Ecclesiastes 12:4

Easy-to-Read Version

You will become hard of hearing. You will not hear the noise in the streets. Even the stone grinding your grain will seem quiet to you. You will not be able to hear the women singing. But even the sound of a bird singing will wake you early in the morning because you will not be able to sleep.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
the doors at the street are shutwhile the sound of the mill fades;when one rises at the sound of a bird,and all the daughters of song grow faint.

Hebrew Names Version
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 music shall be brought low;

King James Version
And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low;

English Standard Version
and the doors on the street are shut—when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low—

New American Standard Bible
and the doors on the street are shut as the sound of the grinding mill is low, and one will arise at the sound of the bird, and all the daughters of song will sing softly.

New Century Version
Your ears will be deaf to the noise in the streets, and you will barely hear the millstone grinding grain. You'll wake up when a bird starts singing, but you will barely hear singing.

Amplified Bible
when the doors (lips) are shut in the streets and the sound of the grinding [of the teeth] is low, and one rises at the sound of a bird and the crowing of a rooster, and all the daughters of music (voice, ears) sing softly.

World English Bible
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 music shall be brought low;

Geneva Bible (1587)
And the doores shall be shut without by the base sound of the grinding, and he shall rise vp at the voice of the birde: and all the daughters of singing shall be abased.

Legacy Standard Bible
and the doors on the street are shut as the sound of the grinding mill is low, and one will arise at the sound of the bird, and all the daughters of song will sing softly.

Berean Standard Bible
when the doors to the street are shut and the sound of the mill fades away, when one rises at the sound of a bird and all the daughters of song grow faint,

Contemporary English Version
The noisy grinding of grain will be shut out by your deaf ears, but even the song of a bird will keep you awake.

Complete Jewish Bible
when the doors to the streets are kept shut; when the noise from the grain-mill fades; when a person is startled by the chirp of a bird, yet their singing is hard to hear;

Darby Translation
and the doors are shut toward the street; when the sound of the grinding is subdued, and they rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low;

George Lamsa Translation
And the ears shall be so dulled that the sound of women grinding at the mill is low, and a man shall rise up at the song of birds; and the sound of women singing shall be low;

Good News Translation
Your ears will be deaf to the noise of the street. You will barely be able to hear the mill as it grinds or music as it plays, but even the song of a bird will wake you from sleep.

Lexham English Bible
When the doors on the street are shut, when the sound of the grinding mill is low; one rises up to the sound of the bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low.

Literal Translation
and the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the mill is low, and one rises up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of music are silenced;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
whan the dores in the stretes shal be shutt, and whan ye voyce of the Myller shall be layed downe: whan men shall ryse vp at the voyce of the byrde, and whan all ye doughters of musyck shalbe brought lowe:

American Standard Version
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 music shall be brought low;

Bible in Basic English
When the doors are shut in the street, and the sound of the crushing is low, and the voice of the bird is soft, and the daughters of music will be made low;

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And the doors shall be shut in the street, when the sound of the grinding is low; and one shall start up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low;

King James Version (1611)
And the doores shal be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise vp at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musicke shall be brought low.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
When the doores in the streetes shalbe shut, and when the voyce of the milner shalbe layde downe, when men shall ryse vp at the voyce of the byrde, and when all the daughters of musicke shalbe brought lowe:

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
and they shall shut the doors in the market-place, because of the weakness of the voice of her that grinds at the mill; and he shall rise up at the voice of the sparrow, and all the daughters of song shall be brought low;

English Revised Version
and the door 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 music shall be brought low;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and schulen close the doris in the street, in the lownesse of vois of a gryndere; and thei schulen rise at the vois of a brid, and alle the douytris of song schulen wexe deef.

Update Bible Version
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 music shall be brought low;

Webster's Bible Translation
And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding shall be low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low.

New English Translation
and the doors along the street are shut; when the sound of the grinding mill grows low, and one is awakened by the sound of a bird, and all their songs grow faint,

New King James Version
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.

New Living Translation
Remember him before the door to life's opportunities is closed and the sound of work fades. Now you rise at the first chirping of the birds, but then all their sounds will grow faint.

New Life Bible
The doors on the street will be shut when the sound of the grinding is no more. One will rise up at the sound of a bird. All the daughters of song will sing very low.

New Revised Standard
when the doors on the street are shut, and the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low;

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And the doors in the street be closed, when the sound of the mill become low, - and one rise at the chirp of a small bird, and low-voiced be all the daughters of song;

Douay-Rheims Bible
And they shall shut the doors in the street, when the grinder’s voice shall be low, and they shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall grow deaf.

Revised Standard Version
and the doors on the street are shut; when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low;

Young's Literal Translation
And doors have been shut in the street. When the noise of the grinding is low, And [one] riseth at the voice of the bird, And all daughters of song are bowed down.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
and the doors on the street are shut as the sound of the grinding mill is low, and one will arise at the sound of the bird, and all the daughters of song will sing softly.

Contextual Overview

¹ Remember your Creator while you are young, before the bad times come—before the years come when you say, "I have wasted my life." ² Remember your Creator while you are young, before the time comes when the sun and the moon and the stars become dark to you—before problems come again and again like one storm after another. ³ At that time your arms will lose their strength. Your legs will become weak and bent. Your teeth will fall out, and you will not be able to chew your food. Your eyes will not see clearly. ⁴ You will become hard of hearing. You will not hear the noise in the streets. Even the stone grinding your grain will seem quiet to you. You will not be able to hear the women singing. But even the sound of a bird singing will wake you early in the morning because you will not be able to sleep. ⁵ You will be afraid of high places. You will be afraid of tripping over every small thing in your path. Your hair will become white like the flowers on an almond tree. You will drag yourself along like a grasshopper when you walk. You will lose your desire, and then you will go to your eternal home. The mourners will gather in the streets as they carry your body to the grave. ⁶ Remember your Creator while you are young, before the silver rope snaps and the golden bowl is crushed like a jar broken at the well, like a stone cover on a well that breaks and falls in. ⁷ Your body came from the earth. And when you die, it will return to the earth. But your spirit came from God, and when you die, it will return to him.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

all: 2 Samuel 19:35

Reciprocal: Job 41:14 - the

Cross-References

Genesis 11:27
This is the history of Terah's family. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran was the father of Lot.

Genesis 11:31
Terah took his family and left Ur of Babylonia. They planned to travel to Canaan. Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran's son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai (Abram's wife). They traveled to the city of Haran and decided to stay there.

Hebrews 11:8
God called Abraham to travel to another place that he promised to give him. Abraham did not know where that other place was. But he obeyed God and started traveling because he had faith.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the doors shall be shut in the streets,.... The Midrash and Jarchi interpret these of the holes of the body; in which they are followed by our learned and ingenuous countryman, Dr. Smith; who, by them, understands the inlets and outlets of the body; and, by the "streets", the ways and passages through which the food goes, and nourishment is conveyed; and which may be said to be shut, when they cease from their use: but it seems much better, with Aben Ezra and others, to interpret them of the lips; which are sometimes called the doors of the mouth, or lips, Psalms 141:3; which are opened both for speaking and eating; but, in aged persons, are much shut as to either; they do not choose to speak much, because of the disagreeableness of their voice, and difficulty of speech, through the shortness of breath, and the loss of teeth; nor do they open them much to eat, through want of appetite; and while eating, are obliged, for want of teeth, to keep their lips close, to retain their food from falling out; they mumble with their lips both in speaking and eating; and, particularly in public, aged persons care not to speak nor eat, for the reason following: though some understand it, more literally, of their having the doors of their houses shut, and keeping within, and not caring to go abroad in the streets, because of their infirmities so the Targum,

"thy feet shall be bound from going in the streets;''

when the sound of the grinding is low; which the above Jewish writers, and, after them, Dr. Smith, understand of the stomach, grinding, digesting, and concocting food, and of other parts through which it is conveyed, and the offices they perform; but sound or voice does not seem so well to agree with that; rather therefore this is to be understood, as before, of the grinding of the teeth, through the loss of which so much noise is not heard in eating as in young men, and the voice in speaking is lower; the Targum is,

"appetite of food shall depart from thee;''

and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird; that is, the aged person, the least noise awakes him out of sleep; and as he generally goes to bed soon, he rises early at cock crowing, or with the lark, as soon as the voice of that bird or any other, is heard; particularly the cock, which crows very early, and whose voice is heard the most early, and is by some writers f emphatically called the bird that calls men to their work;

and all the daughters of music shall be brought low; either those that make music, and are the instruments of it, as the lungs, the throat, the teeth, mouth, and lips, so the Targum and Midrash; or those that receive music, as the ears, and the several parts of them, the cavities of them, particularly the tympanum and auditory nerve; all which, through old age, are impaired, and become very unfit to be employed in making music, or in attending to it: the voice of singing men and singing women could not be heard with pleasure by old Barzillai,

2 Samuel 19:36. These clauses are expressive of the weakness which generally old age brings on men; very few instances are there to the contrary; such as of Caleb, who, at eighty five years of age, was as strong as at forty; and of Moses, whose natural force abated not at an hundred and twenty; nor indeed as of Cyrus, who, when seventy years of age, and near his death, could not perceive that he was weaker then than in his youth g.

f "Inque suum miseros excitat ales opus", Ovid. Amorum, l. 1. Eleg. 6. v. 66. "Cristatus ales", ib. Fast. l. 1. v. 455. g Cicero in Catone Majore, sive de Senectute, c. 8.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And the doors ... is low - The house is viewed from without. The way of entry and exit is stopped: little or no sound issues forth to tell of life stirring within. The old man, as he grows older, has less in common with the rising generation; mutual interest and social contact decline. Some take the doors and the sound of the mill as figures of the lips and ears and of the speech.

He shall rise ... - Here the metaphor of the house passes out of sight. The verb may either be taken impersonally ( “they shall rise,” compare the next verse): or as definitely referring to an old man, who as the master of the house rises out of sleep at the first sound in the morning.

All the daughters of musick - i. e., Singing women Ecclesiastes 2:8.

Be brought low - i. e., Sound faintly in the ears of old age.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Ecclesiastes 12:4. And the doors shall be shut in the streets —

5. The doors - the lips, which are the doors by which the mouth is closed.

6. Be shut in the streets — The cavities of the cheeks and jaws, through which the food may be said to travel before it is fitted by mastication or chewing to go down the aesophagus into the stomach. The doors or lips are shut to hinder the food in chewing from dropping out; as the teeth, which prevented that before, are now lost.

7. The sound of the grinding is low — Little noise is now made in eating, because the teeth are either lost, or become so infirm as not to suffer their being pressed close together; and the mouth being kept shut to hinder the food from dropping out, the sound in eating is scarcely heard. The teeth are divided into three kinds: -

1) The dentes incisores, or cutting teeth, in the front of the jaw.

2) The dentes canini, or dog teeth, those in the sides of the jaws, for gnawing, or tearing and separating hard or tough substances. And,

3) Dentes molares, or grinding teeth, the posterior or double teeth, in both jaws, generally termed the grinders; because their office is to grind down the substances that have been cut by the fore teeth, separated into their parts or fibres by the dog teeth, and thus prepare it for digestion in the stomach.

8. He shall rise up at the voice of the bird — His sleep is not sound as it used to be; he slumbers rather than sleeps; and the crowing of the cock awakes him. And so much difficulty does he find to respire while in bed, that he is glad of the dawn to rise up and get some relief. The chirping ot the sparrow is sufficient to awake him.

9. All the daughters of music shall be brought low — The VOICE, that wonderful instrument, almost endless in the strength and variety of its tones, becomes feeble and squeaking, and merriment and pleasure are no more. The tones emitted are all of the querulous or mournful kind.