Ecclesiastes 12:4 (DRB)

Passage

And they shall shut the doors in the street, when the grinder's voice shall be low, and they shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall grow deaf.

Nearby Context

Ecclesiastes 12:2 Before the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars be darkened, and the clouds return after the rain:

Ecclesiastes 12:3 When the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall stagger, and the grinders shall be idle in a small number, and they that look through the holes shall be darkened:

Ecclesiastes 12:4 And they shall shut the doors in the street, when the grinder's voice shall be low, and they shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall grow deaf.

Ecclesiastes 12:5 And they shall fear high things, and they shall be afraid in the way, the almond tree shall flourish, the locust shall be made fat, and the caper tree shall be destroyed: because man shall go into the house of his eternity, and the mourners shall go round about in the street.

Ecclesiastes 12:6 Before the silver cord be broken, and the golden fillet shrink back, and the pitcher be crushed at the fountain, and the wheel be broken upon the cistern,

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "shall", "shut", "doors", "street", "grinder's", and "voice". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "shall" and "shut", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 3's "When the keepers of the house shall..." into verse 5's "And they shall fear high things and...", so "shall" and "shut" belong inside that flow. In Ecclesiastes context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "shall" and "shut" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.