Ecclesiastes 12:2 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Bible Comments

While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:

Be not darkened - i:e., before they be so. Illustrating "the evil days." "Light," "sun," etc., express prosperity; 'darkness,' pain and calamity (Isaiah 13:10; Isaiah 30:26). A joyless old age is hereby depicted.

Clouds ... after the rain. After rain sunshine (comfort) might be looked for, but only a brief glimpse of it is given, and the gloomy clouds (pains) return. The sense is, before that one trouble shall follow upon another, as is the case in an old age unillumined by piety.

Ecclesiastes 12:2

2 While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: