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    when people are afraid of things above
    and of terrors along the way;
    when the almond tree blanches, the locust droops,
        and the caper-berry comes to nothing;[a]
when the human goes to the eternal abode,
    with mourners all around in the street;
    before the silver cord snaps and the gold bowl shatters;
        the jar is broken at the spring and the wheel is crushed at the pit;
    before dust returns to the earth as it was before
        and the life-breath returns to God who gave it.

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 12:5 Heb uncertain

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