 1 Remember your Creator in the days of your youth while the evil days do not come nor the years draw near when you will say, I have no pleasure in them. 2 As long as the sun or the light or the moon or the stars are darkened or the clouds return after rain, 3 in the day when the keepers of the house tremble and the strong are bowed and the grinders cease because there are few and those who look out of the windows are darkened, 4 and the doors are shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low and you rise up at the voice of a bird and all the daughters of music are silenced, 5 they are afraid of the high place and terrors along the way, the almond tree will blossom and the grasshopper will be a burden and desire will fail. Because every person goes to their long home and the mourners go about the streets. 6 If ever the silver cord is not loosed or the golden bowl broken or the pitcher is broken at the fountain or the wheel broken at the cistern, 7 then the dust will return to the earth as it was and the spirit will return to God who gave it. 8 Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher. All is vanity. 9 More than that, the Teacher was wise. He still taught the people knowledge. He listened and looked and set in order many proverbs. 10 The Teacher sought to find pleasing words and words of truth written by the upright. 11 The words of the wise are like goads. Their collected words are like nails driven home. They are given from one shepherd. 12 Further, by these, my son, be warned. The making of many books has no end and much study is a weariness of the flesh. 13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandments. For this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it is good or whether evil.
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