Ecclesiastes 12:2

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.

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;

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.

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;

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 Remember also thy Creators in days of thy youth, While that the evil days come not, Nor the years have arrived, that thou sayest, `I have no pleasure in them.' ² While that the sun is not darkened, and the light, And the moon, and the stars, And the thick clouds returned after the rain. ³ In the day that keepers of the house tremble, And men of strength have bowed themselves, And grinders have ceased, because they have become few. And those looking out at the windows have become dim, ⁴ 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. ⁵ Also of that which is high they are afraid, And of the low places in the way, And the almond-tree is despised, And the grasshopper is become a burden, And want is increased, For man is going unto his home age-during, And the mourners have gone round through the street. ⁶ While that the silver cord is not removed, And the golden bowl broken, And the pitcher broken by the fountain, And the wheel broken at the well. ⁷ And the dust returneth to the earth as it was, And the spirit returneth 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 bless those blessing thee, and him who is disesteeming thee I curse, and blessed in thee have been all families of the ground.'

Genesis 12:4
And Abram goeth on, as Jehovah hath spoken unto him, and Lot goeth with him, and Abram [is] a son of five and seventy years in his going out from Charan.

Genesis 12:6
And Abram passeth over into the land, unto the place Shechem, unto the oak of Moreh; and the Canaanite [is] then in the land.

Genesis 12:8
And he removeth from thence towards a mountain at the east of Beth-El, and stretcheth out the tent (Beth-El at the west, and Hai at the east), and he buildeth there an altar to Jehovah, and preacheth in the name of Jehovah.

Genesis 12:9
And Abram journeyeth, going on and journeying towards the south.

Genesis 12:10
And there is a famine in the land, and Abram goeth down towards Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine [is] grievous in the land;

Genesis 12:14
And it cometh to pass, at the entering of Abram into Egypt, that the Egyptians see the woman that she [is] exceeding fair;

Genesis 12:16
and to Abram he hath done good because of her, and he hath sheep and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants, and handmaids, and she-asses, and camels.

Genesis 12:17
And Jehovah plagueth Pharaoh and his house -- great plagues -- for the matter of Sarai, Abram's wife.

Genesis 12:18
And Pharaoh calleth for Abram, and saith, `What [is] this thou hast done to me? why hast thou not declared to me that she [is] thy 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.