Verse 6
Solomon described the end of life first as the extinguishing of a light. The "golden bowl" is a bowl that holds a flame. When the "silver cord" that holds it breaks, the bowl crashes to the floor and the light goes out. Gold and silver express the great value of life.
The second description of death is water that one can no longer draw out of a well.
The "wording gives us a picture of the ruined apparatus plus the wheel as they have crashed down into the old cistern. So man breaks down and falls into a pit also." [Note: H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Ecclesiastes, p. 286.]
Whereas the first figure emphasizes the value of life, this one stresses its fragile nature. The pitcher would have been clay.
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