Limitless Word

Ecclesiastes 12

WEBKJVBSBESVNKJVNASBNLT

📖 Ecclesiastes introduction

Read the chapter

1Remembernow 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”: ✦ 2While the sun and the light, The moon and the stars, Are not darkened, And the clouds do not return after the rain; ✦ 3In the day when the keepers of the house tremble, And the strong men bow down; When the grinders cease because they are few, And those that look through the windows grow dim; ✦ 4When the doors are shut in the streets, And the sound of grinding is low; When one rises up at the sound of a bird, And all the daughters of music are brought low. ✦ 5Also they are afraid of height, And of terrors in the way; When the almond tree blossoms, The grasshopper is a burden, And desire fails. For man goes to his eternal home, And the mourners go about the streets. ✦ 6Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, Or the golden bowl is broken, Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, Or the wheel broken at the well. ✦ 7Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it. ✦ 8“Vanityof vanities,” says the Preacher, “All is vanity.” ✦ 9And moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yes, he pondered and sought out and set in order many proverbs. ✦ 10The Preacher sought to find acceptable words; and what was written was upright—words of truth. ✦ 11The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd. ✦ 12And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh. ✦ 13Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. ✦ 14For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil. ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Where this chapter connects

Eccl 1 ·5Prov 1 ·4Eccl 11 ·4Ps 71 ·3Luke 1 ·3Gen 39 ·3Prov 22 ·3Ps 90 ·3

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 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.

Resources, by level

Lay

  • ★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical

    A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

  • SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical

    Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

← Ecclesiastes 11