“When the almond tree blossoms”
when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper loses its spring, and the caper berry shrivels, for then man goes to his eternal home and mourners walk the streets. (Ecclesiastes 12:5 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A poetic but disconnected string of nature images.
The cultural key
These images are not random scenery but pieces of a sustained, coded portrait of growing old that runs through the whole chapter (12:1-7). Earlier lines picture 'the keepers of the house' trembling (the arms and hands), 'the grinders' ceasing 'because they are few' (the teeth), and 'those looking through the windows' growing dim (the failing eyes). Here the code continues: the almond tree, which bursts into white blossom, is the head turning white with age; the grasshopper that 'loses its spring' and drags itself is the stiff, heavy movement of aged limbs; and the caper berry, eaten in antiquity to stir appetite and desire, 'shrivels', that is, appetite and desire fade. Then the plain statement: 'man goes to his eternal home and mourners walk the streets', death. Read as loose nature poetry it is opaque; decoded as an allegory of aging, it is one of the most tender and exact descriptions of growing old ever written.
Recovered meaning
The blossoming almond (white hair), the failing grasshopper (stiff limbs), and the shriveled caper berry (lost appetite and desire) are a coded picture of old age, closing with death itself. The chapter is a sustained allegory of the body's decline, not scattered images.