Chapter 12. Remember now your creator in the days of Your youth before the difficult days Come and the years draw near when you Say I have no pleasure in them While the sun and the light the moon and The stars are not darkened and the Clouds do not return after the rain In the day when the keepers of the house Tremble and the strong men Bow Down When the Grinders cease because they are Few and those that look through the Windows grow dim When the doors are shut in the streets And the sound of grinding is low When one Rises up at the sound of a bird And all the daughters of Music are Brought low Also they are afraid of height and of Terrors in the way When the almond tree blossoms the Grasshopper is a burden and desire fails For man goes to his eternal home and the Mourners go about the streets Remember your creator before the silver Cord is loosed or the Golden Bowl is Broken or the pitcher shattered at the Fountain or the wheel broken at the well Then the dust will return to the Earth As it was And the spirit will return to God who Gave it Vanity of vanities says the preacher all Is Vanity
And moreover because the preacher was Wise he still taught the people Knowledge Yes he pondered and sought out and set In order many proverbs The preacher sought to find acceptable Words and what was written was upright Words of truth The words of the wise are like goads And the words of Scholars are like Well-driven nails given by one Shepherd And further my son be admonished by These Of making many books there is no end And much study is worrisome to the flesh Let us hear the conclusion of the whole Matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for This is man's all For God will bring every work into Judgment Including every secret thing Whether good Or evil