Commentary of Charles Spurgeon, Adam Clarke & Matthew Henry
and the strong men shall bow themselves,
and the grinders cease because they are few,
and those that look out of the windows be darkened,...
Vs.3
In the day when the keepers of the house - The Body of man is here compared to a House: - mark the metaphors and their propriety.
The keepers shall tremble - the hands become paralytic, as is constantly the case, less or more, in old age.
The strong men shall bow - The legs become feeble, and unable to support the weight of the body.
Then the grinders cease because they are few; the teeth, with which we
grind our meat and prepare it for concoction, cease to do their part, because
they are few. They are rotted and broken, and perhaps have been drawn
because they ached... The teeth are gone.
Those that look
out of the windows are darkened; the eyes wax dim, as Isaac's (Gen.
27:1), ....ordinarily the sight decays in old people
as soon as any thing, and we have need to improve our sight well while we have it, because the
light of the eyes may be gone before the light of life.
That vigor which used to be exerted for self-defence fails and cannot do its
office...Old men that have been in their time strong
men become weak and stoop for age.
