Ecclesiastes 12:4 Commentary and Bible Study

The allegory continues: the doors that lead out on to the street are closed, so that communication with outsiders is greatly reduced. This a very old person who no longer interacts much but is now confined to the house and meets only those known well. The house is largely cut off even from the comfort of interaction with friends and neighbours. So it is with the aged person: all communication becomes a struggle and what was once so natural and spontaneous is now a burden that seems beyond their strength. This person is now so old that he or she does not want company, and is no longer a social being. Speech is an effort and there is no longer the same control over the voice to express the nuances of inner thoughts and feelings.Inside the house the sound of the mill working is low not because activity has completely ceased or has grown quieter, but because it can no longer be heard. Some see in this a reference to the loss of speech, but this has already been mentioned and it seem better to understand this as a reference to the loss of hearing – a further stage in the breakdown of communication. The person still has the same need for contact with others, but they are deprived of that joy and must make do more and more with their own thoughts and their own private world.On the other hand anxieties and fears increase. Solomon now starts to leave his illustration behind and to move directly to the subject being illustrated. Although hearing is failing, some sounds reach the aging soul but they come as a shock and they cause alarm. A bird sings loudly and there is certainly no danger, but the sound is misinterpreted and treated as a danger signal. The person starts suddenly and rises up at the sound. What is that? The uncertainty that has developed through imprecise perceptions causes all sorts of unnecessary frights – a further symptom of the breakdown of our God given faculties. When these faculties were working fine in youth, the unbeliever gave no thanks to God for them and did not recognise the gift that they were to him, but now they have been taken away and he is powerless to restore them, he is reminded of what he has lost and this is a further source of discomfort.The enjoyment of music is also gone. This sustains many through dark periods of the soul and is a cause of great uplift to those who love its subtle ability to address the emotions with a vast range of communication that touches the soul as nothing else can. But this too is departing from the soul and having denied themselves the comfort of God, all other comforts are being removed as well.