Ecclesiastes 12:2

Updated Bible Version

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

Parallel Translations

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

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

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

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

World English Bible
Before the sun, the light, 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:

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:

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:

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];

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;

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;

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;

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:

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

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

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.

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:

Berean Standard Bible
before the light of the sun, moon, and stars is darkened, and the 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:

Lexham English Bible
Before the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars darken and 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.

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.

Christian Standard Bible®
before the sun and the light are darkened, and the moon and the stars, 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.

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.

Contextual Overview

¹ Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near, when you shall say, I have no pleasure in them; ² before the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars, are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain; ³ in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows shall be darkened, ⁴ 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; ⁵ yes, they shall be afraid of [that which is] high, and terrors [shall be] in the way; and the almond-tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goes to his everlasting home, and the mourners go about the streets: ⁶ before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, ⁷ and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

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
and I will bless those that bless you, and him that curses you I will curse: and in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

Genesis 12:4
So Abram went, as Yahweh had spoken to him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

Genesis 12:6
And Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.

Genesis 12:8
And he removed from there to the mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Ai on the east: and there he built an altar to Yahweh, and called on the name of Yahweh.

Genesis 12:9
And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.

Genesis 12:10
And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was intense in the land.

Genesis 12:14
And it came to pass, that, when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw the woman that she was very fair.

Genesis 12:16
And he dealt well with Abram for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he-donkeys, and male slaves, and female slaves, and she-donkeys, and camels.

Genesis 12:17
And Yahweh plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

Genesis 12:18
And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that you have 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.