singing as well as
all appreciation of sing-
ing is a thing of the
past,"81 or that the singers themselves have lost
the ability to sing.82 A further possible interpretation is that the
singers sing softly for fear of waking the
elderly who have difficulty
sleeping and who arouse easily, even at the sound
of the birds chirp-
mg. No matter which view is correct, the
disheartening fact is that
those who have aged in this way are no longer able to
enjoy what
was once a pleasure to them.
The quiet sadness of the metaphors in
verse 4 changes in verse 5
into what Crenshaw terms "a full measure of
existential Angst."83
Fear
now runs rampant. Those who have grown
old "are afraid of a
high place and of
terrors on the road." A
straightforward rendering
of these two pictures of fear best expresses their
meaning. To a person
who is old, feeble, and defenseless, the world
looms as a place of
great risks and physical dangers. Delitzsch equates
this fear to that
of the sluggard of Proverbs
As
the sluggard says: there is a lion in the way, and
under this pre-
tence remains slothfully at
home ... so old men do not venture out; for
to them a damp road
appears like a very morass; a gravelly path, as full
of neck-breaking hillocks;
an undulating path, as fear fully steep and
precipitous; that which is not
shaded, as oppressively hot and exhaust-
ing—they want strength and
courage to overcome difficulties, and their
anxiety pictures out dangers
before them where there are none.84
78 Kidner,
A Time to Mourn, and a Time to Dance,
p.102, n. Kidner suggests that the
phrase
may simply be "a note of time, like our 'up with the lark.'" Such a view again.
would
seem to present merely a statement of fact rather than a condition of sadness
re-
lated
to old age. Perhaps the tragedy is to be explained by a realization that in an
agricultural
society everyone who works is expected to rise at the break of dawn. The
elderly
person who is no longer required to work and thus has the privilege of sleeping
later
in the morning than others finds it impossible, however, to enjoy that luxury
be-
cause
his sleep is disturbed by the slightest sound.
79 Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar,
p.418, and Why bray, Ecclesiastes,
p.165.
80 Fuller,
Proverbs-Ezekiel, p.112.
81 Leupold,
Exposition of Ecclesiastes, p.280.
82 Whybray,
Ecclesiastes, p.165.
83 Crenshaw, 'The Shadow
of Death in Qohelet," p.207. Actually Crenshaw
makes
this
statement regarding Qohelet's overall view of death
as observed throughout the
Book of Ecclesiastes.
Crenshaw's words, however, seem especially appropriate here.
84 Delitzsch,
Commentary on the Song of Songs and
Ecclesiastes, pp.411-12.
Ecclesiastes
12:1-8—Death, an impetus for life 313
The
remaining three metaphors in Ecclesiastes 12:5 are difficult
to interpret. The two primary views are that the
imagery symbol-
izes either the rapid growth
of spring or the deterioration of the
human body. The former contrasts the downfall of a
house which
will never rise again with the fresh renewal of
nature which offers a
wellspring of hope. The latter understands that the
words focus on
the gradual encroachments of old age.85
Regarding the first of these three
images-"the almond tree
blossoms”-most commentators say the symbolism
refers to the white
hair of an elderly person. This view is favored because
the almond
blossom, which exhibits a pink color when it
blooms in January, very
soon there after becomes white at the tip, only to
fall to the ground
later like white snowflakes.86
Hengstenberg, however, offers a
different perspective. He con-
tends that both the context and the etymology of the
word for al-
mond tree (dqewA) support the notion that the tree is "a symbol of that
watchfulness with which old age is
visited."87
The word for almond
tree is similar to the verb "be watchful"
(dqawA).
For t he second of the three metaphors-"the
grasshopper drags
himself a long"-the following views are
most often suggested: (a)
the stiffness of the joints; (b) the bent figure of
an old person, (c) the
enormous; appetite of the locust which, becoming
weighted down by
its full stomach, moves awkwardly, (d) the
inability of the male sex
organ to function as it should in old age, and (e) an
emblem of small-
ness, indicating that even the smallest object is a
burden to carry.88
The first two explanations (stiffness and being
hunched over)
and possibly the fifth suggestion (difficulty in
burden-bearing) offer
the more reasonable suggestions of the meaning of
the grasshopper
illustration. The overeating view
(view c) functions at cross purposes
to imagery regarding the elderly's
loss of ability to eat (if grinders
in verses 3-4 refer to teeth) and to the picture
of the elderly's loss of
a desire to eat in the caperberry
metaphor below. Furthermore the
diminished sexual capacity view (view d) requires
that a double en-
tendre be understood-a
suggestion about the grasshopper not ob-
served elsewhere in Scripture.89
85 Crenshaw,
Ecclesiastes: A Commentary, p. 187.
86
Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and
Ecclesiastes, p. 413; Gordis, Ko-
heleth-The Man and His World, p. 345; and Whybray, Ecclesiastes, p. 166.
87
Hengstenberg, A Commentary on
Ecclesiastes, p. 248.
88
Barton, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the
Book of Ecclesiastes, p. 190;
Gordis, Koheleth-The Man and His World, p. 345; and Whybray, Ecclesiastes,
p.
166.
89
The word used here for grasshopper (bgAHA)
is used only four other times in Scripture:
Leviticus .1:22; Numbers 13:33; 2 Chronicles
314 Bibliotheca
Sacra / July-September 1991
The third metaphor in verse 5, "the caperberry is ineffective,"
is easier to interpret than the other two. Caperberries were used in
ancient times as a "provocative to
appetite."90 This implies, there-
fore, that in old age, not even an artificial
stimulant can move the
individual to do what in years gone by would have
been done with
gusto and relish.91
Verse 5 concludes with a straightforward
presentation of the
fact of death: "For man goes to his eternal
home while mourners go
about in the street." The verb j`lahA ("goes") is used euphemistically in
typical Hebrew fashion to express the concept of
dying.92 "To his
etemal home" indicates
that the end of that "going" is the individ-
ual’s final resting place.
As a common designator of the grave,93 the "eternal home" is "a
'home' for successive generations of a family [that] spans an
endless
period of time."94 It should not be thought of as
expressing anything
II
ore than the grave, nor should it be assumed that it introduces the
The nascent underpinnings of a theology of the
afterlife.
As Youngblood
states, "OT references to the afterlife are, for
the most part, shrouded
in darkness when compared to the fuller revelation
of the NT."95
The final clause of this section, "while
mourners go about in the
street," reveals one last insult that the dying
process has in store for
the aged. The irony of the clause should not be
missed. While the
man dies, and even before he is dead, professional
mourners gather
said to be an edible food, whereas in 2
Chronicles it becomes an instrument of God's
plague against the people of
smaIl stature of
people compared to the Nephilim giants of the land
(Num.
to God (Isa.
40:22).
90 Fuller, Proverbs-Ezekiel, p. 112.
9l Some such as Crenshaw have suggested that the caperberry was used as an aphro-
disiac, and thus the caperberry metaphor is a reference to dwindling sexual
desire in
old age (Ecclesiastes:
A Commentary, p. 188). Delitzsch and Whybray, however, find
110
records from antiquity (the earliest being from the Middle
Ages) that support such
a usage for the caperberry
(Delitzsch, Commentary
on the Song of Songs and Ecclesi-
astes, p. 416, and Whybray, Ecclesiastes,
pp. 166-67).
92 Nicholas J.
Tromp, Primitive Conceptions of Death and the Netherworld in the
Old
Testament (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1969), p. 167.
93 Whybray, Ecclesiastes,
p. 167; and Gordis, Koheleth-The Man and His World, p.
347.
Youngblood provides a thorough treatment of the phrase OmlAOf tyBe-lx, ("to his
eternal home"). Analyzing contemporary uses
from Mesopotamian, Ugaritic, and
Phoenician
sources on the one hand, and Egyptian sources on the other, he concludes
that OmlAOf tyBe should be
translated as "his dark house" rather than as "his eternal
home" (Ronald F. Youngblood, "Qoheleth's 'Dark House' [EccI12:5]," Journal of the
Evangelical
Theological Society 29 [December 1986]: 383-410).
94 Tromp, Primitive Conceptions of Death and the
Netherworld in the Old Testament, p. 78.
95 Youngblood,
"Qoheleth's 'Dark House' (Ecc. 12:5),"
p. 410.
Ecclesiastes
12:1-8—Death, an impetus for life 215
around in front of the dying man's house seeking
employment to en-
gage in the practice of mourning (cf. Jer. 9:16-20; Amos 5:16). Little
thought, if any, is given to the one who has
suffered the mockery and
misery of death. As Gordis
concludes, the tragedy of this man's
death "constitutes merely one more professional
routine for the hired
mourners--the vanity of life is climaxed by the
vanity of death!"96
The End of Days (12:6-8)
The beginning of this final analysis of death
again employs the
temporal marker rw,xE
dfa ("before"), the third such usage of this He-
brew phrase in the verses under study.97
The first (v. 1) places the
individual under the indictment of death but
seemingly (though not
actually) far removed from it. The second (v. 2)
dramatically por-
trays the rapidly deteriorating conditions of life
and the fast ap-
proach of death. Finally,
here, the last act of life (i.e., death) is
played out. There is no timidity about death when it
comes and
there is no escape for the individual whom death
attacks. Ulti-
mately what is discovered is
that both the body and the spirit of
the dead man return to their place of origin-the
body to the ground
and the spirit to God (v. 7).
In verse 6, Qohelet
portrayed the end of life by three graphic
metaphors: the crushing of a lamp, the shattering
of a jar, and the
breaking of a wheel. Each presents an
irreversible destruction, sym-
bolizing the suddenness and
finality of death. Furthermore each
picture may be thought of as suggestive of a
different type of life
that is taken in death. The rich imagery of the lamp
made up of the
cord and bowl appears to reflect the fact that even
the wealthy do
not escape death. The pitcher illustration, by
contrast, seems to
show that those who are fragile and helpless also do
not escape
death. And the wheel at the cistern pictures
apparently the strong,
utilitarian type of person as still another category
of individuals
who are unable to avoid death.
The two metaphors-the silver cord being broken
and the golden
bowl being crushed-are in reality only one,98
for the cord and the
bowl are parts of one lamp. Once the cord is cut,
the bowl drops to
the ground and is irreparably damaged. So too, when
the cord of life
is cut, the individual falls to the ground never
to rise again.
The final two images in this verse-the pitcher
and the
96
Gordis, Koheleth-The Man and
His World, p. 347.
97
Delitzfch, Commentary
on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, p. 419.
98
Barton, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the
Book of Ecclesiastes, p. 192;
and
Whybray, Ecclesiastes,
p. 167.
316 Bibliotheca
Sacra / July-September 1991
wheel-may also, according to certain commentators,
be two compo-
nents of one metaphor. Gordis suggests that Levy is correct when he
states, "One end of the cord has a pitcher, the
other a metal ball . . .
as a counterweight. When the cord is tom, ball,
pitcher and wheel
all fall to the bottom and are broken."99
Other commentators, however, view the two as
separate
metaphors.100 The fragile, easily broken pitcher suggests the
fragile
life of the elderly. It, like they, needs only to be
struck once and then
it is of no use to those who are under the sun.101 Likewise, the crush-
ing of the wheel is assumed
to symbolize the total destruction of life
at the point of death.
Concluding these dramatic illustrations of
devastation, Solomon
moves from what to many has been a series of
indistinct metaphors in
verses 2-6 to a picture that is unmistakably clear in
verse 7. Death,
simply and finally, is the separation of body and
spirit.
An important point to note, however, is that the
purpose in verse
I
(and throughout the Book of Ecclesiastes) is not to present a theol-
ogy of the afterlife. .The
goal was not to have readers understand
the details of life after death, but rather to have
them recognize the
fact of the existence of an afterlife so that they
might live eternally
purposeful lives here and now. Wright states this
thesis in this
way:
The
dead have run their course. They are waiting in Sheol
for the
judgment. They do not, like the
living, know what is happening on the
earth. They have no further
opportunities of earning the Master's re-
ward. Their bodies, the
vehicles of the emotions of love and hatred and
envy, have gone to dust, and
no more can they share in life under the
sun.102
Verse 7 begins by stating that "the dust
will return to the earth
as it was." "Dust" (rpAfA) refers symbolically to the physical nature
(If the individual. This is a favorite term
employed by Old Testa-
ment writers to remind the
reader of his or her "earthly origin (Gn.
2:7;
110dy,
being in essence dust, returns to dust when the individual
99
Gordis and Crenshaw also espouse this view (Gordis, Koheleth-The Man and
his World, p. 348, and
Crenshaw, Ecclesiastes: A Commentary,
p. 188).
100
Barton, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the
Book of Ecclesiastes, p. 192;
Eaton, Ecclesiastes:
An Introduction and Commentary, p. 150; Kidner, A Time to
Mourn,
and a Time to Dance, p. 103; and Leupold,
Exposition of Ecclesiastes, pp.
283-84.
101
Leupold,
Exposition of Ecclesiastes, p. 285.
102
Wright, "The Interpretation of Ecclesiastes," p. 147.
103
Eaton, Ecclesiastes:
An Introduction and Commentary, p. 150.
Ecclesiastes
12:1-8—Death, an impetus for life 317
dies.104 Fuerst presents the
perspective of life and death in Ecclesi-
astes as follows: "Migration
from dust to dust, with a brief moment
for wisdom and striving and reflection, is the fate
of man."105
Verse 7 ends by differentiating the disposition
of the human
spirit from the dissolution of the human body. Despite
the interplay
between the two during life, there is no
absorption of the one by the
other in death. Each has a separate destiny. Whereas
the body
goes back to the earth as dust, the spirit returns
to God who gave it.
To his credit, though he understands the
finality of death to be
a tragic disruption of human life, Solomon
neither condemns that
fact nor reproaches God for making life "a
temporary gift which God
would one day withdraw."106
As the body and spirit of the dead person return
to their origins
(v.
7), so the author in verse 8 returns to his original remarks in 1:2
"'Vanity
of vanities,' says the Preacher, 'all is vanity!'" These
words seemingly declare that all in life and in death
is "futile"107
(lb,h,). Crenshaw is led to
assert that "one cannot imagine such a con-
clusion if the allusion to
breath's return to God contained the slight-
est ground for hope. In
truth, divine support of life has vanished for
Qoheleth.'108 Crenshaw's pessimistic position, however,
fails to
recognize that the statement "all is
futile," is thoroughly steeped in
Qohelet's positive understanding of the
significance of life as he
presents it throughout the book.
In line with this view of life and in light of
the reality of
death, individuals. are
challenged to live to the fullest and at the
same time to be ever mindful of the transitory
nature of life and of
the sudden, irreversible coming of death. Qohelet urged individu-
als, moreover, to remember
their Creator in the days of their youth
(12:1)
and to "fear God and keep His commandments" throughout all
the days of their lives (v. 13). This therefore
presents a balanced
picture of life: "Man should enjoy what he
can, be circumspect and
pious, and fear the Lord; but [at the same time
recognize a sense] of
104
Carl Shank, "Qoheleth's World and Life View as
Seen in His Recurring
Phrases,"
105
Fuerst, The Books of Ruth,
Esther, Ecclesiastes, The Song of Songs, Lamentations:
The Five Scrolls, p. 153.
106
Whybray, Ecclesiastes, p. 168.
107
Though lb,h, may be used in a
variety of ways depending on its context, the sense
of
"futile" seems to fit the present context best. Furthermore it
completes the introduc-
tory
remark. in 1:2 and gives structure to the entire Book
of Ecclesiastes. For a discus-
sion
of the uses of lb,h,, see Theophile Meek, "Transplanting the Hebrew Bible,"
Jour-
nal
of Biblical Literature 79 (1960): 331.
108
Crenshaw, "The Shadow of Death in Qoheleth,"
p. 210.
318 Bibliotheca
Sacra / July-September 1991
helplessness because the inexorable
round of life finally does come to
an end."109
Conclusion
Based on this study of death and dying in
Ecclesiastes, including
an examination of 12:1-8, the final and most
extensive passage in the
book on the subject, several conclusions may be
drawn about the life-
death phenomenon.
1. Everyone must turn to God while there is
still time, because
the end of days will come swiftly.
2. The aging, dying process, though in no way to
be considered
beautiful, does post warning signs of impending
doom-signs that
need to be heeded to ensure a successful life now
and a proper reward
after death.
3. Laying up treasures in this world is futile,
because death
will come for the individual, and the world will
continue on as
though he or she never existed.
4. No matter how long one lives or how much
preparation one
makes for dying, death comes suddenly and without
fail.
5. Life after death does exist, and one needs to
live now in such
a way as to be ready to meet one's Maker.
Hengstenberg summarizes well this
philosophy of life and
death in Ecclesiastes.
Since
all things are vain, man, who is subject to vanity, should do all
in his power to enter into
a living relation to Him who is the true abso-
lute Being, and through
fellowship with Him to participate, himself, in a
true eternal being. All
being vanity, man should not further vex himself
about a "handful of
vanity"-he should not care much whether he have
[sic] to suffer a
little more or a little less, but [should] attach importance
alone to that which either
hinders or favours his fellowship with Him
who is the true absolute,
personal, Being.110
"Vanity
of vanities, all is vanity"; yet with God there is hope.
109
Goldberg, Ecclesiastes, p. 137.
110
Hengstenberg, A Commentary on
Ecclesiastes, p. 257.
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