Ecclesiastes 12:2

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];

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.

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;

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.

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

¹Remember [thoughtfully] also your Creator in the days of your youth [for you are not your own, but His], before the evil days come or the years draw near when you will say [of physical pleasures], "I have no enjoyment and delight in them"; ²before 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];³in the day when the keepers of the house (hands, arms) tremble, and the strong men (feet, knees) bow themselves, and the grinders (molar teeth) cease because they are few, and those (eyes) who look through the windows grow dim; ⁴when the doors (lips) are shut in the streets and the sound of the grinding [of the teeth] is low, and one rises at the sound of a bird and the crowing of a rooster, and all the daughters of music (voice, ears) sing softly. ⁵Furthermore, they are afraid of a high place and of dangers on the road; the almond tree (hair) blossoms [white], and the grasshopper (a little thing) is a burden, and the caperberry (desire, appetite) fails. For man goes to his eternal home and the mourners go about the streets and market places. ⁶Earnestly remember your Creator before the silver cord [of life] is broken, or the golden bowl is crushed, or the pitcher at the fountain is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed; ⁷then the dust [out of which God made man's body] will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return 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 (do good for, benefit) those who bless you, And I will curse [that is, subject to My wrath and judgment] the one who curses (despises, dishonors, has contempt for) you. And in you all the families (nations) of the earth will be blessed."

Genesis 12:4
So Abram departed [in faithful obedience] as the LORD had directed him; and Lot [his nephew] left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

Genesis 12:6
Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the [great] terebinth (oak) tree of Moreh. Now the Canaanites were in the land at that time.

Genesis 12:8
Then he moved on from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD [in worship through prayer, praise, and thanksgiving].

Genesis 12:9
Then Abram journeyed on, continuing toward the Negev (the South country of Judah).

Genesis 12:10
Now there was a famine in the land; and Abram went down into Egypt to live temporarily, for the famine in the land was oppressive and severe.

Genesis 12:14
And when Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was very beautiful.

Genesis 12:16
Therefore Pharaoh treated Abram well for her sake; he acquired sheep, oxen, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.

Genesis 12:17
But the LORD punished Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

Genesis 12:18
Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, "What is this that you have done to me? Why did you not 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.