Ecclesiastes 12:5

5. They The man himself; expressed in the plural because his various parts and powers have been personified as so many individuals.

Afraid of the high In youth the man could look down from the high tower and not be dizzy; he could mount the cliff and not be exhausted. His brain and legs are now too weak; and he dreads all heights. Nay, fears of exposures to accidents, foes, or atmospheric miasms, are in the plain and level way.

The almond tree shall flourish This “almond tree” has been supposed to refer to the grey hairs of the aged; but the almond does not blossom white but pink coloured. Modern scholars render the words, The almond shall disgust; that is, as an edible, because the toothless old man can no longer masticate it.

The grasshopper (rather locust) shall be a burden Usually understood as a hyperbole expressive of extreme bodily weakness; the old man can scarce carry a grasshopper. But the locust was an article of food; and the meaning seems to be, that it will be too heavy a burden on the stomach for his digestion.

Desire The appetites, especially the sexual. But scholars render the phrase, The kappar shall fail to stimulate. The kappar, or caper-sauce, used to rouse the system, shall be ineffective. Tonics, appetizers, and even medicines shall cease to affect the body so nearly lifeless.

Because All these decays take place “because” man is a fading, dying being.

Goeth The continuous permanent present to express a permanent continuous fact. Man is ever growing old and going to the grave.

Long home Literally, his eternal “home,” in contrast with earth, his temporal “home.” Where that “home” is, Ecclesiastes 12:7 declares; the dust to the grave and the spirit to God. Yet these are one “home” in eternity; and none the less so because judgment (Ecclesiastes 12:14) shall within that “home” change the locality, and unite “dust” and “spirit” in final retribtution. As regularly as the corpse goeth to the grave, the mourners (perhaps in funeral procession) go, or wind, about the streets.