“In
the day that keepers of the house tremble, and men of strength have bowed
themselves, and grinders have ceased, because they have become few. And the
watchers at the windows have become dim, and the doors shall be shut in the
street. When the sound of the grinding is low and one shall rise up at the
voice of a bird, and all the daughters of song shall be brought low. Yes, they
shall be afraid of heights, and terrors will be in the way; and the almond tree
shall blossom, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail;
because man goes to his everlasting home, and the mourners go about the
streets.” (Ecclesiastes 12:2-5)
These verses refer to evil in its darkest hour, when there is no hope to
be redeemed from its ways, traits and trends that seem to seize goodness from
human consciousness as the “house” where the “keepers” tremble.
These keepers
and watchers along with the “strength” to “grind” become scarce when goodness
must be defended in order to make it prevail against evil.
The joy in the hearts as the song of the positive traits and trends
(“daughters”) become low and dim, as life at the end of its journey in the
grave. The altitude required for the right attitude also become as low as the
ground.
“While
that the silver cord is not removed, and the golden bowl broken, and the
pitcher broken by the fountain, and the wheel broken at the well. And the dust
returns to the earth as it was, and the soul returns to God who gave it. Vanity
of vanities, said the Kohelet, all is vanity!” (12:6-8)
Once death arrives as a consequence of living in the emptiness of
futility under the sun, is appropriate to say that all is vanity. Ego’s
fantasies and illusions seem to reign in the material world, aimed to take away
the lifeline of the soul that God has given us to know Him in His ways and
attributes as the source of all that is good, for in goodness we begin to know
the Creator of all.
“And
further, because the Kohelet was wise, he still taught the people knowledge,
and gave ear, and sought out, he made right many similes. The Kohelet sought to
find out pleasing words written by the upright words of truth. Words of the
wise are as goads, and as fences planted by the masters of collections, they
have been given by one Shepherd.” (12:7-11)
This is the wisdom as the knowledge of God that the Kohelet, King
Solomon, taught to help us find the joy in the “right many smiles” of goodness,
for in the one Shepherd that the Creator is, we find the pleasing “upright
words of truth”.
These are the goads and fences planted by the positive ways,
means, and attributes of goodness, given by God as the qualities that sooner
than later will collect their fruits in the field of life in this world.
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