Remember him before the light of the sun, moon, and stars is dim to your old eyes, and rain clouds continually darken your sky.
Parallel translations
- WEB Before the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain;
- KJV While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor 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;
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 5:30They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land behold, darkness and distress. The light is darkened in its clouds.
- 1 Sam 4:18When he made mention of God’s ark, Eli fell from off his seat backward by the side of the gate; and his neck broke, and he died; for he was an old man, and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years.
- 1 Sam 4:15Now Eli was ninety-eight years old. His eyes were set, so that he could not see.
- Ezek 32:7–8When I shall extinguish you, I will cover the heavens, and make its stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light.
- Ps 77:16The waters saw you, God. The waters saw you, and they writhed. The depths also convulsed.
- Eccl 11:7–8Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to see the sun.
- Ps 42:7Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.
- 1 Sam 3:2At that time, when Eli was laid down in his place (now his eyes had begun to grow dim, so that he could not see),
- Ps 71:20You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.
- Gen 48:10Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he couldn’t see. He brought them near to him; and he kissed them, and embraced them.
- Gen 27:1When Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, “My son?” He said to him, “Here I am.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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.