Ecclesiastes 12:6
Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
The verse belongs to the description of old age and approaching death that urges remembering the Creator before life ends. It pictures death as the breaking of the delicate supports that sustain life, with the silver cord loosed, the golden bowl broken, and the pitcher broken at the fountain and the wheel broken at the cistern. It describes the day of death when the body fails, life ends, and the body returns to the earth.
It marks the time when a person's thoughts perish in that very day. The dead then lie in silent, unconscious sleep in the grave, unaware and knowing nothing of what happens under the sun. They do not go immediately to heaven nor receive their reward at death. They remain asleep until God awakens them at the resurrection.
Whether that interval is long or short, it passes for them as only a moment. For the righteous this unconsciousness is blessed, restful rest. When awakened by God's trumpet to immortality, their consciousness resumes where it stopped, beginning to think where it ceased. The pang of death is the last sensation before that sleep, and triumphant victory over death is the first glad thought on rising to glorious immortality.
The wheel at the cistern illustrates the body's circulation, and because the feet are far from that wheel their blood flow is easily checked, especially by cold.