12:5a when men fear the heights

⌊Remember him before⌋ you will be afraid of heights.
-or-
It is difficult for old people to go uphill,
-or-
You will be afraid of high places, (Good News Translation)

12:5b and dangers of the road,

And ⌊remember him before⌋ you are afraid of dangers along the road.
-or-
and they are terrified of being attacked in the street.
-or-
and walking will be dangerous. (Good News Translation)

12:5a-b (combined)

⌊Remember your Creator before⌋ you will be afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets.
-or-
You will be afraid to climb up a hill or walk down a road. (Contemporary English Version)

12:5c when the almond tree blossoms,

Remember your Creator before the almond trees have buds on them. (New International Reader’s Version)
-or-
Your hair will turn white. (Good News Translation)
-or-
When you are old, your hair will become white, like the flowers on an almond tree. (EEB)

12:5d the grasshopper loses its spring,

⌊Remember him before⌋ you feel lifeless and drag along like an old grasshopper.
-or-
You will hardly be able to drag yourself along,
-or-
You will feel too tired to move yourself, like an old grasshopper. (EEB)

12:5e and the caper berry shrivels—

(New American Standard Bible🙂 and the caper berry is ineffective.

⌊Remember him before⌋ you no longer have sexual desire.
-or-
with no appetite for anything.
-or-
You will not want to have sex. (EEB)

12:5c-e (combined)

⌊Remember him before⌋ you are afraid to climb up a steep hill and to walk along a road. ⌊Remember him before⌋ your hair becomes white. It will be like white flowers on a bush. You will feel very tired all the time. And you will not want to have sex any longer.
-or-

⌊It is the time⌋ when people find it difficult to go uphill. They are afraid of dangers in the streets. Their hair turns white like flowers on a tree. They walk slowly like an ⌊old⌋ grasshopper and have no interest in anything anymore.

12:5f for then man goes to his eternal home

Everyone goes to their eternal dwelling
-or-
You are going to your final resting place.
-or-
Finally, we will all die and go to our home in the ground. (EEB)

12:5g and mourners walk the streets

and the mourners are assembling in the street.
-or-
The mourners will gather in the streets as they carry your body to the grave. (English Easy-to-Read Version)
-or-
Many people will weep at our funeral. (EEB)

© 2006 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
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