Ecclesiastes 12:7

12:1-7 We should remember our sins against our Creator, repent, and seek forgiveness. We should remember our duties, and set about 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 and worldly vanities till he is forced to say, I have no pleasure in them, renders his sincerity very questionable. Then follows a figurative 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 a figurative description of the infirmities that usually accompany old age, ver. 6 notices the circumstances which take place in the hour of death. If sin had not entered into the world, these infirmities would not have been known. Surely then the aged should reflect on the evil of sin.

Ecclesiastes 12:7 . Then shall the dust — The body, called dust, both on account of its original, which was from the dust, and to signify its vile and corruptible nature. As it was — Whence it was first taken. He alludes to Genesis 3:19 . And the spirit — The soul of man, so called, because of its spiritual or immaterial nature; shall return unto God — Into his presence, and before his tribunal, that it may there be sentenced to its everlasting habitation, either to abide with God forever, if approved by him, or otherwise, to be eternally shut out from his presence and favour. Who gave it — Namely, in a peculiar manner; by his creating power: whence he is called, the Father of spirits, Hebrews 12:9 .

The spirit - i. e., The spirit separated unto God from the body at death. No more is said here of its future destiny. To return to God, who is the fountain Psalm 36:9 of Life, certainly means to continue to live. The doctrine of life after death is implied here as in Exodus 3:6 (compare Mark 12:26 ), Psalm 17:15 (see the note), and in many other passages of Scripture earlier than the age of Solomon. The inference that the soul loses its personality and is absorbed into something else has no warrant in this or any other statement in this book, and would be inconsistent with the announcement of a judgment after death Ecclesiastes 12:14 .

The dust; the body, called dust , both for its original, which was from the dust, and to signify its vile and corruptible nature, Job 4:19 30:19 Psalm 103:14 . Return to the earth as it was; whence it was first taken. He alludes to that passage, Genesis 3:19 . The spirit ; the soul of man, frequently so called, as Genesis 2:7 Psalm 31:5 , &c., because it is of a spiritual or immaterial nature. Return unto God; into his presence, and before his tribunal, that there it may be sentenced to its everlasting habitations, either to abide with God for ever, if it be approved by him, or otherwise to be eternally shut out from his presence and favour. Who gave it, to wit, in a peculiar manner, by his creating power: for in a general sense God giveth to every seed his own belly , 1 Corinthians 15:38 ; hence he is called the Father of spirits , Hebrews 12:9 .

7 . Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was ] The reference to the history of man’s creation in Genesis 2:7 is unmistakeable, and finds an echo in the familiar words of our Burial Service, “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” So Epicharmus, quoted by Plutarch, Consol. ad Apoll . p. 110, “Life was compound, and is broken up, and returns thither whence it came, earth to earth and the spirit on high.” So the Epicurean poet sang, “Pulvis et umbra sumus.” “Dust and shadows are we all.” Hor. Od. iv. 7. 16— echoing the like utterance of Anacreon, ὀλίγη κόνις κεισόμεθα . “We shall lie down, a little dust, no more”— echoed in its turn by Shakespeare ( Cymbeline , iv. 2), “Golden lads and lasses must, Like chimney sweepers, turn to dust.” the spirit shall return unto God who gave it ] We note, in the contrast between this and the “Who knoweth …?” of ch. Ecclesiastes 3:21 , what it is not too much to call, though the familiar words speak of a higher triumph than is found here, the Victory of Faith. If the Debater had rested in his scepticism, it would not have been difficult to find parallels in the language of Greek and Roman writers who had abandoned the hope of immortality.

So Euripides had sung Ἐάσατ ʼ ἤδη γῇ καλυφθῆναι νεκρούς , Ὅθεν δ ʼ ἕκαστον ἐς τὸ φῶς ἀφίκετο , Ἐνταῦθ ʼ ἀπελθεῖν , πνεῦμα μὲν πρὸς αἰθέρα , Τὸ σῶμα δ ʼ ἐς γῆν . “Let then the dead be buried in the earth, And whence each element first came to light Thither return, the spirit to the air, The body to the earth.” Eurip. Suppl . 529— or as Lucretius at a later date, “Cedit item retro, de terra quod fuit ante, In terras, et quod missum ’st ex ætheris oris, Id rursum cœli rellatum templa receptant.” “That also which from earth first came, to earth Returns, and that which from the ether’s coasts Was sent, the vast wide regions of the sky Receive again, returning to its home.” De Rer. Nat . ii. 998. Or again, “Ergo dissolvi quoque convenit omnem animal Naturam, ceu fumus, in altas aëris auras.” “So must it be that, like the circling smoke, The being of the soul should be dissolved, And mingle with the breezes of the air.” Lucret. De Rer. Nat . iii. 455.

Verse 7. - Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was ; rather, and the dust return , etc. - the sentence begun above being still carried on to the end of the verse. Here we are told what becomes of the complex man at death, and are thus led to the explanation of the allegorical language used throughout. Without metaphor now it is stated that the material body, when life is extinct, returns to that matter out of which it was originally made ( Genesis 2:7 ; Genesis 3:19 ; comp. Job 34:15 ; Psalm 104:29 ). So Siracides calls man "dust and ashes," and asserts that all things that are of the earth turn to the earth again (Ecclus. 10:9 Ecclus. 40:11). Soph., 'Electra,' 1158 - Ἀντὶ φιλτάτης`ΝΛ´Μορφῆς σποδόν τε καὶ σκιὰν ἀνωφελῆ "Instead of thy dear form,Mere dust and idle shadow." Corn. a Lapide quotes a remarkable parallel given by Plutarch ('Apol. ad Apollon.,' 110) from Epicharmus," Life is compounded and broken up, and again goes whence it came; earth indeed to earth, and the spirit to upper regions." And the spirit shall return unto God who gave it ; or, for the spirit - the clause being no longer subjunctive, but speaking indicatively of fact. In the first clause the preposition "to" is עַל , in the second אֶל , as if to mark the distinction between the downward and the upward way. The writer now rises superior to the doubts expressed in Ecclesiastes 3:21 (where see note), "Who knoweth the spirit of man, whether it goeth upward," etc.?