Ecclesiastes part twelve

We are now in chapter twelve, the last chapter. Verses 1-7 are a poem with the theme that you should remember your creator (presumably yahweh) in the days of your youth, before the troubles of old age creep up on you. The signs of aging are described in imaginative metaphors. They cover vision loss, muscle weakness, deterioration of posture, loss of teeth, loss of hearing, fear of heights, fear of dangers, white hair, loss of libido, and death. Death is given multiple metaphors: cords severed, bowls and pitchers and wheels broken. You should read it, it's quite amusing.

Then, after death,  "the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to god who gave it." This is a clear reference to the book of Genesis where god makes man out of the dust of the ground and breaths into him the breath of life. The "spirit" in this verse is not equivalent to a soul, or personal essence, but is referring to the breath, without which one is dead. God gave the breath, god takes it back when you are done with it. This poem is definitely of Jewish origin.

After the poem, "the teacher" again tells us that everything is meaningless. Three times.

From verses 9-14, we get a conclusion by someone who is not the teacher. After singing the teacher's praises and telling us how hard the teacher worked to find just the right words, the author tells us the collected words of the wise came from one shepherd, and the reader is to beware of anything in addition to them. This is one way the writers of the scriptures have tried to ensure the continuity and uniformity of believers, forbid them to read anything else.

Last of all, we are told that the whole duty of man is to fear god and keep his commandments. "For god will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." That was obviously written by a different person than the one who wrote the first few chapters of Ecclesiastes. What is this judgment spoken of here? Before, the author moaned because everyone had the same end fate, both the wise and the wicked. There was no judgment, that's what he was complaining about. That's why he thought everything was meaningless.