SEV Biblia, Chapter 12:6
Antes que la cadena de plata se quiebre, y se rompa el cuenco de oro, y el cántaro se quiebre junto a la fuente, y la rueda sea rota sobre el pozo;
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Ecclesiastes 12:6
Verse 6. Or ever the silver cord be loosed - We have already had all the external evidences of old age, with all its attendant infirmities; next follow what takes place in the body, in order to produce what is called death, or the separation of body and soul. 1. The silver cord. - The medulla oblongata or spinal marrow, from which all the nerves proceed, as itself does from the brain. This is termed a cord, from its exact similitude to one; and a silver cord, from its colour, as it strikingly exhibits the silver gray; and from its preciousness. This is said to be loosed; as the nervous system became a little before, and at the article of death, wholly debilitated.
The last loosing being the fall of the under jaw, the invariable and never-failing evidence of immediate death; a few struggles more, and the soul is dismissed from its clay tenement.
2. The golden bowl be broken - The brain contained in the cranium, or skull, and enveloped with the membranes called the dura and pia mater; here called a bowl, from its resemblance to such a vessel, the container being put for the contained; and golden because of its colour, and because of its exceeding preciousness as has been noticed in the former case. Broken-be rendered unfit to perform its functions, neither supplying nor distributing any nervous energy.
3. Or the pitcher be broken at the fountain - The vena cava, which brings back the blood to the right ventricle of the heart, here called the fountain, [wbmh hammabbua, the spring whence the water gushes up; properly applied here to the heart, which by its systole and diastole (contraction and expansion) sends out, and afterwards receives back, the blood; for all the blood flows from, and returns back to, the heart.
4. The wheel broken at the cistern - The great aorta, which receives the blood from the cistern, the left ventricle of the heart, and distributes it to the different parts of the system. These may be said, as in the case of the brain above, to bo broken, i.e., rendered useless; when, through the loosening of the silver cord, the total relaxation of the nervous system, the heart becomes incapable of dilatation and contraction, so that the blood, on its return to the right ventricle of the heart, is not recessed, nor that already contained in the ventricles propelled into the great aorta. The wheel is used in allusion to the Asiatic wheels, by which they raise water from their wells and tanks, and deep cisterns, for domestic purposes, or to irrigate the grounds. Thus, then, the blood becomes stagnate; the lungs cease to respire; the blood is no longer oxidized, all motion, voluntary and involuntary, ceases; the body, the house of the immortal spirit, is no longer tenantable, and the soul takes its flight into the eternal world.
The man D-I-E-S! This is expressed in the following verse: -
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 6. Or ever the silver cord be loosed , etc.] As the above are the symptoms and infirmities of old age; these in this verse are the immediate symptoms of death, or what attend it, or certainly issue in it. Some by “the silver cord” understand the string of the tongue; and to this purpose is the Targum, “before thy tongue is dumb from speaking;” and it is observed in favour of this sense, that the failing of the tongue is no fallacious sign of death, of which there is no mention at all in this account, unless here; and the tongue may not unfitly be called a “cord”, both from the notation of the word because it binds, and because it scourges like a cord, ( Job 5:21); and is compared to silver, ( Proverbs 10:20), and in this verse rather the head than the back is treated of. But best, the bond of union between soul and body is meant: the Midrash and Jarchi, and the Jewish writers in general, interpret it of the “spina dorsi”, or backbone; or rather of the marrow of it, which descends like a cord from the brain through the neck, and down the backbone to the bottom of it; from whence spring the nerves, fibres, tendons, and filaments of the body, on which the life of it much depends: this spinal marrow may be called a “cord” for the length of it, as well as what arise from it; and a silver cord, from the colour of it f285 , this being white even after death; and for the excellency of it: and this may be said to be “loosened” when there is a solution of the nerves, or marrow; upon which a paralysis, or palsy, follows, and is often the immediate forerunner of death; or the golden bowl be broken ; the Targum renders it the top of the head; and the Midrash interprets it the skull, and very rightly; or rather the inward membrane of the skull, which contains the brain, called the “pia mater”, or “meninx”, is intended, said to be a bowl, from the form of it; a “golden” one, because of the preciousness of it, and the excellent liquor of life it contains, as also because of its colour; now when this “runs back”, as the word signifies, dries, shrinks up, and breaks, it puts a stop to all animal motion, and hence death; or the pitcher be broken at the fountain ; not the gall at the liver, as the Targum, which the ancients took to be the fountain of blood; but by the “fountain” is meant the heart, the fountain of life, which has two cavities, one on the right side, the other on the left, from whence come the veins and arteries, which carry the blood through the whole body; and here particularly it signifies the right ventricle of the heart, the spring and original of the veins, which are the pitcher that receives the blood and transmits it to the several parts of the body; but when thee are broke to shivers, as the word signifies, or cease from doing their office, the blood stagnates in them, and death follows; or the wheel broken at the cistern ; which is the left ventricle of the heart, which by its “diastole” receives the blood brought to it through the lungs, as a cistern receives water into it; where staying a while in its “systole”, it passes it into the great artery annexed to it; which is the wheel or instrument of rotation, which, together with all the instruments of pulsation, cause the circulation of the blood, found out in the last age by our countryman Dr. Harvey; but it seems by this it was well known by Solomon; now, whenever this wheel is broken, the pulse stops, the blood ceases to circulate, and death follows. For this interpretation of the several preceding passages, as I owe much to the Jewish writers, so to Rambachius and Patrick on these passages, and to Witsius’s “Miscellanies”, and especially to our countryman Dr. Smith, in his “Portrait of Old Age”, a book worthy to be read on this subject; and there are various observations in the Talmud agreeable hereunto.
Matthew Henry Commentary
A description of the infirmities of age. (Eccl. 12:1-7) All is vanity also a warning of the judgment to come. (Eccl. 12:8-14)
Eccl. 12:1-7 We should remember our sins against our Creator, repent and seek forgiveness. We should remember our duties, and set abou them, looking to him for grace and strength. This should be done early while the body is strong, and the spirits active. When a man has the pain of reviewing a misspent life, his not having given up sin an worldly vanities till he is forced to say, I have no pleasure in them renders his sincerity very questionable. Then follows a figurativ description of old age and its infirmities, which has some difficulties; but the meaning is plain, to show how uncomfortable generally, the days of old age are. As the four verses, 2-5, are figurative description of the infirmities that usually accompany ol age, Eccl. 12:6 notices the circumstances which take place in the hou of death. If sin had not entered into the world, these infirmitie would not have been known. Surely then the aged should reflect on the evil of sin.
Eccl. 12:8-14 Solomon repeats his text, VANITY OF VANITIES, ALL I VANITY. These are the words of one that could speak by dear-bough experience of the vanity of the world, which can do nothing to ease me of the burden of sin. As he considered the worth of souls, he gave goo heed to what he spake and wrote; words of truth will always be acceptable words. The truths of God are as goads to such as are dul and draw back, and nails to such as are wandering and draw aside; mean to establish the heart, that we may never sit loose to our duty, nor be taken from it. The Shepherd of Israel is the Giver of inspired wisdom Teachers and guides all receive their communications from him. The title is applied in Scripture to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God The prophets sought diligently, what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. To write man books was not suited to the shortness of human life, and would be weariness to the writer, and to the reader; and then was much more s to both than it is now. All things would be vanity and vexation, excep they led to this conclusion, That to fear God, and keep his commandments, is the whole of man. The fear of God includes in it all the affections of the soul towards him, which are produced by the Holy Spirit. There may be terror where there is no love, nay, where there is hatred. But this is different from the gracious fear of God, as the feelings of an affectionate child. The fear of God, is often put for the whole of true religion in the heart, and includes its practica results in the life. Let us attend to the one thing needful, and no come to him as a merciful Saviour, who will soon come as an almight Judge, when he will bring to light the things of darkness, and manifes the counsels of all hearts. Why does God record in his word, that AL IS VANITY, but to keep us from deceiving ourselves to our ruin? He makes our duty to be our interest. May it be graven in all our hearts Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is all that concerns man __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
עד 5704 אשׁר 834 לא 3808 ירחק 7368 חבל 2256 הכסף 3701 ותרץ 7533 גלת 1543 הזהב 2091 ותשׁבר 7665 כד 3537 על 5921 המבוע 4002 ונרץ 7533 הגלגל 1534 אל 413 הבור׃ 953
