Verse 5
High - The powerful and the proud, such persons as an old man in his timidity might shrink from opposing or meeting: or, high ground which old men would avoid ascending.
Fears ... in the way - Compare Proverbs 26:13.
The almond tree - The type of old age. Many modern critics translate “The almond shall be despised,” i. e., pleasant food shall no longer be relished.
The grasshopper - Rather: “the locust.” The clause means, heaviness and stiffness shall take the place of that active motion for which the locust is conspicuous.
Desire - literally, the caper-berry; which, eaten as a provocative to appetite, shall fail to take effect on a man whose powers are exhausted.
Long home - literally, “eternal (see Ecclesiastes 1:4 note) house;” man’s place in the next world. Without attributing to the author of Ecclesiastes that deep insight into the future life which is shown by the writer of the Epistles to the Corinthians, we may observe that He by whom both writers were inspired sanctions in both books (see 2 Corinthians 5:1-6) the use of the same expression “eternal house.” In 2 Corinthians it means that spiritual body which shall be hereafter; and it is placed, as it is here (see Ecclesiastes 12:3), in contrast with that earthly dissolving house which clothes the spirit of man in this world.
Mourners - The singing women who attend funerals for hire (see Matthew 9:23).
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