While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:
Parallel translations
- WEB Before the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain;
- BSB before the light of the sun, moon, and stars is darkened, and the clouds return after the rain,
- NKJV While the sun and the light, The moon and the stars, Are not darkened, And the clouds do not return after the rain;
- NASB before the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are darkened, and clouds return after the rain;
- NLT Remember him before the light of the sun, moon, and stars is dim to your old eyes, and rain clouds continually darken your sky.
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 God before sun, light, moon, and stars are darkened and clouds return after rain, poetic images of the gloom of old age and decline. Turn to your Creator before life's brightness fades.
Overview
Qoheleth begins an extended allegory of aging and death, using the dimming of the heavenly lights and recurring storm clouds to depict failing strength and gathering sorrow. The imagery urges devotion to God while one still has vigor and clarity. Against this fading light, the gospel sets the unfading hope of Christ, in whose presence there is no more darkness or sorrow (Revelation 21:23; 22:5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Isa 5:30And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.
- 1 Sam 4:18And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.
- 1 Sam 4:15Now Eli was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were dim, that he could not see.
- Ezek 32:7–8And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.
- Ps 77:16The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled.
- Eccl 11:7–8Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun:
- Ps 42:7Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
- 1 Sam 3:2And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see;
- Ps 71:20Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
- Gen 48:10Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them, and embraced them.
- Gen 27:1And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I.
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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 12:2 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.