Ecclesiastes 12:3

in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble Here, as before, there is a vivid picture which is also an allegory. The words represent (1) the effect of terror, such as that produced by tempest, or by earthquake, in the population of the city; and (2) the fact which corresponds to these in the breaking up of life. As in the previous verse the phenomena of the firmament answered to those of the higher region of man's nature, so these represent the changes that pass over the parts of his bodily structure. Here accordingly the mode of interpretation which was rejected before becomes admissible. The error of the allegorizers was that they had not the discernment to see that the decay of mental powers would naturally take precedence of that of the bodily organs and that they would as naturally be symbolized by sun, moon and stars. The "keepers" or "watchers" of the houses are in the picture those who stand at the gate as sentinels or go round about the house to see that there are none approaching with the intention to attack. In the allegory they represent the legs which support the frame at rest or give it the power of movement. The trembling is that of the unsteady gait of age, perhaps even of paralysis. Not a few features in the picture seem to indicate experience rather than observation, and this fits in with the thought, suggested in the Ideal Biography(Introduction, ch. iii)., of a form of creeping paralysis depriving one organ after another of its functional activity yet leaving the brain free to note the gradual decay of the whole organism.

and the strong men shall bow themselves As the previous clause painted the effect of terror on the slave sentinels of the house, so this represents its action on the men of might, the wealthy and the noble. They too cower in their panic before the advancing storm. Interpreting the parable, they are the symbol of the arms as man's great instrument of action. They too, once strong to wield sword, or axe, to drive plough, or pen, become flaccid and feeble. The "hands that hang down" (Job 4:3-4; Isaiah 35:3; Hebrews 12:12) become the proverbial type of weakness as well as the "feeble knees." It should be added that the allegorizing commentators for the most part invert the order of interpretation which has been here adopted, finding the arms in the "keepers" and the legs in the "strong man." Something may, of course, be said for this view, but the balance of probabilities turns in favour of that here adopted.

and the grinders cease because they are few Both this noun and "they that look out" are in the feminine, and this determines their position in the picture. As we found slaves and nobles in the first half of the verse, so here we have women at the opposite extremes of social ranks. To "grind at the mill" was the type of the humblest form of female slave labour (Judges 16:21; Isaiah 47:2; Exodus 11:5; Job 31:10; Matthew 24:41; Homer, Od.xx. 105 8). To "look out of the windows" (i.e.the latticed openings, glazed windows being as yet unknown) was as naturally the occupation of the wealthy and luxurious women of the upper class. So the ladies of Sisera (Judges 5:28), and Michal, Saul's daughter (2 Samuel 6:16), and the observing sage, or probably, Wisdom personified (Proverbs 7:6), and Jezebel (2 Kings 9:30), and the kingly lover of the Shulamite (Song Song of Solomon 2:9) are all represented in this attitude.

The interpretation of the parable is here not far to seek. The grinders (as the very term "molar" suggests) can be none other than the teeth, doing, as it were, their menial work of masticating food. They that look out of the windows can be none other than the eyes with their nobler function as organs of perception. So Cicero describes the eyes as "tanquam in arce collocati … tanquam speculatores altissimum locum obtinent." "Placed as in a citadel, like watchmen, they hold the highest places" (de Nat. Deor. ii. 140). The symbolism which thus draws, as it were, distinctions of dignity and honour between different parts of the body will remind a thoughtful student of the analogy on which St Paul lays stress in 1 Corinthians 12:12-26. Each member of that analogy may, of course, thus be used as a symbol of the other. Here the gradations of society represent the organs of the body, and the Apostle inverts the comparison.