Before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
All Commentaries on Ecclesiastes 12:6 Go To Ecclesiastes 12
Jerome
AD 420
The silver cord indicates a pure life and the inspiration that is given to us from heaven. The return again of the golden band signifies the soul that returns to the place from which it descended. Moreover, there are two remaining [figures] which follow. The shattered pitcher at the spring and the broken wheel at the well, through the use of metaphor, are allegories for death. For if a pitcher is worn through it ceases to draw water, and when a wheel at the well is broken the water it would have drawn is left to become putrid.
