BibleTools.info

Bible Verse Explanations and Resources


Loading...

Ecclesiastes 12:4

King James Version (KJV)
And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low;
Adam Clarke
Bible Commentary

And the doors shall be shut in the streets -

5. The doors - the lips, which are the doors by which the mouth is closed.

6. Be shut in the streets - The cavities of the cheeks and jaws, through which the food may be said to travel before it is fitted by mastication or chewing to go down the aesophagus into the stomach. The doors or lips are shut to hinder the food in chewing from dropping out; as the teeth, which prevented that before, are now lost.

7. The sound of the grinding is low - Little noise is now made in eating, because the teeth are either lost, or become so infirm as not to nsuffer their being pressed close together; and the mouth being kept shut to hinder the food from dropping out, the sound in eating is scarcely heard. The teeth are divided into three kinds: -

  1. The dentes incisores, or cutting teeth, in the front of the jaw.
  • The dentes canini, or dog teeth, those in the sides of the jaws, for gnawing, or tearing and separating hard or tough substances. And,
  • Dentes molares, or grinding teeth, the posterior or double teeth, in both jaws, generally termed the grinders; because their office is to grind down the substances that have been cut by the fore teeth, separated into their parts or fibres by the dog teeth, and thus prepare it for digestion in the stomach.

    • 8. He shall rise up at the voice of the bird - His sleep is not sound as it used to be; he slumbers rather than sleeps; and the crowing of the cock awakes him. And so much difficulty does he find to respire while in bed, that he is glad of the dawn to rise up and get some relief. The chirping ot the sparrow is sufficient to awake him.

    9. All the daughters of music shall be brought low - The Voice, that wonderful instrument, almost endless in the strength and variety of its tones, becomes feeble and squeaking, and merriment and pleasure are no more. The tones emitted are all of the querulous or mournful kind.

    Was this helpful?
    Albert Barnes
    Notes on the Whole Bible

    And the doors … is low - The house is viewed from without. The way of entry and exit is stopped: little or no sound issues forth to tell of life stirring within. The old man, as he grows older, has less in common with the rising generation; mutual interest and social contact decline. Some take the doors and the sound of the mill as figures of the lips and ears and of the speech.

    He shall rise … - Here the metaphor of the house passes out of sight. The verb may either be taken impersonally (“they shall rise,” compare the next verse): or as definitely referring to an old man, who as the master of the house rises out of sleep at the first sound in the morning.

    All the daughters of musick - i. e., Singing women Ecclesiastes 2:8.

    Be brought low - i. e., Sound faintly in the ears of old age.

    Was this helpful?
    Matthew Henry
    Concise Bible Commentary
    We should remember our sins against our Creator, repent, and seek forgiveness. We should remember our duties, and set about them, looking to him for grace and strength. This should be done early, while the body is strong, and the spirits active. When a man has the pain of reviewing a misspent life, his not having given up sin and worldly vanities till he is forced to say, I have no pleasure in them, renders his sincerity very questionable. Then follows a figurative description of old age and its infirmities, which has some difficulties; but the meaning is plain, to show how uncomfortable, generally, the days of old age are. As the four verses,
    Was this helpful?
    Matthew Henry
    Concise Bible Commentary
    are a figurative description of the infirmities that usually accompany old age, ver. 6 notices the circumstances which take place in the hour of death. If sin had not entered into the world, these infirmities would not have been known. Surely then the aged should reflect on the evil of sin.
    Was this helpful?
    Ellen G. White
    Prophets and Kings, 81-2

    “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;     PK 81.1

    “While the sun,
    Or the light,
    Or the moon,
    Or the stars,
    Be not darkened,
    Nor the clouds return after the rain:     PK 81.2

    “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,
    And the doors shall be shut in the streets,     PK 81.3

    Read in context »
    Was this helpful?
    Cross References
    all
    2 Samuel 19:35