2 While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:
2 before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain;
2 before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain,
2 Before your vision dims and the world blurs And the winter years keep you close to the fire.
2 While the sun and the light, The moon and the stars, Are not darkened, And the clouds do not return after the rain;
2 Remember him before the light of the sun, moon, and stars is dim to your old eyes, and rain clouds continually darken your sky.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Ecclesiastes 12:2
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 12:1-7
(Read Ecclesiastes 12:1-7)
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, verse 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.