Ecclesiastes 12:3-9

3Your arms that have kept you safe will shake. Your legs will become weak. You will have only a few teeth to eat with. Your eyes will no longer see very well.

4Your ears will not hear noises outside in the streets. You will not hear the sound of people as they work. You will not hear the sound of people as they sing songs. But a bird's song will wake you when you want to sleep.

5You will be afraid to stand on high places. You will worry about danger in the streets. When you are old, your hair will become white, like the flowers on an almond tree. You will feel too tired to move yourself, like an old grasshopper. You will not want to have sex. Finally, we will all die and go to our home in the ground. Many people will weep at our funeral.

6Remember to serve God while you are young, because one day your life will finish. It will be like a silver chain that breaks; like a gold bowl that breaks; like a water pot at the well that breaks into pieces; like a rope at the well that breaks apart.

7Our bodies go back into the ground as dust. The breath of our life goes back to God, who gave it to us.

8So I, the Teacher, say, ‘All these things have no purpose. We cannot understand why they happen.’

9The Teacher was wise man. He also taught the people to understand things. He studied many proverbs and he wrote them down carefully.