Ecclesiastes 12:2

Good News Translation

That is when the light of the sun, the moon, and the stars will grow dim for you, and the rain clouds will never pass away.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
before the sun and the light are darkened,and the moon and the stars,and the clouds return after the rain;

Hebrew Names Version
Before the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars are darkened, And the clouds return after the rain;

King James Version
While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:

English Standard Version
before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain,

New American Standard Bible
before the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are darkened, and clouds return after the rain;

New Century Version
When you get old, the light from the sun, moon, and stars will grow dark; the rain clouds will never seem to go away.

Amplified Bible
before the sun and the light, and the moon and the stars are darkened [by impaired vision], and the clouds [of depression] return after the rain [of tears];

World English Bible
Before the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars are darkened, And the clouds return after the rain;

Geneva Bible (1587)
Whiles the sunne is not darke, nor ye light, nor the moone, nor the starres, nor the cloudes returne after the raine:

Legacy Standard Bible
before the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are darkened, and clouds return after the rain;

Berean Standard Bible
before the light of the sun, moon, and stars is darkened, and the clouds return after the rain,

Contemporary English Version
Someday the light of the sun and the moon and the stars will all seem dim to you. Rain clouds will remain over your head.

Complete Jewish Bible
before the sun and the light grow dim, also the moon and the stars; before the clouds return after the rain;

Darby Translation
before the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars, be darkened, and the clouds return after the rain;

Easy-to-Read Version
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.

George Lamsa Translation
Before life ebbs, beauty fades, fortune fails, and poverty returns after prosperity;

Lexham English Bible
Before the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars darken and the clouds return after the rain.

Literal Translation
while not yet the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, are darkened, or the clouds return after rain;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
before the Sonne, ye light, ye Moone and the starres be darckened, and or the cloudes turne agayne after the rayne:

American Standard Version
before the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars, are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain;

Bible in Basic English
While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, are not dark, and the clouds come not back after the rain;

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Before the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars, are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain;

King James Version (1611)
While the Sunne, or the light, or the moone, or the starres be not darkened, nor the cloudes returne after the raine:

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Before the sunne, the light, the moone, and starres be darkened, and or the cloudes turne agayne after the rayne:

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
While the sun and light are not darkened, nor the moon and the stars; nor the clouds return after the rain:

English Revised Version
or ever the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars, be darkened, and the clouds return after the rain:

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
`Haue thou mynde on thi creatour, bifor that the sunne be derk, and the liyt, and sterrys, and the mone; and cloude turne ayen after reyn.

Update Bible Version
before the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars, are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain;

Webster's Bible Translation
While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, are not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:

New English Translation
before the sun and the light of the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds disappear after the rain;

New King James Version
While the sun and the light, The moon and the stars, Are not darkened, And the clouds do not return after the rain;

New Living Translation
Remember him before the light of the sun, moon, and stars is dim to your old eyes, and rain clouds continually darken your sky.

New Life Bible
before the sun, the light, the moon and the stars are made dark, and clouds return after the rain.

New Revised Standard
before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return with the rain;

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Or ever be darkened - the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars, - and the clouds return after a downpour of rain;

Douay-Rheims Bible
Before the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars be darkened, and the clouds return after the rain:

Revised Standard Version
before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain;

Young's Literal Translation
While that the sun is not darkened, and the light, And the moon, and the stars, And the thick clouds returned after the rain.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
before the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are darkened, and clouds return after the rain;

Contextual Overview

¹ So remember your Creator while you are still young, before those dismal days and years come when you will say, "I don't enjoy life." ² That is when the light of the sun, the moon, and the stars will grow dim for you, and the rain clouds will never pass away. ³ Then your arms, that have protected you, will tremble, and your legs, now strong, will grow weak. Your teeth will be too few to chew your food, and your eyes too dim to see clearly. ⁴ 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. ⁵ You will be afraid of high places, and walking will be dangerous. Your hair will turn white; you will hardly be able to drag yourself along, and all desire will be gone. We are going to our final resting place, and then there will be mourning in the streets. ⁶ The silver chain will snap, and the golden lamp will fall and break; the rope at the well will break, and the water jar will be shattered. ⁷ Our bodies will return to the dust of the earth, and the breath of life will go back to God, who gave it to us.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the sun: Ecclesiastes 11:7, Ecclesiastes 11:8, Genesis 27:1, Genesis 48:10, 1 Samuel 3:2, 1 Samuel 4:15, 1 Samuel 4:18

nor: Psalms 42:7, Psalms 71:20, Psalms 77:16

Reciprocal: Psalms 90:10 - yet Ecclesiastes 12:3 - and those Jeremiah 13:16 - before Jeremiah 25:10 - the sound

Cross-References

Genesis 12:3
I will bless those who bless you, But I will curse those who curse you. And through you I will bless all the nations."

Genesis 12:4
When Abram was seventy-five years old, he started out from Haran, as the Lord had told him to do; and Lot went with him.

Genesis 12:6
Abram traveled through the land until he came to the sacred tree of Moreh, the holy place at Shechem. (At that time the Canaanites were still living in the land.)

Genesis 12:8
After that, he moved on south to the hill country east of the city of Bethel and set up his camp between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There also he built an altar and worshiped the Lord .

Genesis 12:9
Then he moved on from place to place, going toward the southern part of Canaan.

Genesis 12:10
But there was a famine in Canaan, and it was so bad that Abram went farther south to Egypt, to live there for a while.

Genesis 12:14
When he crossed the border into Egypt, the Egyptians did see that his wife was beautiful.

Genesis 12:16
Because of her the king treated Abram well and gave him flocks of sheep and goats, cattle, donkeys, slaves, and camels.

Genesis 12:17
But because the king had taken Sarai, the Lord sent terrible diseases on him and on the people of his palace.

Genesis 12:18
Then the king sent for Abram and asked him, "What have you done to me? Why didn't you tell me that she was your wife?

Gill's Notes on the Bible

While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened,.... The wise man proceeds to describe the infirmities of old age, and the troubles that attend it; in order to engage young men to regard God and religion, before these come upon them, which greatly unfit for his service. This the Targum and Midrash, and, after them, Jarchi, interpret of the splendour of the countenance of man, of the light of his eyes, and the beauty of his cheeks, and other parts of his face; which decrease and go off at old age, and paleness and wrinkles succeed: and others of the adversities and calamities which attend persons at such years; which are sometimes in Scripture signified by the darkening of the sun, moon, and stars, Isaiah 13:10; but some choose to understand this, more literally, of the dimness of sight in old men; by whom the light of the sun, moon, and stars, is scarcely discerned: but as this infirmity is afterwards described, I rather think with others, that by the "sun", "light", and "moon", are meant the superior and inferior faculties of the soul, the understanding, mind, judgment, will, and affections; and, by the "stars", those bright notions and ideas raised in the fancy and imagination, and fixed in the memory; all which are greatly impaired or lost in old age: so Alshech interprets the sun and moon of the soul and spirit, and the stars of the senses; "light" is not in the Syriac version;

nor the clouds return after the rain; which some understand of catarrhs, defluxions, and rheums, flowing at the eyes, nose, and mouth, one after another, which frequently attend, and are very troublesome to persons in years; but may be more generally applied to the perpetual succession of evils, afflictions, and disorders, in old age; as soon as one is got over, another follows, billow after billow; or, like showers in April, as soon as one is gone, another comes. The Targum paraphrases it of the eyebrows distilling tears, like clouds after rain.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

While ... not - Or, Before. The darkening of the lights of heaven denotes a time of affliction and sadness. Compare Ezekiel 32:7-8; Job 3:9; Isaiah 5:30. Contrast this representation of old age with 2 Samuel 23:4-5.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Ecclesiastes 12:2. While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened — i.e., in the SPRING, prime, and prosperity of life.

Nor the clouds return — The infirmities of old age of which WINTER is a proper emblem, as spring is of youth, in the former clause of this verse.