CHAPTER XII.
REMEMBER now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;
But remember thy Creator in the days of thy choice youth, while these evil days come not, and these years approach, of which thou shalt say there is nothing for me in THEM of happy providence;
XII. (1.) And remember with respect to thy Creators (but בורא is ‘creating’——see Isaiah xl. 28, xli. 5, xlv. 7, 18, where the participle poel occurs; hence, according to the strict meaning, it ought to be thy creatings) in days of thy choosings (with the same meaning as before; the sentence is doubtless intentionally equivocal) until not come days of the evil (‘the evil days’ is quite correct, but then we must remember the emphasis falls on ‘evil,’ not ‘days’), and are caused to draw near years (not ‘the years,’ which spoils the pathos of the passage——years are opposed to days above) which thou sayest there is nothing to me (emphatic) in them of delight (but not without a shade of the technical meaning, ‘providence’——as man grows older he expects no delight; no great good fortune can come to him).
2 While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:
before, too, is darkened the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars; and the storm-cloud returns after the tempest.