Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of adversity come and the years approach of which you will say, “I find no pleasure in them,”
Parallel translations
- WEB Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near, when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;
- KJV Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;
- NKJV Remembernow your Creator in the days of your youth, Before the difficult days come, And the years draw near when you say, “I have no pleasure in them”:
- NASB Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years approach when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;
- NLT Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. Honor him in your youth before you grow old and say, “Life is not pleasant anymore.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the hard days come when you find no pleasure in them. Devote your life to God early, before age and trouble close in.
Overview
This climactic exhortation calls the young to know and serve their Creator before the difficulties of old age arrive. It frames the whole of life under accountability to the God who made us. To remember the Creator is, in the fuller light of the gospel, to come to him through Christ, by whom all things were made and in whom alone life finds its meaning (Colossians 1:16; John 1:3).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 34
- Lam 3:27It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is still young.
- Eccl 11:8So if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all. But let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything to come is futile.
- Ps 71:17–18O God, You have taught me from my youth, and to this day I proclaim Your marvelous deeds.
- Prov 22:6Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
- Luke 18:16But Jesus called the children to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
- Ps 34:11Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
- 2 Tim 3:15From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
- Ps 90:10The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty if we are strong—yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
- 1 Sam 16:12–13So Jesse sent for his youngest son and brought him in. He was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the LORD said, “Rise and anoint him, for he is the one.”
- Eccl 11:10So banish sorrow from your heart, and cast off pain from your body, for youth and vigor are fleeting.
- Luke 2:40–52And the Child grew and became strong. He was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.
- 2 Sam 19:35I am now eighty years old. Can I discern what is good and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or drinks? Can I still hear the voice of singing men and women? Why should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king?
- Prov 8:17I love those who love me, and those who seek me early shall find me.
- 2 Chr 34:2–3And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right or to the left.
- Ps 22:9–10Yet You brought me forth from the womb; You made me secure at my mother’s breast.
- Gen 39:2And the LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master.
- 1 Sam 16:7But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected him; the LORD does not see as man does. For man sees the outward appearance, but the LORD sees the heart.”
- Gen 39:8–9But he refused. “Look,” he said to his master’s wife, “with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has entrusted everything he owns to my care.
- 1 Sam 2:26And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with man.
- 1 Sam 3:19–21And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and He let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground.
- Dan 1:17To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom. And Daniel had insight into all kinds of visions and dreams.
- Isa 26:8Yes, we wait for You, O LORD; we walk in the path of Your judgments. Your name and renown are the desire of our souls.
- Eph 6:4Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath; instead, bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
- Dan 1:8–9But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or wine. So he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself.
- Gen 39:23The warden did not concern himself with anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.
- Luke 1:15for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He shall never take wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb.
- 1 Kgs 3:6–12Solomon replied, “You have shown much loving devotion to Your servant, my father David, because he walked before You in faithfulness, righteousness, and uprightness of heart. And You have maintained this loving devotion by giving him a son to sit on his throne this very day.
- 1 Sam 2:18Now Samuel was ministering before the LORD—a boy wearing a linen ephod.
- 1 Kgs 18:12I do not know where the Spirit of the LORD may carry you off when I leave you. Then when I go and tell Ahab and he does not find you, he will kill me. But I, your servant, have feared the LORD from my youth.
- 1 Sam 17:36–37Your servant has killed lions and bears; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.”
- Job 30:2What use to me was the strength of their hands, since their vigor had left them?
- 1 Sam 1:28I now dedicate the boy to the LORD. For as long as he lives, he is dedicated to the LORD.” So they worshiped the LORD there.
- Hos 7:9Foreigners consume his strength, but he does not notice. Even his hair is streaked with gray, but he does not know.
- 1 Kgs 14:13All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. For this is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will receive a proper burial, because only in him has the LORD, the God of Israel, found any good in the house of Jeroboam.
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Christ at the center
The search that finds everything 'under the sun' to be vapor exposes the emptiness of life without God and drives us to the one who alone gives meaning, the resurrection that makes our labor not in vain.
How Ecclesiastes 12:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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