Ecclesiastes 12:6 Commentary and Bible Study

Remember your Creator before the vital elements of the body are broken and the present life is finally terminated. Some do not attempt to identify which organs are being referred to but make them figures of the inward parts of the body or of the cessation of the working of the body in general. Others understand them to be references to particular vital organs which were familiar to those of his day. The silver cord, Gill tells us, was taken by the Midrash and Jewish writers in general as the backbone, and we still use the term spinal cord. This is the main link between the brain and the rest of the body through the nervous system. The snapping or breaking of it results in paralysis and in Solomon’s day normally led to death. The golden bowl or golden basin is interpreted by the Targum and Midrash as the top of the head or the skull or the membranes that surround the brain. It is called a bowl because of its shape and golden because of the precious organ, the brain, which it holds and protects. The skull could not be crushed without ending life and so its breaking is a fit symbol of the end of life.The other two figures in the verse are taken by some as descriptions of the heart, which pumps life sustaining blood round the body, and they credit Solomon with understanding about the circulation of the blood even in his day. While this is possible, it seems less fanciful to understand these phrases as metaphors for the body’s lost power to sustain life. The pitcher or water jar is used to carry water from the spring where it is gathered back to the house. When is it shattered, it is useless and the spring still bubbles up water from the ground, but there is no way of gathering it. So too, when the body fails, that life which might have gone on animating it is lost.Likewise, the cistern or well which is another possible supply of water often had a wheel or windlass over it which was used to lower a bucket into the well and draw the water up. When the wheel was broken, the water may still have been in the well but the mechanism for drawing it is rendered useless. The body that vessel which carries the priceless treasure of life is broken, and the life is gone.Each one of these expressions conveys the finality of death, that there is no recovery from it. What is broken cannot be mended by man. The life that is lost is lost forever. How great a tragedy death is and how contrary to our nature, yet we all march relentlessly to that last appointment. How amazing that Christ, who has conquered death, should be ignored by so many!