1So remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years arrive of which you will say, “I have no delight in them”;
2before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain;
3in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinding women cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows grow dim;
4and the doors on the street are shut, when the sound of the mill dies down, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low;
5they are also afraid of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree is despised, and the grasshopper drags itself along, and the caperberry fails — for the man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about in the street;
6before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is crushed, and the jar is shattered at the spring, and the wheel is broken at the cistern;
7and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
8“Utterly fleeting,” said the Preacher, “everything is fleeting.”
9And besides being wise, the Preacher also continually taught the people knowledge; he weighed and searched out and arranged many proverbs.
10The Preacher sought to find pleasing words, and what was written uprightly — words of truth.
11The words of the wise are like goads, and like firmly planted nails are the masters of collections; they are given by one shepherd.
12And beyond these, my son, be warned: of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
13The end of the matter, when all has been heard: fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole of man.
14For God will bring every deed into judgment, concerning every hidden thing, whether good or evil.
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