when the doors to the street are shut and the sound of the mill fades away, when one rises at the sound of a bird and all the daughters of song grow faint, when the doors to the street are shutThis phrase evokes imagery of isolation and seclusion. In the Hebrew context, "doors" (דְּלָתַיִם, delatayim) symbolize access and opportunity. The shutting of doors suggests a time when opportunities diminish, often interpreted as the onset of old age when one's ability to engage with the world decreases. Historically, city gates or doors were closed at night for protection, symbolizing a retreat from the vibrancy of life. Spiritually, this can be seen as a call to reflect on the closing chapters of life and the importance of spiritual readiness. and the sound of the mill fades away
The "mill" (טַחֲנָה, tachanah) represents daily labor and sustenance. In ancient times, the sound of grinding grain was a common, life-sustaining activity. As this sound fades, it signifies the cessation of work and productivity, often associated with aging. This fading sound can also symbolize the diminishing of earthly pursuits and the need to focus on eternal matters. Theologically, it reminds believers of the transient nature of earthly endeavors and the importance of storing treasures in heaven. when men rise up at the sound of birds
This phrase captures the light sleep and restlessness often experienced in old age. The Hebrew word for "rise up" (יָקוּם, yakum) suggests an awakening or alertness. Birds, often seen as symbols of new beginnings and hope, here indicate a time when even the slightest sound disturbs rest. This can be interpreted as a metaphor for spiritual vigilance, urging believers to be ever watchful and prepared for the Lord's return, as emphasized in the New Testament. but all their songs grow faint
The "songs" (שִׁיר, shir) refer to the joys and expressions of life. As these grow faint, it reflects the diminishing physical and sensory abilities in old age. Historically, music and song were integral to Hebrew culture, used in worship and celebration. The fading of songs can symbolize the waning of earthly joys and the anticipation of heavenly worship. Spiritually, it encourages believers to find their ultimate joy and fulfillment in God, whose presence offers eternal delight beyond the limitations of this life. Persons / Places / Events 1. The Preacher (Qoheleth)Traditionally identified as Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, who is considered the author of Ecclesiastes. He reflects on the meaning of life and the inevitability of aging and death. 2. The HouseSymbolic of the human body, often used in biblical literature to represent the physical dwelling of the soul. 3. The StreetsRepresents the outside world and the activities of life that become less accessible or relevant as one ages. 4. The MillA symbol of daily work and routine, which diminishes in importance or ability as one grows older. 5. The Daughters of SongLikely a metaphor for the voice and hearing, which weaken with age. Teaching Points The Inevitability of AgingRecognize that aging is a natural part of life. As the physical body declines, it is important to focus on spiritual growth and maturity. The Diminishing of Earthly ActivitiesAs we age, our priorities should shift from earthly pursuits to eternal values. This is a call to invest in what truly matters. The Importance of Listening to God's VoiceAs physical hearing may fade, strive to sharpen your spiritual hearing. Be attentive to God's voice through His Word and Spirit. The Value of Community and FellowshipThe "daughters of song" growing faint can remind us of the importance of maintaining fellowship and encouraging one another, especially as we age. Hope Beyond Physical DeclineWhile the body may weaken, our hope is in the Lord who renews our spirit and promises eternal life. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the imagery of "the doors to the street being shut" relate to the limitations we face as we age, and how can we prepare spiritually for these changes? 2. In what ways can the fading "sound of the mill" challenge us to reassess our daily routines and priorities in light of eternity? 3. How can we cultivate a sensitivity to God's voice as our physical senses may decline, and what practices can help us in this pursuit? 4. Reflect on a time when you experienced a "faintness" in your spiritual song. How did community or fellowship play a role in restoring your spiritual vitality? 5. Considering the themes of aging and renewal, how can the hope found in Isaiah 40:30-31 encourage us in our walk with God, especially during times of physical weakness? Connections to Other Scriptures Psalm 90This Psalm, attributed to Moses, also reflects on the brevity of life and the wisdom of numbering our days, similar to the themes in Ecclesiastes 12. 2 Corinthians 4:16Paul speaks about the outer self wasting away while the inner self is renewed, echoing the theme of aging and the hope of spiritual renewal. Isaiah 40:30-31These verses contrast human frailty with the strength that comes from the Lord, offering hope amidst the decline described in Ecclesiastes. People SolomonPlaces JerusalemTopics Arise, Bird, Birds, Bowed, Closed, Crushing, Daughters, Doors, Fades, Faint, Grinding, Grow, Low, Mill, Music, Musick, Noise, Rise, Rises, Riseth, Shut, Sing, Soft, Softly, Song, Songs, Start, Street, Streets, Subdued, VoiceDictionary of Bible Themes Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 5004 human race, and sin
5561 suffering, nature of
6200 imperfection, influence Ecclesiastes 12:2-7 5726 old age, attainment Ecclesiastes 12:3-4 5296 disabilities Library The Conclusion of the Matter
'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; 2. While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain; 3. In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, 4. And the doors shall be shut in …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureThe Work of Our Sanctification.
How much more easily sanctity appears when regarded from this point of view. If the work of our sanctification presents, apparently, the most insurmountable difficulties, it is because we do not know how to form a just idea of it. In reality sanctity can be reduced to one single practice, fidelity to the duties appointed by God. Now this fidelity is equally within each one's power whether in its active practice, or passive exercise. The active practice of fidelity consists in accomplishing the duties …
Jean-Pierre de Caussade—Abandonment to Divine Providence Circumstances and Consequences
And fears shall be in the way.' (Ecclesiastes xii. 5.) The man who wrote these words was specially emphasizing the importance of settling one's relationships to the great Creator before the coming of days when infirmities increase, and decay of natural powers sets in. The practical outcome of that thought is, that postponement only adds to one's difficulties when the battle really has to be fought. Amongst those difficulties the sacred writer places that natural foreboding, physical shrinking …
T. H. Howard—Standards of Life and Service The Ancestral Home
John Van Nest Talmage was born at Somerville, New Jersey, August 18, 1819 He was the fourth son in a family of seven brothers and five sisters. The roots of the Talmage genealogical tree may be traced back to the year 1630, when Enos and Thomas Talmage, the progenitors of the Talmage family in North America, landed at Charlestown, Massachusetts, and afterwards settled at East Hampton, Long Island. Dr. Lyman Beecher represents the first settlers of East Hampton as "men resolute, enterprising, acquainted …
Rev. John Gerardus Fagg—Forty Years in South China Letter cxxvi. To Marcellinus and Anapsychia.
Marcellinus, a Roman official of high rank, and Anapsychia his wife had written to Jerome from Africa to ask him his opinion on the vexed question of the origin of the soul. Jerome in his reply briefly enumerates the several views that have been held on the subject. For fuller information he refers his questioners to his treatise against Rufinus and also to their bishop Augustin who will, he says, explain the matter to them by word of mouth. Although it hardly appears in this letter Jerome is a decided …
St. Jerome—The Principal Works of St. Jerome Obedience to God the Way to Faith in Christ.
"When Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, He said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God."--Mark xii. 34. The answer of the scribe, which our blessed Lord here commends, was occasioned by Christ's setting before him the two great commandments of the Law. When He had declared the love of God and of man to comprehend our whole duty, the scribe said, "Master, Thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but He: and to love Him with all the heart, and with …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII The Abrogation of the Saybrook Platform
That house cannot stand.--Mark iii, 25. The times change and we change with them.--Proverb. The omission of all persecuting acts from the revision of the laws in 1750 was evidence that the worst features of the great schism were passing, that public opinion as a whole had grown averse to any great severity toward the Separatists as dissenters. But the continuance in the revised statutes of the Saybrook Platform as the legalized constitution of the "Presbyterian, Congregational or Consociated Church," …
M. Louise Greene, Ph. D.—The Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut A Treatise of the Fear of God;
SHOWING WHAT IT IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM THAT WHICH IS NOT SO. ALSO, WHENCE IT COMES; WHO HAS IT; WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS; AND WHAT THE PRIVILEGES OF THOSE THAT HAVE IT IN THEIR HEARTS. London: Printed for N. Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry, over against the Stocks market: 1679. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," and "a fountain of life"--the foundation on which all wisdom rests, as well as the source from whence it emanates. Upon a principle …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 1 to Pray Does not Imply that Without Prayer God Would not Give us Anything...
1. To pray does not imply that without prayer God would not give us anything or that He would be unaware of our needs, but it has this great advantage, that in the attitude of prayer the soul is best fitted to receive the Giver of blessing as well as those blessings He desires to bestow. Thus it was that the fullness of the Spirit was not poured out upon the Apostles on the first day, but after ten days of special preparation. If a blessing were conferred upon one without a special readiness for …
Sadhu Sundar Singh—At The Master's Feet The Fifth Commandment
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.' Exod 20: 12. Having done with the first table, I am next to speak of the duties of the second table. The commandments may be likened to Jacob's ladder: the first table respects God, and is the top of the ladder that reaches to heaven; the second respects superiors and inferiors, and is the foot of the ladder that rests on the earth. By the first table, we walk religiously towards God; by …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments Appendix v. Rabbinic Theology and Literature
1. The Traditional Law. - The brief account given in vol. i. p. 100, of the character and authority claimed for the traditional law may here be supplemented by a chronological arrangement of the Halakhoth in the order of their supposed introduction or promulgation. In the first class, or Halakhoth of Moses from Sinai,' tradition enumerates fifty-five, [6370] which may be thus designated: religio-agrarian, four; [6371] ritual, including questions about clean and unclean,' twenty-three; [6372] concerning …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah A Prayer when one Begins to be Sick.
O most righteous Judge, yet in Jesus Christ my gracious Father! I, wretched sinner, do here return unto thee, though driven with pain and sickness, like the prodigal child with want and hunger. I acknowledge that this sickness and pain comes not by blind chance or fortune, but by thy divine providence and special appointment. It is the stroke of thy heavy hand, which my sins have justly deserved; and the things that I feared are now fallen upon me (Job iii. 25.) Yet do I well perceive that in wrath …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety The Christian Man
Scripture references: Genesis 1:26-28; 2:7; 9:6; Job 33:4; Psalm 100:3; 8:4-9; Ecclesiastes 7:29; Acts 17:26-28; 1 Corinthians 11:7; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10; 1 Corinthians 15:45; Hebrews 2:6,7; Ephesians 6:10-18; 1 Corinthians 2:9. WHAT IS MAN? What Shall We Think of Man?--Who is he? What is his place on the earth and in the universe? What is his destiny? He is of necessity an object of thought. He is the subject of natural laws, instincts and passions. How far is he free; how far bound? …
Henry T. Sell—Studies in the Life of the Christian The Heavenly Footman; Or, a Description of the Man that Gets to Heaven:
TOGETHER WITH THE WAY HE RUNS IN, THE MARKS HE GOES BY; ALSO, SOME DIRECTIONS HOW TO RUN SO AS TO OBTAIN. 'And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain: escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.'--Genesis 19:17. London: Printed for John Marshall, at the Bible in Gracechurch Street, 1698. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. About forty years ago a gentleman, in whose company I had commenced my …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Of the Effects of those Prerogatives.
From these prerogatives there will arise to the elect in heaven, five notable effects:-- 1. They shall know God with a perfect knowledge (1 Cor. i. 10), so far as creatures can possibly comprehend the Creator. For there we shall see the Word, the Creator; and in the Word, all creatures that by the Word were created; so that we shall not need to learn (of the things which were made) the knowledge of him by whom all things were made. The most excellent creatures in this life, are but as a dark veil …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety Ecclesiastes
It is not surprising that the book of Ecclesiastes had a struggle to maintain its place in the canon, and it was probably only its reputed Solomonic authorship and the last two verses of the book that permanently secured its position at the synod of Jamnia in 90 A.D. The Jewish scholars of the first century A.D. were struck by the manner in which it contradicted itself: e.g., "I praised the dead more than the living," iv. 2, "A living dog is better than a dead lion," ix. 4; but they were still more …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Christ the King at his Table. Ss 1:2-5,12,13,17.
Christ the King at his table. SS 1:2-5,12,13,17. Let him embrace my soul, and prove Mine interest in his heav'nly love; The voice that tells me, "Thou art mine," Exceeds the blessings of the vine. On thee th' anointing Spirit came, And spreads the savor of thy name; That oil of gladness and of grace Draws virgin souls to meet thy face. Jesus, allure me by thy charms, My soul shall fly into thine arms! Our wand'ring feet thy favors bring To the fair chambers of the King. [Wonder and pleasure tune …
Isaac Watts—The Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts Links Ecclesiastes 12:4 NIVEcclesiastes 12:4 NLTEcclesiastes 12:4 ESVEcclesiastes 12:4 NASBEcclesiastes 12:4 KJV
Ecclesiastes 12:4 Commentaries
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