‘Before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.'
There seems to be here a twofold thought. The golden bowl, holding the lighted oil to give light in the house, and held by a silver chord, breaks when the cord snaps with age. And the pitcher at the fountain is broken when the wheel which draws it up from the water is broken, again with age. (Although some see both as portraying the one event). Thus when a man dies his aged silver cord breaks and his golden light-containing bowl, the bowl of life, is broken. When a man dies it is because the wheel which drew up the pitcher full of water, the pitcher of the water of life, has broken with age, crashing down into the cistern and causing the pitcher also to break. The gold and silver reflect the value of a man's life. The cord and the earthenware pitcher its fragility.