Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ecclesiastes 12:4
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 music shall be brought low;
4. and the doors shall be shut in the streets ] The picture of the city under the terror of the storm is continued. The gates of all houses are closed. None leave their houses; the noise of the mill ceases. The bird (probably the crane or the swallow) rises in the air with sharp cries (literally, for a cry). Even the “daughters of song” (the birds that sing most sweetly, the nightingale or thrush, or possibly the “singing women” of ch. Ecc 2:8, whose occupation is gone in a time of terror and dismay) crouch silently, or perhaps, chirp in a low tone. Few will dispute the vividness of the picture. The interpretation of the symbols becomes, however, more difficult than ever. The key is probably to be found in the thought that as we had the decay of bodily organs in the previous verse, so here we have that of bodily functions. The “doors” (the Hebrew is dual as representing what we call “folding doors”) are the apertures by which the life of processes of sensation and nutrition from its beginning to its end is carried on, and the failure of those processes in extreme age, or in the prostration of paralysis, is indicated by the “shutting” of the doors. What we may call the dual organs of the body, lips, eyes, ears, alike lose their old energies. The mill (a better rendering than “grinding”) is that which contains the “grinders” of Ecc 12:3, i.e. the mouth, by which that process begins, can no longer do its work of vocal utterance rightly. The words “he shall rise up at the voice of the bird” have for the most part been taken as describing the sleeplessness of age, the old man waking at a sparrow’s chirp, but this interpretation is open to the objections (1) that it abruptly introduces the old man as a personal subject in the sentence, while up to this point all has been figurative; and (2) that it makes the clause unmeaning in its relation to the picture of the terror-stricken city, below which we see that of the decay of man’s physical framework. Adopting the construction given above, we get that which answers to the “childish treble” of the old man’s voice, and find a distinct parallel to it in the elegy of Hezekiah “Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter” (Isa 38:14); the querulous moaning which in his case was the accompaniment of disease becoming, with the old or the paralysed, normal and continuous. The “daughters of song” are, according to the common Hebrew idiom, those that sing, birds or women, as the case may be. Here, their being “brought low,” i.e. their withdrawal from the stage of life, may symbolise the failure either of the power to sing, or of the power to enjoy the song of others. The words of Barzillai in 2Sa 19:35 paint the infirmities of age in nearly the same form, though in less figurative language. “Can thy servant taste what I eat or drink? Can I hear any more the voice of singing men or singing women?” The interpretations which find in the “daughters of song” either (1) the lips as employed in singing, or (2) the ears as drinking in the sounds of song, though each has found favour with many commentators, have less to commend them, and are open to the charge of introducing a needless and tame repetition of phenomena already described.
With the picture of old age thus far we may compare that, almost cynical in its unsparing minuteness, of Juvenal Sat. x. 200 239. A few of the more striking parallels may be selected as examples:
“Frangendus misero gingiva panis inermi.”
“Bread must be broken for the toothless gums.”
“Non eadem vini, atque cibi, torpente palato, Gaudia.”
“For the dulled palate wine and food have lost Their former savours.”
“Adspice partis
Nunc damnum alterius; nam qu cantante voluptas,
Sit licet eximius cithardus, sitve Seleucus,
Et quibus aurat mos est fulgere lacern?
Quid refert, magni sedeat qu parte theatri,
Qui vix cornicines exaudiet, atque tubarum
Concentus.”
“Now mark the loss of yet another sense:
What pleasure now is his at voice of song.
How choice soe’er the minstrel, artist famed,
Or those who love to walk in golden robes?
What matters where he sits in all the space
Of the wide theatre, who scarce can hear
The crash of horns and trumpets?”
Or again
“Ille humero, hic lumbis, hic cox debilis; ambos
Perdidit ille oculos, et luscis invidet; hujus
Pallida labra cibum accipiunt digitis alienis.
Ipse ad conspectum cn diducere rictum
Suetus, hiat tantm, ceu pullus hirundinis, ad quem
Ore volat pleno mater jejuna.”
“Shoulders, loins, hip, each failing in its strength
Now this man finds, now that, and one shall lose
Both eyes, and envy those that boast but one.
And he who used, at sight of supper spread,
To grin with wide-oped jaw, now feebly gapes,
Like a young swallow, whom its mother bird
Feeds from her mouth filled, though she fast herself.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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 Ecc 2:8.
Be brought low – i. e., Sound faintly in the ears of old age.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Ecc 12:4
The doors shall be shut in the streets.
Doors
Literally, double deers. This occurs in the description of the decrepitude of an old man: The keepers of the house (the arms) shall tremble, and the strong men (the legs) shall bow themselves, and the grinders (the teeth) cease because they are few, and those that leek out of the windows (our natural interest in the world) be darkened, and the double doors shall be shut in the street. By double doors is meant those bodily functions which have double organs–eyes, cars, nostrils, lips, the openings of sense and communication with the world. It is a great thing to have the house of the soul stored with good, with true thoughts, bright hopes, sweet loves, comfortable conscience, the various feed of Divine promises, and best of all is to have God, the source of all good, inside with us when the double doors no longer open. I once heard a man cursing with screeching rage his coming blindness, and a paralytic swearing at his fate with half-palsied tongue, struggling impotently like a convict resisting the shutting of the doors of his cell. But, on the other hand, some of the sweetest-tempered persons are blind or deaf. Beethoven was full of music though deaf; the music was stored there in his knowledge of harmony through previous study. Miltons mind was full of light, though he was blind; the vast stores of knowledge were laid in before the doers were closed. (J. M. Ludlow, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The doors be shut in the streets; or, towards the streets; which lead into the streets. This is understood either,
1. Literally; because men, when they are very old, keep much at home, and have neither strength nor inclination to go abroad. Or rather,
2. Allegorically, as all the other clauses are understood. And so the doors are either,
1. The outward senses, which, as doors, let in outward objects to the soul. Or rather,
2. The mouth, or the two lips, here expressed by a word of the dual number, which are oft called a door, both in Scripture, as Psa 141:3; Mic 7:5, and in other authors, which, like a door, open or shut the way which leads into the streets or common passages of the body, such as the gullet, and stomach, and all the bowels, as also the windpipe and lungs; which also are principal instruments both of speaking and eating. And these are said to be shut, not simply and absolutely, as if they did never eat, or drink, or speak; but comparatively, because men in extreme old age grow dull and listless, having little or no appetite to eat, and are very much indisposed for discourse, and speak but seldom.
When the sound of the grinding is low; or, because the sound, &c. So this may be added, not as a new symptom of old age, but only as the reason of the foregoing symptom. The sense is, When or because the teeth, called the grinders, Ecc 12:3, are loose and few, whereby both his speech is low, and the noise which he makes in eating is but small. And this is one great cause of his indisposedness both to eating and to speaking. Some understand this of concoction, which after a sort doth grind the meat in the stomach, and in the other parts appointed by God for that work. But that is transacted inwardly, and without all noise or sound.
He shall rise up, to wit, from his bed, being weary with lying, and unable to get sleep,
at the voice of the bird; either,
1. Upon the smallest noise; which doth not consist with that deafness incident to old men, and described in the next words. Or rather,
2. As soon as the birds begin to chirp, which is early in the morning, whereas children and young men can lie and sleep long in the morning.
The daughters of music; all those senses or parts of the body which are employed in music and song, as well those which make it, as the parts of and within the mouth, as those which receive it, to wit, the ears.
Shall be brought low; shall be cast down from their former excellency; they are become incapable either of making music, or of delighting in it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. doorsthe lips,which are closely shut together as doors, by old men ineating, for, if they did not do so, the food would drop out (Job 41:14;Psa 141:3; Mic 7:5).
in the streetsthat is,toward the street, “the outer doors” [MAURERand WEISS].
sound of . . . grindingTheteeth being almost gone, and the lips “shut” in eating, thesound of mastication is scarcely heard.
the birdthe cock. Inthe East all mostly rise with the dawn. But the old are glad to risefrom their sleepless couch, or painful slumbers still earlier,namely, when the cock crows, before dawn (Job7:4) [HOLDEN]. Theleast noise awakens them [WEISS].
daughters of musictheorgans that produce and that enjoy music; the voice and ear.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole 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, Ps 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,
2Sa 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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
From the eyes the allegory proceeds to the mouth, and the repugnance of the old man to every noise disturbing his rest: “And the doors to the street are closed, when the mill sounds low; and he rises up at the voice of a bird; and all the daughters of song must lower themselves.” By the door toward the street the Talm. and Midrash understand the pores or the emptying members of the body, – a meaning so far from being ignoble, that even in the Jewish morning prayer a Beracha is found in these words: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the world, who hast wisely formed man, and made for him manifold apertures and cavities. It is manifest and well known before the throne of Thy Majesty, that if one of these cavities is opened, or one of these apertures closed, it is impossible for him to exist and to stand before Thee; blessed art Thou, O Lord, the Physician of the body, and who doest wondrous words!” The words which follow … are accordingly to be regarded as assigning a reason for this closing: the non-appearance of excretion has its reason in defective digestion in this, that the stomach does not grind (Talm.:
(Note: Cf. Berachoth 61 b: The stomach ( ) grinds. As hamses is properly the caul of the ruminant, so this word is the crop (bibl. ) of the bird.)
). But the dual suggests a pair of similar and related members, and a pair of members open before the eyes, and not such as modesty requires to be veiled. The Targum therefore understands the shutting of the doors properly; but the mills, after the indication lying in grinding maids, it understands of the organs of eating and tasting, for it translates: “thy feet will be fettered, so that thou canst not go out into the street; and appetite will fail thee.” But that is an awkward amalgamation of the literal with the allegorical, which condemns itself by this, that it separates the close connection of the two expressions required by , which also may be said of the reference of dlt’ to the ears, into which no sound, even from the noisy market, penetrates (Gurlitt, Grtz). We have for a key, already found by Aben Ezra, in Job 41:2, where the jaws of the leviathan are called ; and as Herzf. and Hitz. explain, so Samuel Aripol in his Commentary, which appeared in Constantinople, 1855, rightly: “He calls the jaws , to denote that not two in two places, but in one place, are meant, after the manner of a door opening out to the street, which is large, and consists of two folds or wings, , which, like the lips ( , better: the jaws), form a whole in two parts; and the meaning is, that at the time of old age the lips are closed and drawn in, because the teeth have disappeared, or, as the text says, because the noise of the mill is low, just because he has no teeth to grind with.” The connection of and is, however, closer still: the jaws of an old man are closed externally, for the sound of the mill is low; i.e., since, when one masticates his food with the jaws of a toothless mouth, there is heard only a dull sound of this chewing ( Mumpfelns, vid., Wiegand’s Deut. W.B.), i.e., laborious masticating. He cannot any more crack or crunch and break his food, one hears only a dull munching and sucking. – The voice of the mouth (Bauer, Hitz., Gurlitt, Zckl.) cannot be the meaning of ; the set of teeth (Gurlitt indeed substitutes, Ecc 12:3, the cavity of the mouth) is not the organ of voice, although it contributes to the formation of certain sounds of words, and is of importance for the full sound of the voice.
, “to the street,” is here = on the street side; is, as at Pro 16:19, infin. (Symmachus: ; the Venet.: ), and is to be understood after Isa 29:4; stands for , as the vulgar Arab. tahun and mathana instead of the antiquated raha . Winzer now supposes that the picture of the night is continued in 4 b: et subsistit ( vox molae) ad cantum galli, et submissius canunt cantatrices (viz., molitrices). Elster, with Umbreit, supposes the description of a storm continued: the sparrow rises up to cry, and all the singing birds sink down (flutter restlessly on the ground). And Taylor supposes the lament for the dead continued, paraphrasing: But the bird of evil omen [owl, or raven] raises his dirge, and the merry voice of the singing girls is silent.
These three pictures, however, are mere fancies, and are also evidently here forced upon the text; for cannot mean subsistit vox , but, on the contrary (cf. Hos 10:14), surgit ( tollitur ) vox ; and cannot mean: it (the bird) raises itself to cry, which would have required , or at least , after , etc.; besides, it is to be presumed that is genit., like and the like, not nom. of the subj. It is natural, with Hitz., Ewald, Heiligst., Zck., to refer qol tsippor to the peeping, whispering voice (“Childish treble” of Shakespeare) of the old man (cf. stiphtseph , Isa 29:4; Isa 38:14; Isa 10:14; Isa 8:19). But the translation: “And it (the voice) approaches a sparrow’s voice,” is inadmissible, since for the meaning, “to pass from one state to another,” cannot be proved from 1Sa 22:13; Mic 2:8; signifies there always “to rise up,” and besides, qol tahhanah is not the voice of the mouth supplied with teeth, but the sound of the chewing of a toothless mouth. If leqol is connected with a verb of external movement, or of that of the soul, it always denotes the occasion of this movement, Num 16:34; Eze 27:28; Job 21:12; Hab 3:16. Influenced by this inalienable sense of the language, the Talm. explains … by “even a bird awakes him.” Thus also literally the Midrash, and accordingly the Targ. paraphrasing: “thou shalt awaken out of thy sleep for a bird, as for thieves breaking in at night.” That is correct, only it is unnecessary to limit (or rather ,
(Note: Vav with Cholem in H. F. Thus rightly, according to the Masora, which places it in the catalogue of those words which occur once with a higher ( ) and once with a lower vowel (y ), Mas. fin. 2a b, Ochlaweochla, No. 5; cf. also Aben Ezra’s Comm. under Psa 80:19; Zachoth 23 a, Safa berura 21 b (where Lipmann is uncertain as to the meaning).)
which accords with the still continued subordination of Ecc 12:4 to the eo die quo of Ecc 12:3) to rising up from sleep, as if it were synonymous with : the old man is weak (nervously weak) and easily frightened, and on account of the deadening of his senses (after the figure of Ecc 12:2, the darkening of the five stars) is so liable to mistake, that if even a bird chirps, he is frightened by it out of his rest (cf. hekim , Isa 14:9).
Also in the interpretation of the clause ha … , the ancients are in the right track. The Talm. explains: even all music and song appear to him like common chattering ( or, according to other readings, ); the proper meaning of ychsw is thus Haggad. twisted. Less correctly the Midrash: are his lips, or they are the reins which think, and the heart decides (on this curious psychol. conception, cf. Chullin 11 a, and particularly Berachoth 61 a, together with my Psychol. p. 269). The reference to the internal organs if priori improbable throughout; the Targ. with the right tact decides in favour of the lips: “And thy lips are untuned, so that they can no more say (sing) songs.” In this translation of the Talm. there are compounded, as frequently, two different interpretations, viz., that interpretation of , which is proved by the going before to be incorrect, because impossible; and the interpretation of these “daughters of song” of “songs,” as if these were synonymous designations, as when in Arab. misfortunes are called banatu binasan , and the like ( vid., Lane’s Lex. I p. 263); , which in Mish. denotes a separate voice (the voice of heaven), but in Syr. the separate word, may be compared. But (fut. Niph. of ) will not accord with this interpretation. For that denotes songs (Hitz., Heiligst.), or the sound of singing (Bttch.), or the words (Ewald) of the old man himself, which are now softened down so as to be scarcely audible, is yet too improbable; it is an insipid idea that the old man gives forth these feeble “daughters of song” from his mouth. We explain of a being bowed down, which is external to the old man, and accordingly understand benoth hashshir not of pieces of music (Aq. ) which must be lowered to pianissimo , but according to the parallel already rightly acknowledge by Desvoeux, 2Sa 19:36, where the aged Barzillai says that he has now no longer an ear for the voice of singing men and singing women, of singing birds (cf. of a singing bird in the Syrian fables of Sophos, and banoth of the branches of a fruit tree, Gen 49:22), and, indeed, so that these are a figure of all creatures skilled in singing, and taking pleasure in it: all beings that are fond of singing, and to which it has become as a second nature, must lower themselves, viz., the voice of their song (Isa 29:4) (cf. the Kal, Psa 35:14, and to the modal sense of the fut. Ecc 10:10, , and Ecc 10:19, ), i.e., must timidly retire, they dare not make themselves heard, because the old man, who is terrified by the twittering of a little bird, cannot bear it.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(4) The first two clauses continue the description of the afflicted house; all communication with the outer world broken off: the double doors towards the street shut, the cheerful noise of grinding not heard without (Jer. 25:10-11; Rev. 18:22). If a more minute explanation of the double doors is to be given, we may understand the verse as speaking of the closing of the lips on the falling away of the teeth. (See Job. 41:14; Psa. 141:3; Mic. 5:7.)
He shall rise up.No satisfactory explanation of this clause has been given. The following are three of the best interpretations that have been proposed: (1) The old man, whose state has been figuratively described before, is said to sleep so badly that the chirping of a bird will awake him. (2) His voice becomes feeble like the chirping of a bird (Isa. 29:4). (3) The bird of ill omen raises its voice (Psa. 102:6-7; Zep. 2:14). Each of these interpretations is open to serious objections, which I do not state at length, having myself nothing better to propose.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. The doors The mouth. See Job 41:14. In or on the streets, as being the front door, with valves like the lips of a man.
Shut By loss of teeth. No dental art was known to Koheleth.
Sound of the grinding is low Not merely the mastication, but the whole digestive and vital processes are feeble and slow, so that the man’s whole bodily system is like an almost silent mill.
Rise up at the voice of the bird Better rendered by critics, it, (not he,) referring to “sound,” amounts to the voice of a sparrow. That is, the vital processes of this human mill are so feeble that its grinding “sound” is not louder than a sparrow’s cheep. This grinding “sound” is heard in the “low” and cracked voice of the old man.
Daughters of music Of man’s divine endowment of “music,” the notes and strains of the musician are the offspring or “daughters.” These are brought low, so that no true “music” can be poured forth.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And the doors will be shut in the street, when the sound of the grinding is low, and one will rise up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of music will be laid low.’
This may refer to the fact that the doors will be shut because the aged man no longer goes out into the street. He also eats with difficulty with little use of the decayed teeth, so that there is little sound of grinding. Or the closed doors may be the man’s lips as he grows weaker, seen along with the non-use of the teeth as eating and drinking becomes more difficult, or reference may be to the approach of deafness, the doors being closed so that he cannot hear sounds. Whichever way it is, it is emphasising his incapacity through old age.
Furthermore he cannot sleep through the night and rises with the birds, and yet is unable to hear the songbirds (the daughters of music) clearly so as to enjoy their music. Or the idea may be that when through the dimness he catches the song of the early bird he rises as he always has, only to remember that he cannot hear their songs properly, and that life no longer offers him anything but to endure until the end.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Ecc 12:4. And the doors shall be shut in the streets. And the double gate shall be shut up towards the inner court, at the lowering of the voice of the grinding-maid: and then he shall rise up at the crowing of the cock, and all the daughters of the song shall be valued at nought.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Ecc 12:4 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;
Ver. 4. And the doors shall be shut in the streets. ] The ears shall grow deaf, the hearing weak, which hearing is caused by two bones within the inside of the ear, whereof one stands still and the other moves, like the two stones of a mill.
And he shall rise up at the voice of the bird.
And all the daughters of music shall be brought low.
a Jerome, on this verse.
b A dicitur, quia nos a lecto exsuscitat.
c Nam quae cantante voluptas? – Juvenal.
the doors = the openings: i.e. the mouth and ears.
streets = street (singular)
sound of the grinding is low: i.e. the mastication with gums instead of teeth is low.
rise up = start: referring to insomnia.
the daughters of musick: i.e. songs, &c, the product of music.
all: 2Sa 19:35
Reciprocal: Job 41:14 – the
Ecc 12:4. And the doors be shut in the streets Or toward the streets: which lead into the street. This may be understood, either of the outward senses, which, as doors, let in outward objects to the soul; or, rather, of the mouth, or the two lips, here expressed by a word of the dual number, which, like a door, open or shut the way that leads into the streets or common passages of the body, as the gullet, stomach, and all the bowels; as also the wind-pipe and lungs, which also are principal instruments both of speaking and eating. And these are said to be shut, not absolutely, as if men did never eat, or drink, or speak, but comparatively, because men, in old age, grow dull and listless, having little appetite to eat, and are very frequently indisposed for discourse. When the sound of the grinding is low When the teeth are loose and few, whereby both his speech is low, and the noise which he makes in eating is but small. And he shall rise From his bed, being weary with lying, and unable to get sleep. At the voice of the bird As soon as the birds begin to chirp, which is early in the morning, whereas young men can lie and sleep long. And all the daughters of music All those senses or parts of the body, which are employed in music, shall be brought low Shall be cast down from their former excellence, and become incapable either of making music, or of delighting in it.
12:4 And the {f} doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the {g} grinding shall be low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the {h} bird, and all the {i} daughters of music shall be brought low;
(f) The lips or mouth.
(g) When the jaws will scarce open and not be able to chew any more.
(h) He will not be able to sleep.
(i) That is the wind pipes or the ears will be deaf and not able to hear singing.
"The doors to the street" are probably the lips that are shut because of the absence of teeth in the mouth, "the grinding mill." Another view is that they are the ears. [Note: Longman, p. 271.] The writer alluded to the inability of old people to sleep soundly, as well as to their loss of hearing.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)