In the day when the {b} keepers of the house shall tremble, and the {c} strong men shall bow themselves, and the {d} grinders cease because they are few, and those that {e} look out of the windows shall be darkened,

(b) The hands which keep the body.

(c) The legs.

(d) The teeth.

(e) The eyes.

Wesley's Notes

12:3 The house - Of the body: whose keepers are the hands and arms, which are man's best instruments to defend his body; and which in a special manner are subject to his trembling. The strong men - The thighs and legs, in which the main strength of the body consists. Grinders - The teeth, those especially which are commonly so called, because they grind the meat. Cease - To perform their office. And those, and c. - The eyes. By windows he understands either the eye - lids, which like windows, are either opened or shut: or, those humours and coats of the eyes, which are the chief instruments by which we see.

King James Translators' Notes

the grinders...: or, the grinders fail, because they grind little

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. keepers of the house-namely, the hands and arms which protected the body, as guards do a palace (Ge 49:24; Job 4:19; 2Co 5:1), are now palsied.

strong men . bow-(Jud 16:25, 30). Like supporting pillars, the feet and knees (So 5:15); the strongest members (Ps 147:10).

grinders-the molar teeth.

cease-are idle.

those that look out of the windows-the eyes; the powers of vision, looking out from beneath the eyelids, which open and shut like the casement of a window.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:1-7 We should remember our sins against our Creator, repent, and seek forgiveness. We should remember our duties, and set about them, looking to him for grace and strength. This should be done early, while the body is strong, and the spirits active. When a man has the pain of reviewing a misspent life, his not having given up sin and worldly vanities till he is forced to say, I have no pleasure in them, renders his sincerity very questionable. Then follows a figurative description of old age and its infirmities, which has some difficulties; but the meaning is plain, to show how uncomfortable, generally, the days of old age are. As the four verses, 2-5, are a figurative description of the infirmities that usually accompany old age, ver. 6 notices the circumstances which take place in the hour of death. If sin had not entered into the world, these infirmities would not have been known. Surely then the aged should reflect on the evil of sin.