Tim Maas Supporter Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

To me, the imagery of nails is meant to covey an impression of strength, stability, and permanence with regard to the teachings or sayings of wise individuals, which provide a firm basis or foundation for personal action, similar to the characteristics of Scripture noted in 2 Timothy 3:16-17. (Perhaps the imagery could be applied to a shepherd constructing a protective pen for a flock.)

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Jennifer Rothnie Supporter Housewife, Artist, Perpetually Curious

Ecc 12:11-12 is a pretty convoluted metaphor for the modern reader, made perhaps even more difficult by some of the words being hard to translate (e.g. are the nails fastening nails, or tent stakes as some allege? Is it assemblies or collections? Are the masters teachers or scholars?) 

But to unpack it, it helps to remember that Hebrew doesn't have a lot of abstract words as a language. Rather, it often uses concrete words to express abstract concepts, or pictorial archetypes to bring to mind a higher truth. In Hebrew, it was common to pull from divergent metaphors within the same thought or teaching to reinforce, nuance, or interweave a concept/s.

"...whereas among ourselves consistency is insisted upon, 
and mixed metaphors greeted with ridicule, a Hebrew 
could combine in one sentence two or more figures of 
speech which to our English minds are totally irreconcilable. This peculiarity is due to the fact that in the 
Hebrew mind the idea conveyed by each metaphor was 
immediately separated from the particular figure of speech 
which illustrated that idea."
https://biblicalarchaeology.org.uk/pdf/schweich-lectures/1931_ancient-hebrew-social-life_kennett.pdf

It's true shepherds don't have much relation to nails if one is thinking only of the shepherd guiding sheep or animals. But "shepherd" was also used of teachers, prophets, and rulers - the shepherds of people.

"Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding." Jer 3:15 

And, perhaps most pertinent to the "One Shepherd" of Ecclesiastes 12:11, God Himself is called a Shepherd on more than one occasion.

"Then he blessed Joseph and said, “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day..." - Gen 48:15

"...Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. You who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth" Psalm 80:1b

The "goad" part of the metaphor does fit with a shepherd, however, as goads/pricks were pointed sticks or staves for prodding cattle with the sharp point.

"The words of the wise are like goads, and the anthologies of the masters are like firmly embedded nails driven by a single Shepherd." (Ecc 12:11 BSB)

As to why wise sayings originating from God as their source and taught through men are like nails and goads, or to why the masters of the assemblies/scholars are fastened like nails, deciphering the metaphor gets a little tricky.

If the Hebrew is meant to say that the masters of the assemblies/scholars/men themselves are what are firm, like nails, then the metaphor would be in line with other passages that show God fastening/nailing someone (e.g. Christ, the remnant) in a "firm place." That it, it would be about God establishing those teachers sharing His wisdom (fastening them firmly as if nailing them in place) and in turn that wisdom acting like a goad to prod the listener.

"And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house." Isa 22:23

"...grace has been shown from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant...and to give us a nail in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us a measure of revival..." Ezra 8:9

Though if the 'nails' is meant to apply to their words, as commonly translated but less supported by the grammar, it would be a metaphor in the same vein as the goad/cattle-prod - that the words are piercing, full of wisdom and power.

See how Paul is said by Jesus to "kick against the goads" in Acts 9:5 and Acts 26:14. He was resisting the pierce of the Father's wisdom in the OT which spoke of Christ.

The teacher considers himself among those with upright, true, and wise words (Ecc 12:9-10.) He ends with a caution to the reader to be careful going "beyond" the wisdom of the One Shepherd and the collected writings into the endless study of books, as there is no end to them, but to focus on obeying and fearing God.

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