Ecc 12:3-4 | Clarke | e4.org | Verse 3. In the day when the keepers of the house ] The BODY of man is here compared to a HOUSE:-mark the metaphors and their propriety. 1. The keepers shall tremble -the hands become paralytic, as is constantly the case, less or more, in old age. 2. The strong men shall bow ] The legs become feeble, and unable to support the weight of the body. 3. The grinders cease because they are few ] The teeth decayed and mostly lost; the few that remain being incapable of properly masticating hard substances or animal food. And so they cease ; for soft or pulpy substances, which are requisite then, require little or no mastication; and these aliments become their ordinary food. 4. Those that look out of the windows ] The optic nerves , which receive impressions, through the medium of the different humours of the eye, from surrounding objects-they are darkened ; the humours becoming thick, flat , and turbid , they are no longer capable of transmitting those images in that clear, distinct manner, as formerly. There may be an allusion here to the pupil of the eye. Look into it, and you will see your own image in extreme minature looking out upon you; and hence it has its name pupillus , a little child , from pupus , a baby , a doll ; because the image in the eye resembles such. The optic nerve being seated at the bottom of the eye , has the images of surrounding objects painted upon it; it looks out through the different humors . The different membranes and humours which compose the eye, and serve for vision, are, the tunica conjunctiva , the tunica sclerotica , the cornea , the iris , the pupil , the choroides , and the retina . The iris is perforated to admit the rays of light, and is called the pupil ; the retina is a diffusion of the optic nerve in the bottom of the eye, on which the images are painted or impressed that give us the sensation we term sight or vision . All these membranes, humours , and nerves , are more or less impaired , thickened, or rendered opaque , by old age , expressed by the metaphor, "Those that look out of the windows are darkened."

‏ Ecclesiastes 12:3-4

Verse 3. In the day when the keepers of the house] The BODY of man is here compared to a HOUSE:-mark the metaphors and their propriety.

1. The keepers shall tremble-the hands become paralytic, as is constantly the case, less or more, in old age.

2. The strong men shall bow] The legs become feeble, and unable to support the weight of the body.

3. The grinders cease because they are few] The teeth decayed and mostly lost; the few that remain being incapable of properly masticating hard substances or animal food. And so they cease; for soft or pulpy substances, which are requisite then, require little or no mastication; and these aliments become their ordinary food.

4. Those that look out of the windows] The optic nerves, which receive impressions, through the medium of the different humours of the eye, from surrounding objects-they are darkened; the humours becoming thick, flat, and turbid, they are no longer capable of transmitting those images in that clear, distinct manner, as formerly. There may be an allusion here to the pupil of the eye. Look into it, and you will see your own image in extreme minature looking out upon you; and hence it has its name pupillus, a little child, from pupus, a baby, a doll; because the image in the eye resembles such. The optic nerve being seated at the bottom of the eye, has the images of surrounding objects painted upon it; it looks out through the different humors. The different membranes and humours which compose the eye, and serve for vision, are, the tunica conjunctiva, the tunica sclerotica, the cornea, the iris, the pupil, the choroides, and the retina. The iris is perforated to admit the rays of light, and is called the pupil; the retina is a diffusion of the optic nerve in the bottom of the eye, on which the images are painted or impressed that give us the sensation we term sight or vision. All these membranes, humours, and nerves, are more or less impaired, thickened, or rendered opaque, by old age, expressed by the metaphor, "Those that look out of the windows are darkened."

Verse 4. And the doors shall be shut in the streets]

5. The doors-the lips, which are the doors by which the mouth is closed.

6. Be shut in the streets] The cavities of the cheeks and jaws, through which the food may be said to travel before it is fitted by mastication or chewing to go down the aesophagus into the stomach. The doors or lips are shut to hinder the food in chewing from dropping out; as the teeth, which prevented that before, are now lost.

7. The sound of the grinding is low] Little noise is now made in eating, because the teeth are either lost, or become so infirm as not to suffer their being pressed close together; and the mouth being kept shut to hinder the food from dropping out, the sound in eating is scarcely heard. The teeth are divided into three kinds:-1. The dentes incisores, or cutting teeth, in the front of the jaw. 2. The dentes canini, or dog teeth, those in the sides of the jaws, for gnawing, or tearing and separating hard or tough substances. And, 3. Dentes molares, or grinding teeth, the posterior or double teeth, in both jaws, generally termed the grinders; because their office is to grind down the substances that have been cut by the fore teeth, separated into their parts or fibres by the dog teeth, and thus prepare it for digestion in the stomach.

8. He shall rise up at the voice of the bird] His sleep is not sound as it used to be; he slumbers rather than sleeps; and the crowing of the cock awakes him. And so much difficulty does he find to respire while in bed, that he is glad of the dawn to rise up and get some relief. The chirping ot the sparrow is sufficient to awake him.

9. All the daughters of music shall be brought low] The VOICE, that wonderful instrument, almost endless in the strength and variety of its tones, becomes feeble and squeaking, and merriment and pleasure are no more. The tones emitted are all of the querulous or mournful kind.

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