CLV(i)
1 Yet remember your Creator in the days of your prime, While the evil days have not yet come, Or the years attain to you when you shall say:There is no delight for me in them,
2 While the sun is not yet darkened, Or the light and moon and stars, Or the thick clouds return after the downpour:"
3 In the day when the keepers of the house stir in a sweat, And the men of valor bend down, When the grinding maids halt because they are few, And those seeing out through the crevices are darkened,
4 When the doors to the road are closed, When the sound of the grinding becomes low, And one rises at the sound of the bird, Yet all the daughters of song are prostrate;"
5 Moreover, one fears lofty heights, And catastrophes are on the road, When the almond tree flowers, And the grasshopper is burdensome, And the caperberry's effects are annulled, When man goes to his eonian home, And those lamenting turn about in the street;"
6 Remember Him, while the silver cable is not yet pulled away, And the golden bowl is splintered, And the jar is broken at the fount, And the rolling wheel is splintered at the cistern,
7 And the soil returns to the earth just as it was, And the spirit, it returns to the One, Elohim, Who gave it."
8 Vanity of vanities, says the Assembler, The whole is vanity."
9 Yet furthermore, because the Assembler was wise, He still taught the people knowledge, And he listened and investigated And set in order many proverbs."
10 The Assembler sought to find words of delight, And what was written is uprightness and words of truth."
11 The words of the wise are like goad points, And like imbedded bolts for the possessors of gathered sayings They are given by one shepherd."
12 Yet furthermore, my son, from adding to these, be warned; Of the making of many scrolls there is no end, And much study is weariness to the flesh."
13 The terminus of the whole matter has been heard:Fear the One, Elohim, and keep His instructions, For this is the whole duty of humanity."
14 For the One, Elohim, shall bring every deed into judgment concerning all that is obscured, Whether good or whether evil."