Teks -- Ecclesiastes 3:1-22 (NET)

A Time for All Events in Life

3:1 For everything there is an appointed time, and an appropriate time for every activity on earth: 3:2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot what was planted; 3:3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. 3:5 A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 3:6 A time to search, and a time to give something up as lost; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; 3:7 A time to rip, and a time to sew; a time to keep silent, and a time to speak. 3:8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

Man is Ignorant of God’s Timing

3:9 What benefit can a worker gain from his toil? 3:10 I have observed the burden that God has given to people to keep them occupied. 3:11 God has made everything fit beautifully in its appropriate time, but he has also placed ignorance in the human heart so that people cannot discover what God has ordained, from the beginning to the end of their lives.

Enjoy Life in the Present

3:12 I have concluded that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to enjoy themselves as long as they live, 3:13 and also that everyone should eat and drink, and find enjoyment in all his toil, for these things are a gift from God.

God’s Sovereignty

3:14 I also know that whatever God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken away from it. God has made it this way, so that men will fear him. 3:15 Whatever exists now has already been, and whatever will be has already been; for God will seek to do again what has occurred in the past.

The Problem of Injustice and Oppression

3:16 I saw something else on earth: In the place of justice, there was wickedness, and in the place of fairness, there was wickedness. 3:17 I thought to myself, “God will judge both the righteous and the wicked; for there is an appropriate time for every activity, and there is a time of judgment for every deed. 3:18 I also thought to myself, “It is for the sake of people, so God can clearly show them that they are like animals. 3:19 For the fate of humans and the fate of animals are the same: As one dies, so dies the other; both have the same breath. There is no advantage for humans over animals, for both are fleeting. 3:20 Both go to the same place, both come from the dust, and to dust both return. 3:21 Who really knows if the human spirit ascends upward, and the animal’s spirit descends into the earth? 3:22 So I perceived there is nothing better than for people to enjoy their work, because that is their reward; for who can show them what the future holds?

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Ecc 3:1 - A season

A certain time appointed by God for its being and continuance, which no human wit or providence can alter. And by virtue of this appointment of God, all vicissitudes which happen in the world, whether comforts or calamities, come to pass. Which is here added to prove the principal proposition, That all things below are vain, and happiness is not to be found in them, because of their great uncertainty, and mutability, and transitoriness, and because they are so much out of the reach and power of men, and wholly in the disposal of God.

Wesley: Ecc 3:1 - Purpose

Not only natural, but even the voluntary actions of men, are ordered and disposed by God. But it must be considered, that he does not here speak of a time allowed by God, wherein all the following things may lawfully be done, but only of a time fixed by God, in which they are actually done.

Wesley: Ecc 3:2 - To die

And as there is a time to die, so there is a time to rise again, a set time when they that lie in the grave shall be remembered.

Wesley: Ecc 3:3 - To kill

When men die a violent death.

Wesley: Ecc 3:3 - To heal

When he who seemed to be mortally wounded is healed.

Wesley: Ecc 3:4 - To weep

When men have just occasion for weeping.

Wesley: Ecc 3:5 - Stones

Which were brought together in order to the building of a wall or house.

Wesley: Ecc 3:5 - To embrace

When persons perform all friendly offices one to another.

Wesley: Ecc 3:6 - To life

When men lose their estates, either by God's providence, or by their own choice.

Wesley: Ecc 3:6 - To cast away

When a man casts away his goods voluntarily, as in a storm, to save his life, or out of love and obedience to God.

Wesley: Ecc 3:7 - To rent

When men rend their garments, as they did in great and sudden griefs.

Wesley: Ecc 3:8 - To love

When God stirs up love, or gives occasion for the exercise of it.

Wesley: Ecc 3:9 - What profit

Seeing then all events are out of man's power, and no man can do or enjoy any thing at his pleasure, but only when God pleaseth, as has been shewed in many particulars, and is as true and certain in all others, hence it follows, that all men's labours, without God's blessing, are unprofitable, and utterly insufficient to make them happy.

Wesley: Ecc 3:10 - Seen

I have diligently observed mens various employments, and the different successes of them.

Wesley: Ecc 3:10 - Hath given

Which God hath imposed upon men as their duty; to which therefore men ought quickly to submit.

Wesley: Ecc 3:10 - Exercised

That hereby they might have constant matter of exercise for their diligence, and patience, and submission to God's will and providence.

Wesley: Ecc 3:11 - He hath

This seems to be added as at apology for God's providence, notwithstanding all the contrary events and confusions which are in the world. He hath made (or doth make or do, by his providence in the government of the world) every thing (which he doth either immediately, or by the ministry of men, or other creatures) beautiful (convenient, so that, all things considered, it could not have been done better) in its time or station, (when it was most fit to be done). Many events seem to mens shallow judgments, to be very irregular and unbecoming, as when wicked men prosper, and good men are oppressed; but when men shall throughly understand God's works, and the whole frame and contexture of them, and see the end of them, they will say, all things were done wisely.

Wesley: Ecc 3:11 - He hath set

It is true, God hath put the world into mens hearts, or made them capable of observing all the dispensations of God in the world; but this is to be understood with a limitation, because there are some more mysterious works of God, which no man can fully, understand, because he cannot search them out from the beginning to the end.

Wesley: Ecc 3:12 - Them

In creatures or worldly enjoyments.

Wesley: Ecc 3:12 - To do good

To employ them in acts of charity and liberality.

Wesley: Ecc 3:13 - Should eat

Use what God hath given him.

Wesley: Ecc 3:14 - For ever

All God's counsels or decrees are eternal and unchangeable.

Wesley: Ecc 3:14 - Nothing

Men can neither do any thing against God's counsel and providence, nor hinder any work or act of it.

Wesley: Ecc 3:14 - Fear

That by the consideration of his power in the disposal of all persons and things, men should learn to trust in him, to submit to him, to fear to offend him, and more carefully study to please him.

Wesley: Ecc 3:15 - Hath been

Things past, present, and to come, are all ordered by one constant counsel, in all parts and ages of the world. There is a continual return of the same motions of the heavenly bodies, of the same seasons of the year, and a constant succession of new generations of men and beasts, but all of the same quality.

Wesley: Ecc 3:16 - Moreover

This is another argument of the vanity of worldly things, and an hindrance of that comfort which men expect in this life, because they are oppressed by their rulers.

Wesley: Ecc 3:16 - Judgment

ln the thrones of princes, and tribunals of magistrates. Solomon is still shewing that every thing in this world without the fear of God is vanity. In these verses he shews, that power, of which men are so ambitious, and life itself, are worth nothing without it.

Wesley: Ecc 3:17 - I said

I was sorely grieved at this, but I quieted myself with this consideration.

Wesley: Ecc 3:17 - Shall judge

Absolving the just, and condemning the wicked.

Wesley: Ecc 3:17 - A time

God will have his time to rectify all these disorders.

Wesley: Ecc 3:17 - There

At the judgment - seat of God.

Wesley: Ecc 3:17 - For

For examining not only all men's actions, but all their thoughts and purposes.

Wesley: Ecc 3:18 - I said

And further I considered concerning their condition in this present world.

Wesley: Ecc 3:18 - That God

God suffers these disorders among men, that he might discover men to themselves, and shew what strange creatures they are, and what vile hearts they have.

Wesley: Ecc 3:18 - Beasts

That altho' God made them men, yet they have made themselves beasts by their brutish practices, and that, considered only with respect to the present life, they are as vain and miserable creatures as the beasts themselves.

Wesley: Ecc 3:19 - For

They are subject to the same diseases, pains, and calamities.

Wesley: Ecc 3:19 - So dieth

As certainly, and no less, painfully.

Wesley: Ecc 3:19 - One breath

One breath of life, which is in their nostrils by which the beasts perform the same animal operations.

Wesley: Ecc 3:19 - No pre

eminence - In respect of the present life.

Wesley: Ecc 3:20 - One place

To the earth, out of which they were taken.

Wesley: Ecc 3:20 - All turn

All their bodies.

Wesley: Ecc 3:21 - Who knoweth?

True it is, there is a difference, which is known by good men; but the generality of mankind never mind it: their hearts are wholly set on present and sensible things, and take no thought for the things of the future and invisible world.

Wesley: Ecc 3:22 - Better

For a man's present satisfaction.

Wesley: Ecc 3:22 - Should rejoice

That he comfortably enjoys what God hath given him.

Wesley: Ecc 3:22 - His portion

This is the benefit of his labours.

Wesley: Ecc 3:22 - For

When once he is dead he shall never return to see into whose hands his estate falls.

JFB: Ecc 3:1

(Ecc. 3:1-22)

Man has his appointed cycle of seasons and vicissitudes, as the sun, wind, and water (Ecc 1:5-7).

JFB: Ecc 3:1 - purpose

As there is a fixed "season" in God's "purposes" (for example, He has fixed the "time" when man is "to be born," and "to die," Ecc 3:2), so there is a lawful "time" for man to carry out his "purposes" and inclinations. God does not condemn, but approves of, the use of earthly blessings (Ecc 3:12); it is the abuse that He condemns, the making them the chief end (1Co 7:31). The earth, without human desires, love, taste, joy, sorrow, would be a dreary waste, without water; but, on the other hand, the misplacing and excess of them, as of a flood, need control. Reason and revelation are given to control them.

JFB: Ecc 3:2 - time to die

(Psa 31:15; Heb 9:27).

JFB: Ecc 3:2 - plant

A man can no more reverse the times and order of "planting," and of "digging up," and transplanting, than he can alter the times fixed for his "birth" and "death." To try to "plant" out of season is vanity, however good in season; so to make earthly things the chief end is vanity, however good they be in order and season. GILL takes it, not so well, figuratively (Jer 18:7, Jer 18:9; Amo 9:15; Mat 15:13).

JFB: Ecc 3:3 - time to kill

Namely, judicially, criminals; or, in wars of self-defense; not in malice. Out of this time and order, killing is murder.

JFB: Ecc 3:3 - to heal

God has His times for "healing" (literally, Isa 38:5, Isa 38:21; figuratively, Deu 32:39; Hos 6:1; spiritually, Psa 147:3; Isa 57:19). To heal spiritually, before the sinner feels his wound, would be "out of time," and so injurious.

JFB: Ecc 3:3 - time to break down

Cities, as Jerusalem, by Nebuchadnezzar.

JFB: Ecc 3:3 - build up

As Jerusalem, in the time of Zerubbabel; spiritually (Amo 9:11), "the set time" (Psa 102:13-16).

JFB: Ecc 3:4 - mourn

Namely, for the dead (Gen 23:2).

JFB: Ecc 3:4 - dance

As David before the ark (2Sa 6:12-14; Psa 30:11); spiritually (Mat 9:15; Luk 6:21; Luk 15:25). The Pharisees, by requiring sadness out of time, erred seriously.

JFB: Ecc 3:5 - cast away stones

As out of a garden or vineyard (Isa 5:2).

JFB: Ecc 3:5 - gather

For building; figuratively, the Gentiles, once castaway stones, were in due time made parts of the spiritual building (Eph 2:19-20), and children of Abraham (Mat 3:9); so the restored Jews hereafter (Psa 102:13-14; Zec 9:16).

JFB: Ecc 3:5 - refrain . . . embracing

(Joe 2:16; 1Co 7:5-6).

JFB: Ecc 3:6 - time to get

For example, to gain honestly a livelihood (Eph 4:23).

JFB: Ecc 3:6 - lose

When God wills losses to us, then is our time to be content.

JFB: Ecc 3:6 - keep

Not to give to the idle beggar (2Th 3:10).

JFB: Ecc 3:6 - cast away

In charity (Pro 11:24); or to part with the dearest object, rather than the soul (Mar 9:43). To be careful is right in its place, but not when it comes between us and Jesus Christ (Luk 10:40-42).

JFB: Ecc 3:7 - rend

Garments, in mourning (Joe 2:13); figuratively, nations, as Israel from Judah, already foretold, in Solomon's time (1Ki 11:30-31), to be "sewed" together hereafter (Eze 37:15, Eze 37:22).

JFB: Ecc 3:7 - silence

(Amo 5:13), in a national calamity, or that of a friend (Job 2:13); also not to murmur under God's visitation (Lev 10:3; Psa 39:1-2, Psa 39:9).

JFB: Ecc 3:8 - hate

For example, sin, lusts (Luk 14:26); that is, to love God so much more as to seem in comparison to hate "father or mother," when coming between us and God.

JFB: Ecc 3:8 - a time of war . . . peace

(Luk 14:31).

JFB: Ecc 3:9

But these earthly pursuits, while lawful in their season, are "unprofitable" when made by man, what God never intended them to be, the chief good. Solomon had tried to create an artificial forced joy, at times when he ought rather to have been serious; the result, therefore, of his labor to be happy, out of God's order, was disappointment. "A time to plant" (Ecc 3:2) refers to his planting (Ecc 2:5); "laugh" (Ecc 3:4), to Ecc 2:1-2; "his mirth," "laughter"; "build up," "gather stones" (Ecc 3:3, Ecc 3:5), to his "building" (Ecc 2:4); "embrace," "love," to his "princess" (see on Ecc 2:8); "get" (perhaps also "gather," Ecc 3:5-6), to his "gathering" (Ecc 2:8). All these were of "no profit," because not in God's time and order of bestowing happiness.

JFB: Ecc 3:10

(See on Ecc 1:13).

JFB: Ecc 3:11 - his time

That is, in its proper season (Psa 1:3), opposed to worldlings putting earthly pursuits out of their proper time and place (see on Ecc 3:9).

JFB: Ecc 3:11 - set the world in their heart

Given them capacities to understand the world of nature as reflecting God's wisdom in its beautiful order and times (Rom 1:19-20). "Everything" answers to "world," in the parallelism.

JFB: Ecc 3:11 - so that

That is, but in such a manner that man only sees a portion, not the whole "from beginning to end" (Ecc 8:17; Job 26:14; Rom 11:33; Rev 15:4). PARKHURST, for "world," translates: "Yet He hath put obscurity in the midst of them," literally, "a secret," so man's mental dimness of sight as to the full mystery of God's works. So HOLDEN and WEISS. This incapacity for "finding out" (comprehending) God's work is chiefly the fruit of the fall. The worldling ever since, not knowing God's time and order, labors in vain, because out of time and place.

JFB: Ecc 3:12 - in them

In God's works (Ecc 3:11), as far as relates to man's duty. Man cannot fully comprehend them, but he ought joyfully to receive ("rejoice in") God's gifts, and "do good" with them to himself and to others. This is never out of season (Gal 6:9-10). Not sensual joy and self-indulgence (Phi 4:4; Jam 4:16-17).

JFB: Ecc 3:13

Literally, "And also as to every man who eats . . . this is the gift of God" (Ecc 3:22; Ecc 5:18). When received as God's gifts, and to God's glory, the good things of life are enjoyed in their due time and order (Act 2:46; 1Co 10:31; 1Ti 4:3-4).

JFB: Ecc 3:14

(1Sa 3:12; 2Sa 23:5; Psa 89:34; Mat 24:35; Jam 1:17).

JFB: Ecc 3:14 - for ever

As opposed to man's perishing labors (Ecc 2:15-18).

JFB: Ecc 3:14 - any thing taken from it

Opposed to man's "crooked and wanting" works (Ecc 1:15; Ecc 7:13). The event of man's labors depends wholly on God's immutable purpose. Man's part, therefore, is to do and enjoy every earthly thing in its proper season (Ecc 3:12-13), not setting aside God's order, but observing deep reverence towards God; for the mysteriousness and unchangeableness of God's purposes are designed to lead "man to fear before Him." Man knows not the event of each act: otherwise he would think himself independent of God.

JFB: Ecc 3:15

Resumption of Ecc 1:9. Whatever changes there be, the succession of events is ordered by God's "everlasting" laws (Ecc 3:14), and returns in a fixed cycle.

JFB: Ecc 3:15 - requireth that . . . past

After many changes, God's law requires the return of the same cycle of events, as in the past, literally, "that which is driven on." The Septuagint and Syriac translate: "God requireth (that is, avengeth) the persecuted man"; a transition to Ecc 3:16-17. The parallel clauses of the verse support English Version.

JFB: Ecc 3:16

Here a difficulty is suggested. If God "requires" events to move in their perpetual cycle, why are the wicked allowed to deal unrighteously in the place where injustice ought least of all to be; namely, "the place of judgment" (Jer 12:1)?

JFB: Ecc 3:17

Solution of it. There is a coming judgment in which God will vindicate His righteous ways. The sinner's "time" of his unrighteous "work" is short. God also has His "time" and "work" of judgment; and, meanwhile, is overruling, for good at last, what seems now dark. Man cannot now "find out" the plan of God's ways (Ecc 3:11; Psa 97:2). If judgment instantly followed every sin, there would be no scope for free will, faith, and perseverance of saints in spite of difficulties. The previous darkness will make the light at last the more glorious.

JFB: Ecc 3:17 - there

(Job 3:17-19) in eternity, in the presence of the Divine Judge, opposed to the "there," in the human place of judgment (Ecc 3:16): so "from thence" (Gen 49:24).

JFB: Ecc 3:18 - estate

The estate of fallen man is so ordered (these wrongs are permitted), that God might "manifest," that is, thereby prove them, and that they might themselves see their mortal frailty, like that of the beasts.

JFB: Ecc 3:18 - sons of men

Rather, "sons of Adam," a phrase used for "fallen men." The toleration of injustice until the judgment is designed to "manifest" men's characters in their fallen state, to see whether the oppressed will bear themselves aright amidst their wrongs, knowing that the time is short, and there is a coming judgment. The oppressed share in death, but the comparison to "beasts" applies especially to the ungodly oppressors (Psa 49:12, Psa 49:20). They too need to be "manifested" ("proved"), whether, considering that they must soon die as the "beasts," and fearing the judgment to come, they will repent (Dan 4:27).

JFB: Ecc 3:19

Literally, "For the sons of men (Adam) are a mere chance, as also the beast is a mere chance." These words can only be the sentiments of the skeptical oppressors. God's delay in judgment gives scope for the "manifestation" of their infidelity (Ecc 8:11; Psa 55:19; 2Pe 3:3,4). They are "brute beasts," morally (Ecc 3:18; Jud 1:10); and they end by maintaining that man, physically, has no pre-eminence over the beast, both alike being "fortuities." Probably this was the language of Solomon himself in his apostasy. He answers it in Ecc 3:21. If Ecc 3:19-20 be his words, they express only that as regards liability to death, excluding the future judgment, as the skeptic oppressors do, man is on a level with the beast. Life is "vanity," if regarded independently of religion. But Ecc 3:21 points out the vast difference between them in respect to the future destiny; also (Ecc 3:17) beasts have no "judgment" to come.

JFB: Ecc 3:19 - breath

Vitality.

JFB: Ecc 3:21 - Who knoweth

Not doubt of the destination of man's spirit (Ecc 12:7); but "how few, by reason of the outward mortality to which man is as liable as the beast and which is the ground of the skeptic's argument, comprehend the wide difference between man and the beast" (Isa 53:1). The Hebrew expresses the difference strongly, "The spirit of man that ascends, it belongeth to on high; but the spirit of the beast that descends, it belongeth to below, even to the earth." Their destinations and proper element differ utterly [WEISS].

JFB: Ecc 3:22

(Compare Ecc 3:12; Ecc 5:18). Inculcating a thankful enjoyment of God's gifts, and a cheerful discharge of man's duties, founded on fear of God; not as the sensualist (Ecc 11:9); not as the anxious money-seeker (Ecc 2:23; Ecc 5:10-17).

JFB: Ecc 3:22 - his portion

In the present life. If it were made his main portion, it would be "vanity" (Ecc 2:1; Luk 16:25).

JFB: Ecc 3:22 - for who, &c.

Our ignorance as to the future, which is God's "time" (Ecc 3:11), should lead us to use the present time in the best sense and leave the future to His infinite wisdom (Mat 6:20, Mat 6:25, Mat 6:31-34).

Clarke: Ecc 3:1 - To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose - Two general remarks may be made on the first eight verses of this chapter

1.    God by his providence governs the world, and has determined particular things and operations to particular times. In those times such things may be done with propriety and success; but if we neglect the appointed seasons, we sin against this providence, and become the authors of our own distresses

2.    God has given to man that portion of duration called Time; the space in which all the operations of nature, of animals, and intellectual beings, are carried on; but while nature is steady in its course, and animals faithful to their instincts, man devotes it to a great variety of purposes; but very frequently to that for which God never made time, space, or opportunity. And all we can say, when an evil deed is done, is, there was a time in which it was done, though God never made it for that purpose

To say any farther on this subject is needless, as the words themselves give in general their own meaning. The Jews, it is true, see in these times and seasons all the events of their own nation, from the birth of Abraham to the present times; and as to fathers and their followers, they see all the events and states of the Christian Church in them

It is worthy of remark, that in all this list there are but two things which may be said to be done generally by the disposal of God, and in which men can have but little influence: the time of birth, and the time of death. But all the others are left to the option of man, though God continues to overrule them by his providence. The following paraphrase will explain all that is necessary to be generally understood: -

Clarke: Ecc 3:2 - A time to be born, and a time to die - plant

A time to be born, and a time to die - plant -

"As in its mother’ s womb the embryo lie

A space determined; to full growth arrived

From its dark prison bursts, and sees the light

So is the period fix’ d when man shall dro

Into the grave - A time there is to plant

And sow; another time to pluck and reap

Even nations have their destined rise and fall

Awhile they thrive; and for destruction ripe

When grown, are rooted up like wither’ d plants."

Clarke: Ecc 3:3 - A time to kill, - heal, - break down, - build up

A time to kill, - heal, - break down, - build up -

"The healing art, when out of season used

Pernicious proves, and serves to hasten death

But timely medicines drooping nature raise

And health restore - Now, Justice wields her swor

With wholesome rigour, nor the offender spares

But Mercy now is more expedient found

On crazy fabrics ill-timed cost bestow’

No purpose answers, when discretion bid

To pull them down, and wait a season fi

To build anew."

Clarke: Ecc 3:4 - A time to weep, - laugh, - mourn, - dance

A time to weep, - laugh, - mourn, - dance - "When private griefs affec

The heart, our tears with decent sorrow flow

Nor less becoming, when the public mourns

To vent the deepest sighs. But all aroun

When things a smiling aspect bear, our soul

May well exult; ‘ tis then a time for joy."

Clarke: Ecc 3:5 - A time to cast away stones, - to gather stones, - to embrace, - to refrain

A time to cast away stones, - to gather stones, - to embrace, - to refrain -

"One while domestic cares abortive prove

And then successful. Nature now invite

Connubial pleasures: but, when languid grown

No less rejects."

Clarke: Ecc 3:6 - A time to get, - to lose, - to keep, - to cast away

A time to get, - to lose, - to keep, - to cast away - "Commerce produces wealth

Whilst time of gaining lasts; from every poin

Blow prosperous gales. Now heaven begins to lower

And all our hopes are blasted. Prudence bids

One while, our treasure to reserve, and the

With liberal hand to scatter wide. How of

In raging storms, the owner wisely cast

Into the deep his precious merchandise

To save the foundering bark!

Clarke: Ecc 3:7 - A time to rend, - sew, - keep silence, - speak

A time to rend, - sew, - keep silence, - speak - -

"Intestine broil

And factions rend a state: at length the breac

Is heal’ d, and rest ensues. Wisdom restrain

The tongue, when words are vain: but now

’ Tis time to speak, and silence would be criminal."

Clarke: Ecc 3:8 - A time to love, - hate, - of war, - of peace

A time to love, - hate, - of war, - of peace -

"Love turns to hatred; interest or capric

Dissolves the firmest knot by friendship tied

O’ er rival nations, with revenge inflamed

Or lust of power, fell Discord shakes awhil

Her baleful torch: now smiling Peace returns.

The above paraphrase on the verses cited contains a general view of the principal occurrences of time, in reference to the human being, from his cradle to his grave, through all the operations of life.

Clarke: Ecc 3:9 - What profit hath he

What profit hath he - What real good, what solid pleasure, is derived from all the labors of man? Necessity drives him to the principal part of his cares and toils; he labors that he may eat and drink; and he eats and drinks that he may be preserved alive, and kept from sickness and pain. Love of money, the basest of all passions, and restless ambition, drive men to many labors and expedients, which perplex and often destroy them. He, then, who lives without God, travails in pain all his days.

Clarke: Ecc 3:10 - I have seen the travail

I have seen the travail - Man is a sinner; and, because he is such, he suffers.

Clarke: Ecc 3:11 - Beautiful in his time

Beautiful in his time - God’ s works are well done; there are order, harmony, and beauty in them all. Even the caterpillar is a finished beauty in all the changes through which it passes, when its structure is properly examined, and the ends kept in view in which each change is to issue. Nothing of this kind can be said of the works of man. The most finished works of art are bungling jobs, when compared with the meanest operation of nature

Clarke: Ecc 3:11 - He hath set the world in their heart

He hath set the world in their heart - העולם haolam , that hidden time - the period beyond the present, - Eternity. The proper translation of this clause is the following: "Also that eternity hath he placed in their heart, without which man could not find out the work which God hath made from the commencement to the end."God has deeply rooted the idea of eternity in every human heart; and every considerate man sees, that all the operations of God refer to that endless duration. See Ecc 3:14. And it is only in eternity that man will be able to discover what God has designed by the various works he has formed.

Clarke: Ecc 3:12 - I know that there is no good in them, but, etc.

I know that there is no good in them, but, etc. - Since God has so disposed the affairs of this world, that the great events of providence cannot be accelerated or retarded by human cares and anxieties, submit to God; make a proper use of what he has given: do thyself no harm, and endeavor as much as possible to do others good

Enjoy, and bless thyself; let others shar

The transient blessing: ‘ tis the gift of God.

Clarke: Ecc 3:14 - I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever

I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever - לעולם leolam , for eternity; in reference to that grand consummation of men and things intimated in Ecc 3:11. God has produced no being that he intends ultimately to destroy. He made every thing in reference to eternity; and, however matter may be changed and refined, animal and intellectual beings shall not be deprived of their existence. The brute creation shall be restored, and all human spirits shall live for ever; the pure in a state of supreme and endless blessedness, the impure in a state of indestructible misery

Clarke: Ecc 3:14 - Nothing can be put to it

Nothing can be put to it - No new order of beings, whether animate or inanimate, can be produced. God will not create more; man cannot add

Clarke: Ecc 3:14 - Nor any thing taken from it

Nor any thing taken from it - Nothing can be annihilated; no power but that which can create can destroy. And whatever he has done, he intended to be a means of impressing a just sense of his being, providence, mercy, and judgments, upon the souls of men. A proper consideration of God’ s works has a tendency to make man a religious creature; that is, to impress his mind with a sense of the existence of the Supreme Being, and the reverence that is due to him. In this sense the fear of God is frequently taken in Scripture. The Hebrew of this clause is strongly emphatic: והאלהים עשה שייראו מלפניו vehaelohim asah sheiyireu millephanaiv

"And the gods he hath done, that they might fear from before his faces."Even the doctrine of the eternal Trinity in Unity may be collected from numberless appearances in nature. A consideration of the herb trefoil is said to have been the means of fully convincing the learned Erasmus of the truth of the assertion, These Three are One: and yet three distinct. He saw the same root, the same fibres, the same pulpy substance, the same membraneous covering, the same color, the same taste, the same smell, in every part; and yet the three leaves distinct: but each and all a continuation of the stem, and proceeding from the same root. Such a fact as this may at least illustrate the doctrine. An intelligent shepherd, whom he met upon the mountains, is said to have exhibited the herb, and the illustration while discoursing on certain difficulties in the Christian faith. When a child, I heard a learned man relate this fact.

Clarke: Ecc 3:15 - That which hath been is now

That which hath been is now - God governs the world now, as he has governed it from the beginning; and the revolutions and operations of nature are the same now, that they have been from the beginning. What we see now, is the same as has been seen by those before us

Clarke: Ecc 3:15 - And God requireth that which is past

And God requireth that which is past - i.e., That it may return again in its proper order. The heavens themselves, taking in their great revolutions, show the same phenomena. Even comets are supposed to have their revolutions, though some of them are hundreds of years in going round their orbits

But in the economy of grace, does not God require that which is past? Whatever blessing or influence God gives to the soul of man, he intends shall remain and increase; and it will, if man be faithful. Reader, canst thou produce all the secret inspirations of his Spirit, all the drawings of his love, his pardoning mercy, his sanctifying grace, the heavenly-mindedness produced in thee, thy holy zeal, thy spirit of prayer, thy tender conscience, the witness of the Spirit, which thou didst once receive and enjoy? Where are they? God requireth that which is past.

Clarke: Ecc 3:16 - The plate of judgment, that wickedness was there

The plate of judgment, that wickedness was there - The abuse of power, and the perversion of judgment, have been justly complained of in every age of the world. The following paraphrase is good: -

"But what enjoyment can our labors yield

When e’ en the remedy prescribed by heave

To cure disorders proves our deadliest bane

When God’ s vicegerents, destined to protec

The weak from insolence of power, to guar

Their lives and fortunes, impious robbers turn

And, or by force or fraud, deprive of both? -

To what asylum shall the injured fl

From her tribunal, where perverted la

Acquits the guilty, the innocent condemns?

C.

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Clarke: Ecc 3:17 - For there is a time there for every purpose

For there is a time there for every purpose - Man has his time here below, and God shall have his time above. At his throne the judged shall be rejudged, and iniquity for ever close her mouth.

Clarke: Ecc 3:18 - That they might see that they themselves are beasts

That they might see that they themselves are beasts - The author of Choheleth has given a correct view of this difficult verse, by a proper translation: "I said in my heart, reflecting on the state of the sons of men, O that God would enlighten them, and make them see that even they themselves are like beasts."These words are to be referred to those in authority who abused their power; particularly to the corrupt magistrates mentioned above.

Clarke: Ecc 3:19 - For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts

For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts - From the present comparison of great men to beasts, the author takes occasion to enforce the subject by mentioning the state of mankind in general, with respect to the mortality of their bodies; and then, by an easy transition, touches in the next verse on the point which is of such infinite consequence to religion

Clarke: Ecc 3:19 - As the one dieth, so dieth the other

As the one dieth, so dieth the other - Animal life is the same both in the man and in the beast

Clarke: Ecc 3:19 - They have all one breath

They have all one breath - They respire in the same way; and when they cease to respire, animal life becomes extinct

Clarke: Ecc 3:19 - Befalleth beasts

Befalleth beasts - This is wanting in six of Kennicott’ s and De Rossi’ s MSS.

Clarke: Ecc 3:20 - All go unto one place

All go unto one place -

"Man was bor

To die, nor aught exceeds in this respec

The vilest brute. Both transient, frail, and vain

Draw the same breath; alike grow old, decay

And then expire: both to one grave descend

There blended lie, to native dust return’ d.

- C.

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Clarke: Ecc 3:21 - Who knoweth the spirit of man

Who knoweth the spirit of man - I think the meaning of this important verse is well taken by the above able writer: -

The nobler part of man, ‘ tis true, survive

The frail corporeal frame: but who regard

The difference? Those who live like beasts, as suc

Would die, and be no more, if their own fat

Depended on themselves. Who once reflects

Amidst his revels, that the human soul

Of origin celestial, mounts aloft

While that of brutes to earth shall downward go?

The word רוח ruach , which is used in this and the nineteenth verse, has two significations, breath and spirit. It signifies spirit, or an incorporeal substance, as distinguished from flesh, or a corporeal one, 1Ki 22:21, 1Ki 22:22, and Isa 31:3. And it signifies the spirit or soul of man, Psa 31:6; Isa 57:16, and in this book, Ecc 12:7, and in many other places. In this book it is used also to signify the breath, spirit, or soul of a beast. While it was said in verse 19, they have all one breath, i.e., the man and the beast live the same kind of animal life; in this verse, a proper distinction is made between the רוח ruach , or soul of man, and the רוח ruach , or soul of the beast: the one goeth upwards, the other goeth downwards. The literal translation of these important words is this: "Who considereth the רוח ruach ) immortal spirit of the sons of Adam, which ascendeth? it is from above; ( היא למעלה hi lemalah ); and the spirit or breath of the cattle which descendeth? it is downwards unto the earth,"i.e., it tends to the earth only. This place gives no countenance to the materiality of the soul; and yet it is the strongest hold to which the cold and fruitless materialist can resort

Solomon most evidently makes an essential difference between the human soul and that of brutes. Both have souls, but of different natures: the soul of man was made for God, and to God it shall return: God is its portion, and when a holy soul leaves the body, it goes to paradise. The soul of the beast was made to derive its happiness from this lower world. Brutes shall have a resurrection, and have an endless enjoyment in a new earth. The body of man shall arise, and join his soul that is already above; and both enjoy final blessedness in the fruition of God. That Solomon did not believe they had the same kind of spirit, and the same final lot, as some materialists and infidels say, is evident from Ecc 12:7 : "The spirit shall return unto God who gave it."

Clarke: Ecc 3:22 - A man should rejoice in his own works

A man should rejoice in his own works - Do not turn God’ s blessings into sin by perverseness and complaining; make the best of life. God will sweeten its bitters to you, if you be faithful. Remember this is the state to prepare for glory; and the evils of life may be so sanctified to you as to work for your good. Though even wretched without, you may be happy within; for God can make all grace to abound towards you. You may be happy if you please; cry to God, who never rejects the prayer of the humble, and gives his Holy Spirit to all them that ask him.

Defender: Ecc 3:11 - everything beautiful

If there is anything in the world that is ugly, it must be attributed ultimately to sin; God did not make it so.

Defender: Ecc 3:11 - the world

Literally, God "hath set eternity in their hearts." Even though we cannot now comprehend the total plan of God, each person has an innate awareness that God does exist and does have a purpose in creation."

Defender: Ecc 3:14 - shall be for ever

In addition to emphasizing the immutability of God and His works, this passage anticipates the great scientific principle of conservation (conservation of energy, mass, momentum, charge, etc.). Nothing is now being either created or annihilated. An entity may be changed in character and even deteriorate in quality, but it must be conserved in quantity."

Defender: Ecc 3:15 - requireth that which is past

Just because a deed is past and forgotten by other men, this does not mean God has forgotten. "Every one of us shall give account of himself to God" (Rom 14:12)."

Defender: Ecc 3:20 - of the dust

This statement merely refers to the universal curse pronounced by God on man and all his dominion because of sin. Both men and beasts were made out of the basic elements, the "dust of the ground," (Gen 2:7) and their bodies return to dust again at death. This principle is expressed scientifically as the law of increasing entropy (see note on Gen 3:17-19)."

Defender: Ecc 3:21 - goeth upward

"Spirit" is the same word as "breath;" in this sense, both men and beasts have "spirit," but the breathing apparatus ceases to function at death. "Spirit" may also refer to that aspect of man which communicates with God's Spirit, and which returns to God at death (Ecc 12:7). Animals do not have this."

TSK: Ecc 3:1 - every thing // under

every thing : Ecc 3:17, Ecc 7:14, Ecc 8:5, Ecc 8:6; 2Ki 5:26; 2Ch 33:12; Pro 15:23; Mat 16:3

under : Ecc 1:13, Ecc 2:3, Ecc 2:17

TSK: Ecc 3:2 - time to be born // and a time // a time to plant

time to be born : Heb. time to bear, Gen 17:21, Gen 21:1, Gen 21:2; 1Sa 2:5; 1Ki 13:2; 2Ki 4:16; Psa 113:9; Isa 54:1; Luk 1:13, Luk 1:20, Luk 1:36; Joh 16:21; Act 7:17, Act 7:20; Gal 4:4

and a time : Gen 47:29; Num 20:24-28, Num 27:12-14; Deu 3:23-26, Deu 34:5; Job 7:1, Job 14:5, Job 14:14; Isa 38:1, Isa 38:5; Joh 7:30; Heb 9:27

a time to plant : Psa 52:5; Isa 5:2-5; Jer 1:10, Jer 18:7-10, Jer 45:4; Mat 13:28, Mat 13:29, Mat 13:41, Mat 15:13

TSK: Ecc 3:3 - time to kill // a time to heal // a time to break

time to kill : Deu 32:39; 1Sa 2:6, 1Sa 2:25; Hos 6:1, Hos 6:2

a time to heal : Num 26:6-9; Isa. 38:5-20; Jer 33:6; Luk 9:54-56; Act 5:15, Act 5:16

a time to break : Isa 5:5, Isa 5:6, Isa 44:26; Jer 31:28, Jer 45:4; Eze 13:14; Dan 9:25-27; Zec 1:12

TSK: Ecc 3:4 - time to weep // a time to laugh // to dance

time to weep : Neh 8:9-12, 9:1-38; Psa 30:5, Psa 126:1, Psa 126:2, Psa 126:5, Psa 126:6; Isa 22:12, Isa 22:13; Mat 9:15; Mat 11:17; Joh 16:20-22; Rom 12:15; 2Co 7:10; Jam 4:9

a time to laugh : Gen 21:6; Luk 1:13, Luk 1:14, Luk 1:58, Luk 6:21-25

to dance : Exo 15:20; 2Sa 6:16

TSK: Ecc 3:5 - to cast // a time to embrace // refrain from

to cast : Jos 4:3-9, Jos 10:27; 2Sa 18:17, 2Sa 18:18; 2Ki 3:25

a time to embrace : Exo 19:15; 1Sa 21:4, 1Sa 21:5; Son 2:6, Son 2:7; Joe 2:16; 1Co 7:5

refrain from : Heb. be far from

TSK: Ecc 3:6 - time to get // and a time to cast

time to get : or, time to seek, Gen 30:30-43, Gen 31:18; Exo 12:35, Exo 12:36; Deu 8:17, Deu 8:18; 2Ki 5:26, 2Ki 8:9, an a time to lose, Mat 16:25, Mat 16:26, Mat 19:29; Mar 8:35-37, Mar 10:28-30; Luk 9:24, Luk 9:25

and a time to cast : Ecc 11:1; 2Ki 7:15; Psa 112:9; Isa 2:20; Jon 1:5; Act 27:19, Act 27:38; Phi 3:7, Phi 3:8; Heb 10:34, Heb 10:35

TSK: Ecc 3:7 - time to rend // time to keep // and a time to speak

time to rend : Gen 37:29, Gen 37:34; 2Sa 1:11, 2Sa 3:31; 1Ki 21:27; 2Ki 5:7, 2Ki 6:30; Jer 36:24; Joe 2:13; Act 9:39

time to keep : Job 2:13; Psa 39:2; Isa 36:21; Jer 8:14; Lam 3:28; Amo 5:13, Amo 8:3; Mic 7:5

and a time to speak : Gen 44:18, Gen 44:34; 1Sa 19:4, 1Sa 19:5, 25:24-44; Est 4:13, Est 4:14, Est 7:4; Job 32:4-37:24; Pro 24:11, Pro 24:12, Pro 31:8, Pro 31:9; Luk 19:37-40; Act 4:20

TSK: Ecc 3:8 - time to love // a time to hate // a time of war

time to love : Eze 16:8; Psa 139:21; Eph 3:19, Eph 5:25, Eph 5:28, Eph 5:29; Tit 2:4

a time to hate : 2Ch 19:2; Luk 14:26; Rev 2:2

a time of war : Gen 14:14-17; Josh. 8:1-29, Jos 11:23; 2Sa 10:6-19; 1Ki 5:4; 2Chr. 20:1-29, 2Ch 20:30

TSK: Ecc 3:9

Ecc 1:3, Ecc 2:11, Ecc 2:22, Ecc 2:23, Ecc 5:16; Pro 14:23; Mat 16:26

TSK: Ecc 3:10

Ecc 1:13, Ecc 1:14, Ecc 2:26; Gen 3:19; 1Th 2:9; 2Th 3:8

TSK: Ecc 3:11 - hath made // also // so

hath made : Ecc 7:29; Gen 1:31; Deu 32:4; Mar 7:37

also : Mat 13:22; Rom 1:19, Rom 1:20, Rom 1:28

so : Ecc 8:17; Job 11:7, Job 37:23; Psa 104:24; Mat 11:27; Rom 11:33

TSK: Ecc 3:12 - but

but : Ecc 3:22, Ecc 9:7-9; Deu 28:63; Psa 37:3; Isa 64:5; Luk 11:41; Act 20:35; Phi 4:4-9; 1Th 5:15, 1Th 5:16; 1Ti 6:18

TSK: Ecc 3:13

Ecc 2:24, Ecc 5:18-20, Ecc 6:2, Ecc 9:7; Deu 28:30, Deu 28:31, Deu 28:47, Deu 28:48; Jdg 6:3-6; Psa 128:2; Isa 65:21-23

TSK: Ecc 3:14 - whatsoever // nothing // God doeth it

whatsoever : Psa 33:11, Psa 119:90, Psa 119:91; Isa 46:10; Dan 4:34, Dan 4:35; Act 2:23, Act 4:28; Rom 11:36; Eph 3:11; Tit 1:2; Jam 1:17

nothing : Psa 76:10; Pro 19:21, Pro 21:30, Pro 30:6; Isa 10:12-15; Dan 8:8, Dan 11:2-4; Joh 19:10, Joh 19:11, Joh 19:28-37; Act 5:39

God doeth it : Psa 64:9; Isa 59:18, Isa 59:19; Rev 15:4

TSK: Ecc 3:15 - which hath // past

which hath : Ecc 1:9, Ecc 1:10

past : Heb. driven away

TSK: Ecc 3:16

Ecc 4:1, Ecc 5:8; 1Ki 21:9-21; Psa 58:1, Psa 58:2, Psa 82:2-5, Psa 94:21, Psa 94:22; Isa 59:14; Mic 2:2, Mic 7:3; Zep 3:3; Mat 26:59; Act 23:3; Jam 2:6

TSK: Ecc 3:17 - said // God // for

said : Ecc 1:16, Ecc 2:1

God : Ecc 12:14; Gen 18:25; Psa 98:9; Mat 16:27, 25:31-46; Joh 5:22, Joh 5:26-29; Act 17:31; Rom 2:5-9; 1Co 4:5; 2Co 5:10; 2Th 1:6-10; Rev 20:11-15

for : Ecc 3:1; Jer 29:10, Jer 29:11; Dan 11:40, Dan 12:4, Dan 12:9, Dan 12:11-13; Act 1:7; 1Th 5:1; 2Pe 3:7, 2Pe 3:8; Rev 11:2, Rev 11:3, Rev 11:18, Rev 17:12-17, Rev 20:2, Rev 20:7-9

TSK: Ecc 3:18 - concerning // that God // and that

concerning : Gen 3:17-19; Job 14:1-4, Job 15:16; Psa 49:14, Psa 49:19, Psa 49:20, Psa 73:18, Psa 73:19, Psa 90:5-12; Heb 9:27; 1Pe 1:24

that God : etc. or, that they might clear God, and see, etc. Job 40:8; Psa 51:4; Rom 3:4, Rom 9:23

and that : Psa 73:22; 2Pe 2:12

TSK: Ecc 3:19 - that which // as the // for

that which : Ecc 2:16; Psa 49:12, Psa 49:20, Psa 92:6, Psa 92:7

as the : 2Sa 14:14; Job 14:10-12; Psa 104:29

for : Ecc 2:20-23; Psa 39:5, Psa 39:6, Psa 89:47, Psa 89:48

TSK: Ecc 3:20 - go // all are

go : Ecc 3:21, Ecc 6:6, Ecc 9:10; Gen 25:8, Gen 25:17; Num 27:13; Job 7:9, Job 17:13, Job 30:24; Psa 49:14

all are : Gen 3:19; Job 10:9, Job 10:10, Job 34:15; Psa 104:29; Dan 12:2

TSK: Ecc 3:21 - knoweth // of man that goeth upward

knoweth : Ecc 12:7; Luk 16:22, Luk 16:23; Joh 14:3; Act 1:25; 2Co 5:1, 2Co 5:8; Phi 1:23

of man that goeth upward : Heb. of the sons of man that is ascending

TSK: Ecc 3:22 - nothing // who

nothing : Ecc 3:11, Ecc 3:12, Ecc 2:10, Ecc 2:11, Ecc 2:24, Ecc 5:18-20, Ecc 8:15, Ecc 9:7-9, Ecc 11:9; Deu 12:7, Deu 12:18, Deu 26:10, Deu 26:11; Deu 28:47; Rom 12:11, Rom 12:12; Phi 4:4, Phi 4:5

who : Ecc 6:12, Ecc 8:7, Ecc 9:12, Ecc 10:14; Job 14:21; Dan 12:9, Dan 12:10, Dan 12:13; Mat 6:34

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Ecc 3:1 - A season // To every purpose

A season a certain thee appointed by God for its being and continuance, which no human wit or providence can prevent or alter. And by virtue of this appointment or decree of God, all the vicissitudes and changes which happen in the world, whether comforts or calamities, do come to pass; which is here added, partly, to prove what he last said, Ecc 2:24,26 , that both the free and comfortable enjoyment of the creatures which some have, and the crosses and vexations which others have with them, are from the hand and counsel of God; partly, to prove the principal proposition of the book, that all things below are vain, and happiness is not to be found in them, because of their great uncertainty, and mutability, and transitoriness, and because they are so much out of the reach and power of men, and wholly in the disposal of another, to wit, God, who doth either give or take them away, either sweeten or embitter them, as it pleaseth him; and partly, to bring the minds of men into a quiet and cheerful dependence upon God’ s providence, and submission to his will, and a state of preparation for all events.

To every purpose or will , or desire , to wit, of man; to all men’ s designs. attempts, and businesses. Not only natural, but even the free and voluntary actions of men, are ordered and disposed by God to accomplish his own purpose. But it must be considered, that he doth not here speak of a thee allowed by God, wherein all the following things may lawfully be done, which is wholly besides his scope and business; but only of a thee fixed by God, in which they would or should be done.

Poole: Ecc 3:2 - A time to die // A time to plant

A time to die a certain period unknown to man, but fixed by God, in which a man must unavoidably die; of which see Job 14:5 Joh 13:1 .

A time to plant wherein God inclines a man’ s heart to planting.

Poole: Ecc 3:3 - A time to kill // A time to heal // A time to break down

A time to kill when a man shall die a violent death, either by chance, as Exo 21:13 , or by the sentence of the magistrate, or by the hands of murderers.

A time to heal when he who seemed to be mortally wounded shall be healed and restored.

A time to break down when houses shall be demolished, either by the fancy of the owner, or by the rage of other men, or otherwise.

Poole: Ecc 3:4 - A time to weep

A time to weep when men shall have just occasion for weeping and mourning.

Poole: Ecc 3:5 - A time to cast away stones // A time to embrace // A time to refrain from embracing

A time to cast away stones which were brought together in order to the building of a wall or house, but are now cast away, either because the man who gathered them hath changed his mind, and desists from his project, or by other causes or accidents.

A time to embrace when persons shall enter into friendship, and perform all friendly offices one to another.

A time to refrain from embracing either through alienation of affections, or grievous calamities. See Joe 2:16 1Co 7:5

Poole: Ecc 3:6 - A time to lose // A time to cast away

A time to lose when men shall lose their estates, either by God’ s providence, or by their own choice.

A time to cast away when a man shall cast away his goods voluntarily, as in a storm to save his life, as Jon 1:5 Act 27:18,19 ; or out of love and obedience to God, as Mat 10:37,39 Heb 10:34 .

Poole: Ecc 3:7 - A time to rend // A time to keep silence

A time to rend when men shall rend their garments, as they did in great and sudden griefs, as Gen 37:29 Joe 2:13 .

A time to keep silence wherein men will or shall be silent, either through grief, as Job 2:12,13 , or by sickness or weakness, or because God denies a man ability to utter his mind.

Poole: Ecc 3:8 - A time to love

A time to love when God will stir up the affection of love, or give occasion for the exercise or discovery of it to others.

Poole: Ecc 3:9

Seeing then all actions and events in the world are out of man’ s power, and no man can at any time do or enjoy any thing at his pleasure, but only what and when God pleaseth, as hath been now shown in many particulars, and it is as true and certain in all others, hence it follows that all men’ s labours, of themselves, and without God’ s help and blessing, are unprofitable, and utterly insufficient to make them happy.

Poole: Ecc 3:10 - I have seen // the travail // which God hath given to the sons of men // To be exercised in it

I have seen I have diligently observed and considered upon this occasion,

the travail or the occupation or business , men’ s various employments, and the differing successes of them,

which God hath given to the sons of men either,

1. Which God hath imposed upon men as their duty; and therefore men must labour, although it brings them no profit, as was now said. Or,

2. Which God hath inflicted upon mankind as a just punishment for their sins; to which therefore men ought quietly to submit.

To be exercised in it that hereby they might have constant matter of exercise for their diligence, and patience, and submission to God’ s will and providence, and for all other graces. Or, that they might be afflicted or humbled therewith , as the same phrase is rendered by divers, Ecc 1:13 .

Poole: Ecc 3:11 - He hath made every thing beautiful in his time // He // hath made // beautiful // He hath set the world in their heart // So that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end

He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: this seems to be added as an apology for God’ s providence, notwithstanding all the contrary events and confusions which are in the world.

He (i.e. God , expressed in the last clause of the verse)

hath made (or doth make or do , by his providence in the government of the world)

every thing (which he doth either immediately, or by the ministry of men or other creatures, for God worketh in and with all his creatures in all their actions, as is agreed by divines and philosophers)

beautiful (decently and conveniently, so that, all things considered, it could not have been done better) in his time ; in the time which he had appointed, or which he saw most proper and fit for it; or, in its time or season , when it was most fit to be done. Many events seem to men’ s shallow and perverse judgments, at least for a time, to be very irregular and unbecoming, as when wicked men prosper in their impious and unrighteous enterprises, and good men are sorely oppressed and afflicted, and that for righteousness’ sake; but when men shall come thoroughly to understand God’ s works, and the whole frame and contexture of them, and to see the end of them, they will then say that all things were done most wisely and most seasonably; whereof we have eminent instances in Joseph, and David, and Mordecai, and the Jews of his time.

He hath set the world in their heart i.e. in the hearts of men, as the following words show, where man is expressed. The sense is either,

1. Although all God’ s works are beautiful, yet men do not discern the beauty of them, because the world is in their hearts; their minds are so busied and distracted with the thoughts, and cares, and love, and business of this world, that they have neither leisure nor heart seriously to study God’ s works. But this inordinate love of the present world comes from man’ s own corruption, and not from God; and therefore it seems harsh to impute it to God, and improbable that Solomon would have phrased it thus, that God hath set or put the world i.e. worldly lusts, in men’ s hearts . Or,

2. As God’ s works are beautiful in themselves, so men are capable of discerning the beauty of them, because God hath set the world in men’ s hearts; he hath exposed the world, and all his dispensations in the world, unto the view of men’ s minds; both because he hath wrought his works so evidently and publicly, that men might easily observe them; and because he hath given men reason whereby they may discover the wisdom and beauty of all God’ s works, if they diligently apply themselves to the study of them.

So that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end: so this is another reason why men do not discern the beauty of God’ s works, because they do not see the whole frame or course of them from the beginning to the end, but only some small parcels or fragments of them; the eminent works of God being oft begun in one age, and finished in another. Or, yet so that , &c. or, except that (as this phrase properly signifies, and is elsewhere used) no man can find out , &c. Thus it is an exception to the next foregoing clause, and the sense is, It is true God hath put the world into men’ s hearts, or made them capable of observing all events and dispensations of God in the world; but this is to be understood with a limitation, because there are some more mysterious works of God which no man can fully understand, because he cannot search them out through or from the beginning to the end.

Poole: Ecc 3:12 - I know // that there is no good

I know by clear reason, and my own long and certain experience,

that there is no good no other satisfaction or felicity which a man can enjoy, in them, in creatures or worldly enjoyments. To do good ; either,

1. To himself, as it is fully expressed, Psa 49:18 . Or,

2. To others; to employ them in acts of charity and liberality towards others. Or,

3. Towards God; to use them, and to live in the fear of God, which is necessary to the happiness of this as well as of the other life.

Poole: Ecc 3:13 - That every man should eat and drink // It is the gift of God

That every man should eat and drink i.e. hath power or a heart to use what God hath given him, as it is expressed, Ecc 6:2 .

It is the gift of God of which See Poole "Ecc 2:24" .

Poole: Ecc 3:14 - Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever // Nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it // That men should fear before him

Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever all God’ s counsels or decrees are eternal and unchangeable, and his providence works effectually, so as men cannot resist or hinder it.

Nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it men can neither do any thing besides or against God’ s counsel and providence, nor hinder any work or act of it.

That men should fear before him not that men should make this an occasion of despair, or idleness, or dissoluteness, as some abuse this doctrine, but that, by the consideration of his sovereign and irresistible power in the disposal of all persons and things as pleaseth him, men should learn to trust in him, to submit to him, to fear to offend or rebel against him, and more carefully and industriously to study to please him.

Poole: Ecc 3:15 - That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been // Requireth // That which is past

That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been things past, present, and to come, are all of the same nature, and all ordered in the same manner by one constant counsel and settled course in all parts and ages of the world. There is a continual return of the same motions and influences of the heavenly bodies, of the same seasons of the year, and a constant succession of new generations of men and beasts, but all of the same quality. The same thing in substance was said before, Ecc 1:9 .

Requireth i.e. reneweth, as this word is used, Job 3:4 .

That which is past that time and those things which are irrecoverably gone in themselves, but are as it were recalled, because others of the same kind arise and come in their stead. Heb. that which is driven away with a mighty, force, as time present is violently thrust away by that which comes after it.

Poole: Ecc 3:16 - I saw // The place of judgment // Wickedness was there // The place of righteousness

This is mentioned, either,

1. As another vanity, to wit, the vanity of honour and power, which is so oft an instrument of injustice and oppression. Or rather,

2. As another argument of the vanity of worldly things, or a hinderance of that comfort which men expect in this life, because they are oppressed by their rulers.

I saw I perceived it by information from others, and by my own observation.

The place of judgment in the thrones of princes and tribunals of magistrates, where judgment should be duly executed.

Wickedness was there judgment was perverted, the guilty acquitted, and the innocent condemned.

The place of righteousness in which righteousness should be found and should dwell, if it were banished from all other places.

Poole: Ecc 3:17 - I said in mine heart // God shall judge the righteous and the wicked // A time // There // For every purpose, and for every work

I said in mine heart mine heart was sorely grieved at this disorder, but I quieted it with this consideration,

God shall judge the righteous and the wicked absolving and saving the just, and condemning the wicked.

A time fixed by God’ s unalterable decree. He implies, that as this life is the sinner’ s time in which he doth whatsoever seemeth good in his own eyes, so God will have his time to reckon with them, and rectify all these disorders.

There in the presence or at the judgment-seat of God; which is easily understood out of the foregoing words, the relative being put for the antecedent, as it is Num 7:89 Est 9:25 Job 1:21 Psa 14:5 114:2 . Or it may be rendered then, as this particle is used, Psa 14:5 Hos 2:15 , and as it is usual in other authors for adverbs of place to be put for adverbs of time.

For every purpose, and for every work for the examining and judging, not only all men’ s practices or open actions, but also all their secret thoughts and purposes; all the evil which they either did, or designed, or desired, or endeavoured to do. The design of this verse is partly to strike a terror into oppressing potentates, and partly to satisfy the doubts and support the spirits of good men, who are oppressed in this life.

Poole: Ecc 3:18 - I said in my heart // Concerning the estate of the sons of men // That God might manifest them // That they themselves are beasts

I said in my heart and further I considered with myself.

Concerning the estate of the sons of men concerning their condition and deportment in this present world.

That God might manifest them God suffers these horrible disorders among men, expressed Ecc 3:16 , that he might discover men to themselves, and by permitting these actions show what strange creatures they are, and what vile hearts they have, which men would not otherwise understand or believe. See 2Ki 8:13,14 .

That they themselves are beasts Heb. that they are beasts to themselves ; either,

1. One to another, devouring and destroying one another. Or,

2. In their own judgment, or themselves being judges; that although God made them men or reasonable creatures, yet they have made themselves beasts by their brutish practices; and that men, considered only with respect unto the present life, which is the only thing valued and regarded by most men, and the vanity whereof is the principal subject of this book, are as vain and miserable creatures as the beasts themselves, the great differences between men and beasts being such as respect the other life. For men seem here to be called beasts in both these respects, and the latter he prosecutes more largely in the following verses.

Poole: Ecc 3:19 - Befalleth beasts // So dieth the other // One breath // A man hath no pre-eminence above a beast

Befalleth beasts they are subject to the same diseases, pains, and casualties.

So dieth the other as certainly, and no less painfully.

One breath one breath of life, which is in their nostrils; one and the same living soul, by which the beasts perform the same vital and animal operations. For he speaks not here of man’ s rational and immortal spirit, nor of the future life.

A man hath no pre-eminence above a beast in respect of the present life and sensible things. Nay, the beasts have quicker senses than men, and therefore enjoy more pleasure in those things, and that with less dangers and mischief, than men do.

Poole: Ecc 3:20 - All go unto one place // All turn to dust again

All go unto one place to the earth, as it is expressed, Ecc 3:21 , out of which they were both taken.

All turn to dust again which is meant only of their bodies, as it is explained, Ecc 12:7 .

Poole: Ecc 3:21

It might be objected, that the conditions of men and beasts are vastly differing, because man’ s spirit goeth upward to God, Ecc 12:7 , but the spirit of a beast goeth downward, together with its body, and perisheth with it. To this he answers, Who knoweth this ? which is not to be understood as if no man did know it, or as if the thing were utterly uncertain and unknown, for he knew it, and positively affirms it, Ecc 12:7 ; but that few know it; as the same manner of expression is understood, Pro 31:10 , Who can find ? Isa 53:1 , Who hath believed ? &c.; which note the scarcity or difficulty, but not the nullity or impossibility of the thing. Besides, he seems here to speak not so much of a speculative as of a practical knowledge, as such words are most commonly used. Who considers or regards this, or layeth it to heart? True it is, there is such a difference, which also is known and believed by wise and good men; but the generality of mankind never mind it; their hearts are wholly set upon this life, and upon present and sensible things, and they place all their hopes and happiness in them, and take no thought nor care for the things of the future and invisible world. And as to them with whom Solomon hath to do in this matter, the argument is strong and good, being, as logicians call it, an argument to the man; and there is no considerable difference between sensual men and beasts, because their affections are set upon the same objects, and both of them are partakers of the same sensual satisfactions, and subject to the same sensual pains and miseries, and their hopes and felicity perish together, to wit, at death, and therefore such men are no more happy than the beasts that perish. Others understand it thus, Who knoweth this ? to wit, by sense or experience, or merely by his own reason, or without the help of Divine revelation. But, with the leave of so many worthy interpreters, and with submission to better judgments, the former seems to be the truer sense.

Poole: Ecc 3:22 - There is nothing better // That is his portion // Who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?

There is nothing better to wit, for a man’ s present satisfaction, and the happiness of this life, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; that he comfortably enjoy what God hath given him, and not disquiet himself with cares about future events. He seems to speak this, not in the person of an epicure, but as his own judgment, which also he declareth, Ecc 2:24 5:18,19 8:15 .

That is his portion this is the benefit of his labours; he hath no more than he useth, for what he leaveth behind him is not his, but another man’ s.

Who shall bring him to see what shall be after him? when once he is dead he shall never return into this life to see into whose hands his estate falls, and how it is either used or abused; nor is he at all concerned in those matters.

PBC: Ecc 3:3

See Philpot: SPIRITUAL TIMES AND SEASONS

PBC: Ecc 3:6

See Philpot: GETTING AND LOSING

PBC: Ecc 3:15

hath already been; and God requireth that which is past."

So, the Rule is that there is a Regular Cycle to All Temporal Things, with no exception.

Haydock: Ecc 3:1 - Heaven

Heaven, in this world, where alone things change. (St. Jerome) ---

Nothing is here perpetual, but to be used in a proper manner. (Worthington) ---

The heart must not be attached to any thing created. (Calmet) ---

Pleasure had been condemned and approved, chap. 2. He shews that all must have its time. (Menochius)

Haydock: Ecc 3:5 - Stones // Embraces

Stones, with a sling, or to render a field useless, 4 Kings iii. 25., and Isaias v. 2. ---

Embraces. Countenance was sometimes prescribed for married people, Leviticus xx. 18., and 1 Corinthians vii. (St. Jerome) (St. Augustine, Enchiridion 78.) (Calmet) ---

Hatred often succeeds love, ver. 8., and 2 Kings xiii. 14. (Haydock)

Haydock: Ecc 3:9 - Labour?

Labour? What advantage does he derive from any of these things? (Chap. i. 3.) (Calmet)

Haydock: Ecc 3:11 - Consideration // End

Consideration. Literally, "dispute." Hebrew and Septuagint, "heart." (Haydock) ---

Pagnin, "He has implanted the desire of immortality in their hearts." ---

End. If we could discover the properties of each thing, we should be in raptures; (Calmet) but as we cannot, this increases our vexation. (Menochius)

Haydock: Ecc 3:12 - Well

Well; virtuously: or, perhaps, as literally, to enjoy himself, ver. 13. (Calmet) ---

Thus thinks the man of pleasure, Isaias xxii. 31. (St. Jerome)

Haydock: Ecc 3:13 - God

God. He gives peace and plenty; and still more, the grace to use these things, so as to obtain heaven. (Calmet)

Haydock: Ecc 3:14 - Feared

Feared. The order of the seasons, &c., teaches men to adore Providence. (St. Jerome) ---

He has arranged every thing, how mutable soever. (St. Augustine, Confessions i. 6.)

Haydock: Ecc 3:15 - Past

Past. He causes plants to spring forth afresh. Hebrew, Septuagint, &c., "But will God seek after the oppressed?" Here commences another objection. (Calmet)

Haydock: Ecc 3:17 - And then

And then. Protestants, "for there is a time there (ver. 1.) for every purpose, and for every work." At the day of judgment all will receive their due. (Haydock)

Haydock: Ecc 3:18 - Beasts

Beasts. Another doubt; or suggestion of infidels. (St. Gregory, Dial. iv. 4.)

Haydock: Ecc 3:19 - Man hath nothing more

Man hath nothing more, &c., viz., as to the life of the body. (Challoner)

Haydock: Ecc 3:21 - Who knoweth

Who knoweth, &c., viz., experimentally; since no one in this life can see a spirit. But as to the spirits of the beasts, which is merely animal, and becomes extinct by the death of the beast, who can tell the manner it acts so as to give life and motion, and by death to descend downward, that is, to be no more? (Challoner) ---

Few are able to prove that the soul of man is immortal rather that that of beasts, since the bodies of both are subject to the like inconveniences. The objection is answered [in] chap. xii. 7. (Calmet) ---

The difficulty of answering is intimated by "Who?" &c., Psalm xiv. 1. (Menochius)

Haydock: Ecc 3:22 - After him

After him. He knows not who shall be his heir, or how soon he may die. None returns from the other world to inform him of what is there transacted. Thus the libertine encourages himself. (Calmet)

Gill: Ecc 3:1 - To every thing there is a season // and a time to every purpose under the heaven

To every thing there is a season,.... A set determined time, when everything shall come into being, how long it shall continue, and in what circumstances; all things that have been, are, or shall be, were foreordained by God, and he has determined the times before appointed for their being, duration, and end; which times and seasons he has in his own power: there was a determined time for the whole universe, and for all persons and things in it; a settled fixed moment for the world to come into being; for it did not exist from everlasting, nor of itself, nor was formed by the fortuitous concourse of atoms, but by the wisdom and power of God; nor could it exist sooner or later than it did; it appeared when it was the will of God it should; in the beginning he created it, and he has fixed the time of its duration and end; for it shall not continue always, but have an end, which when it will be, he only knows: so there is a determined time for the rise, height, and declension of states and kingdoms in it; as of lesser ones, so of the four great monarchies; and for all the distinct periods and ages of the world; and for each of the seasons of the year throughout all ages; for the state of the church in it, whether in suffering or flourishing circumstances; for the treading down of the holy city; for the prophesying, slaying, and rising of the witnesses; for the reign and ruin of antichrist; for the reign of Christ on earth, and for his second coming to judgment, though of that day and hour knows no man: and as there is a set time in the counsels and providence of God for these more important events, so for every thing of a lesser nature;

and a time to every purpose under the heaven; to every purpose of man that is carried into execution; for some are not, they are superseded by the counsel of God; some obstruction or another is thrown in the way of them, so that they cannot take place; God withdraws men from them by affliction or death, when their purposes are broken; or by some other way; and what are executed he appoints a time for them, and overrules them to answer some ends of his own; for things the most contingent, free, and voluntary, fall under the direction and providence of God. And there is a time for every purpose of his own; all things done in the world are according to his purposes, which are within himself wisely formed, and are eternal and unfrustrable; and there is a time fixed for the execution of them, for every purpose respecting all natural and civil things in providence; and for every purpose of his grace, relating to the redemption of his people, the effectual calling of them, and the bringing them to eternal glory; which are the things that God wills, that he takes delight and pleasure in, as the word ^e signifies. The Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions render it, "to everything under the heaven there is a time"; and Jarchi observes that in the Misnic language the word used so signifies. The Targum is,

"to every man a time shall come, and a season to every business under heaven.''

Gill: Ecc 3:2 - A time to be born // and a time to die // a time to plant // and a time to pluck up that which is planted

A time to be born,.... The Targum is,

"to beget sons and daughters;''

but rather it is to bear them, there being a time in nature fixed for that, called the hour of a woman, Job 14:1;

and a time to die; the time of a man's coming into the world and going out of it, both being fixed by the Lord ^f: this is true of all men in general, of all men that come into the world, for whom it is appointed that they shall die; and particularly of Christ, whose birth was at the time appointed by the Father, in the fulness of time; and whose death was in due time, nor could his life be taken away before his hour was come, Joh 7:30; and this holds good of every individual man; his birth is at the time God has fixed it; that any man is born into the world, is of God; no man comes into it at his own pleasure or another's, but at the will of God, and when he pleases, not sooner nor later; and the time of his going out of the world is settled by him, beyond which time he cannot live, and sooner he cannot die, Job 14:5; and though no mention is made of the interval of life between a man's birth and death, yet all events intervening are appointed by God; as the place of his abode; his calling and station of life; all circumstances of prosperity and adversity; all diseases of body, and what lead on to death, and issue in it: the reason why these two are put so close together is, to show the certainty of death; that as sure as a man is born, so sure shall he die; and the frailty and shortness of life, which is but an hand's breadth, passes away like a tale that is told, yea, is as nothing; so that no account is made of it, as if there was no time allotted it, or that it deserved no mention; and also to observe that the seeds of mortality and death are in men as soon as they are born; as soon as they begin to live they begin to die, death is working in them;

a time to plant; a tree, as the Targum, or any herb;

and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a tree or herb, as before, when grown to its ripeness, and fit for use; or when grown old, barren, and unfruitful; there are particular seasons for planting plants, and some for one and some for another. This may be applied in a civil sense to planting and plucking up kingdoms and states; see Jer 1:10; as it is by the Jews, particularly to the planting and plucking up of the kingdom of Israel; the people of Israel were a vine brought out of Egypt and planted in the land of Canaan, and afterwards plucked up and carried captive into Babylon; and afterwards planted again, and then again plucked up by the Romans; and will be assuredly planted in their own land again; see Psa 80:8; It may be illustrated in a spiritual sense by the planting of the Jewish church, sometimes compared to a vineyard; and the plucking it up, abolishing their church state and ordinances; and by planting Gospel churches in the Gentile world, and plucking them up again, as in the seven cities of Asia; or removing the candlestick out of its place; and by planting particular persons in churches, and removing them again: some indeed that are planted in the house of the Lord are planted in Christ, and rooted and grounded in the love of God; are plants which Christ's Father has planted, and will never be rooted up; but there are others who are planted through the external ministry of the word, or are plants only by profession, and these become twice dead, plucked up by the roots; and there are times for these things, Psa 92:14.

Gill: Ecc 3:3 - A time to kill, and a time to heal // a time to break down, and a time to build up

A time to kill, and a time to heal,.... A time to kill may be meant of a violent death, as a time to die is of a natural one; so the Targum,

"a time to kill in war;''

or else, by the hand of the civil magistrate, such who deserve death. Aben Ezra interprets it "to wound", because of the opposite "to heal"; and so there is a time when wounds and diseases are incurable, and baffle all the skill of the physician, being designed unto death; and there is a time when, by the blessing of God on means, they are healed; the wound or sickness not being unto death: so the Targum paraphrases the last clause,

"to heal one that lies sick.''

This may be applied in a civil sense to calamities in kingdoms, and a restoration of peace and plenty to them; which is the property of God alone, who in this sense kills and makes alive in his own time, Deu 32:39; And in a spiritual sense to the ministers of the word, who are instruments of slaying souls by the law, which is the killing letter, and of healing them by the Gospel, which pours in the oil and wine of peace and pardon through the blood of Christ, and so binds up and heals the broken hearted; and there is a time for both;

a time to break down, and a time to build up; to break down a building, and build a waste, as the Targum; to break down cities and the walls of them, as the of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar; and to build them up: as in the times of Nehemiah and Zerubbabel: and so in a spiritual sense to break down the church of God, the tabernacle of David, and to raise up and repair the breaches of it; to build up Zion, and the walls of Jerusalem, or to restore the Gospel church state to its glory, for which there is a set time; see Amo 9:11.

Gill: Ecc 3:4 - A time to weep, and a time to laugh // a time to mourn, and a time to dance

A time to weep, and a time to laugh,.... There is a time for these things, as it goes ill or well with persons, as to their health, estate, or friends; and as it goes ill or well with kingdoms and states. The Jews wept when they were in Babylon, and their mouths were filled with laughter when their captivity was returned, Psa 137:1; and as it goes ill or well with the church of Christ, when there are corruptions in doctrine and worship, a neglect of ordinances, declensions in faith and practice, few instances of conversion, and there are divisions and contentions, it is a time for the mourners in Zion to weep but when God creates Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy, or makes her an eternal excellency, and the praise of the whole earth, then it is a time to rejoice and be glad, Isa 61:3; and as it is, with believers, when Christ is withdrawn from them, it is a time to lament, but, when the bridegroom is with them, it is a time of joy; when it is a night of darkness and desertion, weeping endures, but when the morning comes, the day breaks, and the sun of righteousness arises, joy comes with it, Mat 9:15 Joh 16:19. Now in the present state is the saints' weeping time; in the time to come they will laugh, or be filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory, Luk 6:21;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance; to mourn at funerals, and to dance at festivals; in a spiritual sense, God sometimes turns the mourning of his people into dancing, or joy, which that is expressive of; see Psa 30:11.

Gill: Ecc 3:5 - A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together // a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together,.... To cast stones out of a field or vineyard where they are hurtful, and to gather them together to make walls and fences of, or build houses with; and may be understood both of throwing down buildings, as the temple of Jerusalem, so that not one stone was left upon another; of pouring out the stones of the sanctuary, and of gathering them again and laying them on one another; which was done when the servants of the Lord took pleasure in the stones of Zion, and favoured the dust thereof. Some understand this of precious stones, and of casting them away through luxury, wantonness, or contempt, and gathering them again: and it may be applied, as to the neglect of the Gentiles for a long time, and the gathering of those stones of which children were raised to Abraham; so of the casting away of the Jews for their rejection of the Messiah, and of the gathering of them again by conversion, when they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign on his land, Zec 9:16;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing: or "to be far from" ^g it; it may not only design conjugal embraces ^h, but parents embracing their children, as Jacob did his; and one brother embracing another, as Esau Jacob, and one friend embracing another; all which is very proper and agreeable at times: but there are some seasons so very calamitous and distressing, in which persons are obliged to drop such fondnesses: it is true, in a spiritual sense, of the embraces of Christ and believers, which sometimes are, and sometimes are not, enjoyed, Pro 4:8.

Gill: Ecc 3:6 - A time to get, and a time to lose // a time to keep, and a time to cast away

A time to get, and a time to lose,.... To get substance, as the Targum, and to lose it; wealth and riches, honour and glory, wisdom and knowledge: or, "to seek, and to lose" ⁱ; a time when the sheep of the house of Israel, or God's elect, were lost, and a time to seek them again; which was, lone by Christ in redemption, and by the Spirit of God, in effectual calling;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away; to keep a thing, and to cast it away, into the sea, in the time of a great tempest, as the Targum; as did the mariners in the ship in which Jonah was, and those in which the Apostle Paul was, Jon 1:5; It may be interpreted of keeping riches, and which are sometimes kept too close, and to the harm of the owners of them; and of scattering them among the poor, or casting them upon the waters; see Ecc 5:13.

Gill: Ecc 3:7 - A time to rend, and a time to sew // a time to keep silence, and a time to speak

A time to rend, and a time to sew,.... To rend garments, in case of blasphemy, and in times of mourning and fasting, and then to sew them up when they are over; see Isa 37:1; This the Jews apply to the rending of the ten tribes from Rehoboam, signified by the rending of Jeroboam's garment, 1Ki 11:30; the sewing up or uniting of which is foretold, Eze 37:22. Some interpret it of the rending of the Jewish church state, signified by the rending of the vail, at the death of Christ; and of the constituting the Gospel church state among the Gentiles;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak ^k; when it is an evil time, a time of calamity in a nation, it is not a time to be loquacious and talkative, especially in a vain and ludicrous way, Amo 5:13; or when a particular friend or relation is in distress, as in the case of Job and his friends, Job 2:13; or when in the presence of wicked men, who make a jest of everything serious and religious, Psa 39:1; and so when under afflictive dispensations of Providence, it is a time to be still and dumb, and not open the mouth in a murmuring and complaining way, Lev 10:3. And, on the other hand, there is a time to speak, either publicly, of the truths of the Gospel, in the ministry of it, and in vindication of them; or privately, of Christian experience: there is a time when an open profession should be made of Christ, his word and ordinances, and when believers should speak to God in prayer and praise; which, should they not, the stones in the wall would cry out.

Gill: Ecc 3:8 - A time to love, and a time to hate // a time of war, and a time of peace

A time to love, and a time to hate,.... For one to love his friend, and to hate a man, a sinner, as the Targum; to love a friend while he continues such, and hate him, or less love him, when he proves treacherous and unfaithful; an instance of a change of love into hatred may be seen in the case of Amnon, 2Sa 13:15. A time of unregeneracy is a time of loving worldly lusts and sinful pleasures, the company of wicked men, and all carnal delights and recreations; and a time of conversion is a time to hate what was before loved, sin, and the conversion of sinners, the garment spotted with the flesh, the principles and practices, though not the persons, of ungodly men; and even to hate, that is, less love, the dearest friends and relations, in comparison of, or when in competition with, Christ;

a time of war, and a time of peace; for nations to be engaged in war with each other, or to be at peace, which are continually revolving; and there is a time when there will be no more war. In a spiritual sense, the present time, or state of things, is a time of war; the Christian's life is a warfare state, though it will be soon accomplished, in which he is engaging in fighting with spiritual enemies, sin, Satan, and the world: the time to come, or future state, is a time of peace, when saints shall enter into peace, and be no more disturbed by enemies from within or from without. In the Midrash, all the above times and seasons are interpreted of Israel, and applied to them.

Gill: Ecc 3:9 - What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?

What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth? That is, he has none. This is an inference drawn from the above premises, and confirms what has been before observed, Ecc 1:3; Man has no profit of his labour, since his time is so short to enjoy it, and he leaves it to another, he knows not who; and, while he lives, is attended with continual vicissitudes and changes; sometimes it is a time for one thing, and sometimes for its contrary, so that there is nothing certain, and to be depended on; and a man can promise himself nothing in this world pleasant or profitable to him, and much less that will be of any advantage to him hereafter. The Targum adds,

"to make treasures and gather mammon, unless he is helped by Providence above;''

though it is man's duty to labour, yet all his toil and labour will be fruitless without a divine blessing; there is a time and season for everything in providence, and there is no striving against that.

Gill: Ecc 3:10 - I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men // to be exercised in it

I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men,.... The pains and trouble they are at to get a little wisdom and knowledge, Ecc 1:13; and so to obtain riches and honour, peace and plenty, which sometimes they do obtain, and sometimes not; and when they do, do not keep them long, for there is a time for everything. This the wise man had observed, in a variety of instances; and he considered the end of God in it, which was for men

to be exercised in it, or "by it"; or "to afflict" or "humble them by it" ^l; to let them see that all their toil and labour signified little; all depended on a divine blessing, and no happiness was to be had in the creatures; all was vanity and vexation of spirit; See Gill on Ecc 1:13.

Gill: Ecc 3:11 - He hath made every thing beautiful in his time // also he hath set the world in their heart; so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end

He hath made every thing beautiful in his time,.... That is, God has made everything; as all things in creation are made by him, for his pleasure and glory, and all well and wisely, there is a beauty in them all: so all things in providence; he upholds all things; he governs and orders all things according to the counsel of his will; some things are done immediately by him, others by instruments, and some are only permitted by him; some he does himself, some he wills to be done by others, and some he suffers to be done; but in all there is a beauty and harmony; and all are ordered, disposed, and overruled, to answer the wisest and greatest purposes; everything is done in the time in which he wills it shall; be done, and done in the time most fit and suitable for it to be done; all things before mentioned, for which there is a time, and all others: all natural things are beautiful in their season; things in summer, winter, spring, and autumn; frost and snow in winter, and heat in summer; darkness and dews in the night, and light and brightness in the day; and so in ten thousand other things: all afflictive dispensations of Providence; times of plucking up and breaking down of weeping and mourning, of losing and casting away are all necessary, and seasonable and beautiful, in their issue and consequences: prosperity and adversity, in their turns, make a beautiful checker work, and work together for good; are like Joseph's coat, of many colours, which was an emblem of those various providences which attended that good man; and were extremely beautiful, as are all the providences of God to men: and all his judgments will be, when made manifest; when he shall have performed his whole work, and the mystery of God in providence will be finished; which is like a piece of tapestry; when only viewed in parts no beauty appears in it, scarce any thing to be made of it but when all is put together, it is most beautiful and harmonious. The words may be rendered, "the beautiful One hath made all things in his time" ^m; the Messiah; who, as a divine Person, is the brightness of his Father's glory; as man, is fairer than the sons, of Adam; as Mediator, is full of grace and truth; is white and ruddy, altogether lovely, exceeding precious to his people: this fair and lovely One has made all things in creation; works with his Father in the affairs of providence; and has done all things well in grace and redemption, Joh 1:2;

also he hath set the world in their heart; so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end; not a sinful love of the world, and the things of it; not a criminal desire after them, and a carking care for them, whereby persons have no heart and inclination, time and leisure, to search into and find out the works of God; for though all this is in the heart of the sons of men, yet, not placed, there by the Lord: nor an opinion of living for ever; of a long time in this world, the word for "world" having the signification of perpetuity in it; so that they regard not, the work of the Lord, nor the operations of his hands, tomorrow being with them as this day, and much more abundant; but this sense meets with the same difficulty as the former. Rather the meaning is, that God hath set before the minds of men, and in them, the whole world of creatures, the whole book of nature, in which they may see and read much of the wisdom power, and goodness of God in his works; and to some he gives an inclination and desire hereunto; but yet the subject before them is so copious, there is such a world of matter presented to them, and their capacity so small, and life so short, that they cannot all their days find out the works of God, either of creation or providence, to perfection; or find out what God works, from the beginning of the world to the end of it; for, of what he has wrought, but a small portion is known by them, and they know less still what shall be done hereafter: some of God's works of providence are set on foot and but begun in the life of some men; they do not live to see them finished, and therefore cannot find them out; and others are so dark and obscure, that they are obliged to say, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" see Rom 1:19; and though everything is beautiful in its time, yet till they are made manifest, and all viewed together; they will not be perfectly understood, or the beauty of them seen, Rev 15:4. For God has put something "hidden", or "sealed up", in the midst of them, as it may be rendered ⁿ, so that they cannot be perfectly known.

Gill: Ecc 3:12 - I know that there is no good in them // but for a man to rejoice // and to do good in his life

I know that there is no good in them,.... In these things; as the Arabic version; in the creatures, as Jarchi; in all sublunary enjoyments; in everything the wise man had made a trial of before, as natural Wisdom and knowledge, worldly pleasure, riches, and wealth; the "summun bonum", or happiness of men, did not lie in these things; this he knew by experience, and had the strongest assurance of it: or in them, that is, the children of men, as the Targum: there is no real good thing in them, nor comes out of them, nor is done by them; they cannot think a good thought, nor do a good action, of themselves. Or rather the sense is, I know there is nothing better for them than what follows:

but for a man to rejoice; not in sin and sinful pleasures, in a riotous, voluptuous, and epicurean manner; but to be cheerful, and enjoy the blessings of life in a comfortable way, and with a thankful heart; and especially to rejoice in spiritual things, and above all in Christ; and not in any self-boastings or carnal confidences, all such rejoicing is evil; see Ecc 9:7. The Targum is,

"but that they rejoice in the joy of the law;''

but it is much better to rejoice in the things of the Gospel, which is indeed a joyful sound;

and to do good in his life: to himself and family, by making use of the good things of life, and not withholding and hoarding them up; and to others, to all men, as opportunity offers, and especially to the household of faith; and not only by liberality and alms deeds, but by doing all good works, from right principles and to right ends, and that always, as long as he lives, Gal 6:9.

Gill: Ecc 3:13 - And also that every man should eat and drink // and enjoy the good of all his labour // it is the gift of God

And also that every man should eat and drink,.... Not to excess, but in moderation; and yet freely, plentifully, and cheerfully; and not alone, but giving the poor a portion with him; and in all having in view the glory of God, 1Co 10:31;

and enjoy the good of all his labour; take the comfort of what he has been labouring for, and not lay it up for, and leave it to, he knows not who: the Targum is,

"and see good in his days, and cause his children, at the time of his death, to inherit all his labour;''

it is the gift of God; not only to have, but to enjoy, and make a proper use of the mercies of life. This is the same doctrine which is delivered Ecc 2:24.

Gill: Ecc 3:14 - I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever // nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it // and God doth it, that men should fear before him

I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever,.... Which some, as Jarchi, understand of the works of creation, the heavens and the earth, which are however of long standing and duration; and though they shall be dissolved and perish, as to their form and quality, yet not as to the substance of them: the earth particularly is said to abide for ever, Ecc 1:4; the sun and moon, and stars, keep their course or station; and the several seasons of the year have their constant revolution, and shall as long as the earth endures; see Gen 8:22; the several kinds of creatures God has made, in the earth, air, and sea, though the individuals die, their species remain; and man, the chief of creatures, though he dies, shall live again, and live for ever; so the Arabic version,

"I have learned that all the creatures which God hath made shall perpetually remain in the same order and condition:''

though Abarbinel ^o interprets this of the continuance of the world for a certain time, and then of the destruction of it; which he thinks is supported by Ecc 3:15, and which is to be understood of the creation of one world after another; and that which is past he explains of the world that is destroyed. But rather this is to be understood of the decrees of God, which are his works "ad intra"; the thoughts of his heart, that are to all generations; the counsel of his will, which always stands, and is performed; his mind, which is one, the same always, and invariable, and which he never changes; his pleasure he always does; his purposes and appointments, which are always accomplished, never frustrated and made void: for he is all wise in forming them, all knowing, and sees the end from the beginning, so that nothing unforeseen can turn up to hinder the execution of them; he is unchangeable, and never alters his will; and all powerful, able to effect his great designs; and faithful and true, cannot deny himself, nor ever lie nor repent. To this sense is the Targum,

"I know, by a spirit of prophecy, that all which the Lord does in the world, whether good or evil, after it is decreed from his mouth, it shall be for ever.''

This holds good of all his works, and acts of grace; election of persons to eternal life stands firm, not on the foot of works, but of grace, and has its certain effect; it can never be made void, nor be surer than it is; it will ever take place, and continue in its fruit and consequences: the covenant of grace, as it is made from everlasting, continues to everlasting; its promises never, fail, its blessings are the sure mercies of David: redemption by Christ is eternal; such as are redeemed from sin, Satan, and the law, are ever so, and shall never be brought into bondage to either again: the work of grace upon the heart being begun, shall be performed and perfected; the graces wrought in the soul, as faith, hope, and love, ever remain; the blessings of grace bestowed, as pardon, justification, adoption, and salvation, are never reversed, but ever continue; such as are regenerated, pardoned, justified, adopted, and saved, shall be ever so; and the work of God, as it is durable, so perfect;

nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it; the works of nature have been finished and perfected from the foundation of the world; the decrees of God are a complete system of his will, according to which he does all things invariably, in providence and grace; the covenant of grace is ordered in all things, and nothing wanting in it; the work of redemption is completely done by Christ, who is a rock, and his work is perfect; and the work of grace on the heart, though at present imperfect, shall be perfected; nor is it in the power of men to add anything to it, nor take anything from it;

and God doth it, that men should fear before him; his works of creation being done in so much wisdom, and giving such a display of his power and goodness, command art awe of him in his creatures, Psa 33:6; his works of providence, being all according to his wise purposes and decrees, should be patiently and quietly submitted to; and men should be still, and know that he is God, and humble themselves under his mighty hand: his decrees, respecting the present or future state of men, do not lead to despair, nor to a neglect of means, nor to a dissolute life, but tend to promote the fear of God and true holiness, which they are the source of; and the blessings of grace have a kind influence on the same; particularly the blessing of pardoning grace, which is with God, that he may be feared, Psa 130:4; and one principal part of the work of grace on the heart is the fear of God; and nothing more strongly engages to the whole worship of God, which is often meant by the fear of him, than his grace vouchsafed to men; see Heb 12:28. The Targum refers this to the vengeance of God in the world: and Jarchi, to the unusual phenomena in it; as the flood, the sun's standing still and going backward, and the like.

Gill: Ecc 3:15 - That which hath seen is now; and that which is to be hath already been // and God requireth that which is past

That which hath seen is now; and that which is to be hath already been,.... That which has been from the beginning now is; that which cometh, and what shall be in the end of days, has been already, as the Targum. Jarchi interprets this of God and his attributes, which are always the same; he is the "I am that I am", Exo 3:14; the immutable and eternal Jehovah, which is, and was, and is to come, invariably the same. Or rather it designs his decrees and purposes; what has been decreed in his eternal mind is now accomplished; and what is future has been already in his decrees; nor does anything come to pass but what he has appointed. So it is interpreted, in an ancient tract ^p of the Jews, of

"what was before it came into the world, so that there is nothing new under the sun; now it is obliged to come into this world, as it is said, "before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee", Jer 1:5.''

This will also hold true of natural things, and of the identity of them; of some individuals, as the sun, moon, and stars, which are as they always were, and will be; the sun rises and sets as it used to do; and the moon increases and decreases, as it always has done; and the stars keep the same station or course, and so they ever will, as they have: the same seasons are now in their turn as heretofore, and such as will be have been already; as summer, winter, spring, autumn, seedtime, harvest, cold, heat, night, and day: the same kinds and species of creatures, that have been, are; and what will be have been already; so that there is no new thing under the sun; the same thing is here expressed as in Ecc 1:9;

and God requireth that which is past; his decrees and purposes to be fulfilled, which are past in his mind; the same seasons to return which have been; and the same kinds and species of creatures to exist which have already. The words may be rendered, "and God seeketh that which is pursued", or "persecuted" ^q: and accordingly the whole will bear a different sense; and the preacher may be thought to have entered upon a new subject, which he continues in some following verses, the abuse of power and authority: and the meaning then is, the same acts of injustice, violence, and persecution, have been done formerly as now, and now as formerly; and what hereafter of this kind may be, will be no other than what has been; from the beginning persecution was; Cain hated and slew his brother, because of his superior goodness; and so it always has been, is, and will be, that such who are after the flesh persecute those who are after the spirit; but God will make inquisition for blood, and require it at the hands of those that shed it; he will seek out the persecuted, and vindicate him, and, avenge his persecutor. This way the Midrash, Jarchi, and Alshech, and the Septuagint version, render the words; and so the Syriac version, "God seeketh him that is afflicted, who is driven away"; and to this agrees the Targum,

"and in the great day which shall be, the Lord will require the mean and poor man of the hands of the wicked that persecute him.''

And what follows seems to confirm this sense.

Gill: Ecc 3:16 - And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment // that wickedness was there // and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there

And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment,.... Courts of judicature, where judges sit, and, causes are brought before them, and are heard and tried; such as were the Jewish sanhedrim, of which the Midrash and Jarchi interpret it;

that wickedness was there, wicked judges sat there, and wickedness was committed by them; instead of doing justice they perverted it; condemned the righteous, and acquitted the wicked; and oppressed the widow, fatherless, and stranger, whose cause, being just, they should have defended. So the Targum,

"in which lying judges condemn the innocent.''

Well does the wise man say he saw this "under the sun", for there is nothing of this kind above it; nor approved of by him that is above it;

and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there; this signifies the same as before, only it is expressed in different words. The Midrash and Jarchi interpret this of the middle gate in Jerusalem, where Nergal Sharezer, and other princes of the king of Babylon, sat, and which Solomon foresaw by a spirit of prophecy; but the better sense is, that Solomon had observed a great deal of this kind in reading the histories and annals of nations; knew that much of this sort was practised in other countries, and had seen a great deal of it in his own, done in inferior courts, and by subordinate officers; and though he was a wise and righteous prince, yet was not able to rectify all these abuses, for want of sufficient proof, which yet he lamented, and it gave him a concern; compare with this Isa 1:21.

Gill: Ecc 3:17 - I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked // for there is a time there for every purpose, and for every work

I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked,.... This he considered in his mind, and set it down for a certain truth, and which relieved him under the consideration of the sad perversion of justice; and made him easy under it, and willing to leave things to him that judgeth righteously, and wait his time when everything that was now wrong would be set right: he knew from reason, from tradition, and from the word of God, that there was a judgment to come, a general, righteous, and eternal one; that this judicial process would be carried on by God himself, who is holy, righteous, just, and true, omniscient, and omnipotent; and, being the Judge of all the earth, would do right; when he would vindicate the righteous, and clear them from all calumnies and charges; acquit and justify them, and condemn the wicked, pass a just sentence on them, and execute it;

for there is a time there for every purpose, and for every work; or "then", as Noldius; in the day of the great judgment, as the Targum adds; and which continues to paraphrase the words thus,

"for a time is appointed for every business, and for every work which they do in this world they shall be judged there;''

there is a time fixed, a day appointed, for the judgment of the world; though of that day and hour knows no man; yet, it is settled, and will certainly come, Act 17:31; and when it is come, every purpose, counsel, and thought of men's hearts, will be made manifest, as well as every work, good or bad, open or secret, yea, every idle word, and men will be judged according to these; see 1Co 4:5, Mat 12:36.

Gill: Ecc 3:18 - I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men // that God might manifest them // and that they might see that they themselves are beasts

I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men,.... He thought of the condition of the children of men, their sinful and polluted state; he weighed and considered in his mind their actions, conversation, and course of life; and was concerned how it would go with them at the day of judgment on account of the same. Some render it, "I said in mine heart after the speech of the children of men" ^r; speaking in their language, and representing the atheist and the epicure, as some think the wise man does in the following verses; though he rather speaks his own real sentiments concerning men, as they are in their present state, and as they will appear in the day of judgment;

that God might manifest them; or "separate them" ^s; as the chaff from the wheat, and as goats from the sheep; as will be done at the day of judgment, Mat 3:10; or "that they might clear God" ^t; as they will, when he shall judge and condemn them;

and that they might see that they themselves are beasts; as they are through the fall, and the corruption of nature, being born like the wild ass's colt, stupid, senseless, and without understanding of spiritual things; nay, more brutish than the beasts themselves, than the horse and the mule that have no understanding, Psa 32:9; "mulo inscitior", as is Plautus's ^u phrase; see Psa 49:12, Isa 1:3; this is now made manifest to the people of God by the word and Spirit; is seen, known, and acknowledged by them, Psa 73:21; and the wicked themselves will see, know, and own what beasts they are and have been, at the day of judgment; how they have lived and died like beasts; how like brute beasts they have corrupted themselves in things they knew naturally; and that as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, spoke evil of things they understood not, and perished in their own corruption, Jud 1:10, 2Pe 2:12; and that they have been beasts to themselves, as Jarchi renders and interprets it; made beasts of themselves by their brutish gratifications; have been cruel to themselves, ruining and destroying their own souls; or among themselves, and to one another, "homo lupus homini"; hence wicked men are compared to lions, foxes, evening wolves, vipers, and the like. So Mr. Broughton renders it, "how they are beasts, they to themselves."

Gill: Ecc 3:19 - For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts // even one thing befalleth them // as the one dieth, so dieth the other // yea, they have all one breath // so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast // for all is vanity

For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts,.... Aben Ezra says this verse is according to the thoughts of the children of men that are not wise; but rather the wise man says what he does according to his own thoughts, and proceeds to prove the likeness and equality of men and beasts;

even one thing befalleth them; the same events belong to one as to another; the same diseases and disasters, calamities and distresses: Noah's flood carried away one as well as another; they both perished in it; several of the plagues of Egypt were inflicted on both; and both are beholden to God for their health, preservation, and safety; see Gen 7:21;

as the one dieth, so dieth the other; the Targum compares a wicked man and an unclean beast together, in the former clause; and paraphrases this after this manner,

"as an unclean beast dies, so dies he who is not turned to repentance before his death:''

he dies unclean in his sins, stupid, senseless; no more thoughtful of his future state, and of what will become of his precious and immortal soul, than a beast that has none; see Psa 49:14; perhaps unjust judges, persecuting tyrants, may particularly be regarded: who, though princes, shall not only die like men, but even like beasts, Psa 82:7;

yea, they have all one breath; the same vital breath, or breath of life, which is in the nostrils of the one as of the other; they breathe and draw in the same air, and have the same animal and vegetative life, and equally liable to lose it, Gen 2:7;

so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: he has reason and speech, which a beast has not; which gives him a preference to them, did he make a right use of them; but, as an animal, he has no preeminence, being liable to the same accidents, and to death itself: the Targum excepts the house of the grave, man being usually buried when he dies, but a beast is not: yea, in some things a beast has the preeminence of a man; at least some have, in strength, agility, quickness of the senses, &c.

for all is vanity; all the gratifications of the senses; all riches, honours, pleasures, power, and authority, especially when abused.

Gill: Ecc 3:20 - All go unto one place // all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again

All go unto one place,.... The earth ^w from whence they came;

all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again; Adam's body was made of the dust of the earth, and so all his posterity, all of them; in which they agree with beasts, who are made of the dust also; and, when they die, return to it; see Gen 2:7.

Gill: Ecc 3:21 - Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward // and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth

Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward?.... There is indeed a difference between a man and a beast; though they have one breath, they have not one spirit or soul; man has a rational and immortal soul, which, when he dies, goes upwards to God that gave it; to be judged by him, and disposed of by him, in its proper apartment, until the day of the resurrection of the body;

and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth? when the beast dies, its spirit goes down to the earth, from whence it came, and is resolved into it, and is no more. But who is it that sees, or can see and know with the eyes of his body, the difference of these two spirits, or the ascent of the one, and the descent of the other?, Or who knows by the dint of reason, by the strength of his own understanding, without a divine revelation, that man has an immortal soul which goes upwards at death, when that of a beast goes downwards? No man, clearly and fully, as appears from the doubts and half faith of the wisest Heathens concerning it: or rather who knows and considers this difference between the spirit of a man and the spirit of a beast, and thinks within himself what a precious and immortal soul he has, and is concerned for the salvation of it? Very few; and hence it is they live and die like beasts, as they do. The Midrash interprets this of the souls of the righteous that go up to heaven, and of the souls of the wicked that go down to hell.

Gill: Ecc 3:22 - Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his own works // for that is his portion // for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him

Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his own works,.... The Targum is, "in his good works"; not as justifying him before God, but as vindicating him before men, from unjust censures and charges: rather the sense is, that this is the wise man's conclusion, and this his sentiment, upon the whole; that there is nothing better for a man, than cheerfully to enjoy the fruit of his labours; to eat and drink in moderation, freely, joyfully, and thankfully; and make use of his riches, power, and authority, for his own good, the good of his family for the present, and the good of his fellow creatures; see Ecc 2:21;

for that is his portion; what is allotted to him, and thus enjoyed, is a very good one, and for which he has reason to be thankful;

for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him? to see who shall succeed him, and what use they will make of what he leaves them; he shall never return after death to see anything of this kind, nor shall any acquaint him with it; he shall not be able to know when he is dead what shall befall his sons, whether they will prosper or rio, so Jarchi; wherefore it is best for him to enjoy his substance himself in a comfortable way, and be beneficial to others, and not oppressive to them. The Midrash illustrates it thus,

"who shall bring David to see what Solomon did? and who shall bring Solomon to see what Rehoboam did?''

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Ayat / Catatan Kaki

NET Notes: Ecc 3:1

¹ tn Verse 1 is arranged in an ABB’A’ chiasm (לַכֹּל זְמָן וְעֵת לְכָל־חֵפֶץ, lakkol zÿman vÿ’et lÿkhol-khefets): (A) “for everything”; (B) “a season”; (B’) “a time”; (A’) “for every matter.” The terms “season” (זְמָן, zÿman) and “time” (עֵת, ’et) are parallel. In the light of its parallelism with “every matter” (כָל־חֵפֶץ, khol-khefets), the term “everything” (כָל, khol) must refer to events and situations in life.

² tn The noun זְמָן (zÿman) denotes “appointed time” or “appointed hour” (HALOT 273 s.v. זְמָן; BDB 273 s.v. זְמָן; see Eccl 3:1; Esth 9:27, 31; Neh 2:6; Sir 43:7), e.g., the appointed or designated time for the Jewish feasts (Esth 9:27, 31), the length of time that Nehemiah set for his absence from Susa (Neh 2:6), and the appointed times in the Jewish law for the months to begin (Sir 43:7). It is used in parallelism with מועד (“appointed time”), i.e., מועד ירח (“the appointed time of the moon”) parallels זמני חק (“the appointed times of the law”; Sir 43:7). The related verb, a Pual of זָמַן (zaman), means “to be appointed” (HALOT 273 s.v. זְמָן); e.g. Ezra 10:14; Neh 10:35; 13:31. These terms may be related to the noun I זִמָּה (zimmah, “plan; intention”; Job 17:11; HALOT 272 s.v. I זִמָּה) and מְזִמָּה (mÿzimmah, “purpose; plan; project”), e.g., the purposes of God (Job 42:2; Jer 23:20; 30:24; 51:11) and man’s plan (Isa 5:12); see HALOT 566 s.v. מְזִמָּה; BDB 273 s.v. מְזִמָּה.

sn Verses 1-8 refer to God’s appointed time-table for human activities or actions whose most appropriate time is determined by men. Verses 9-15 state that God is ultimately responsible for the time in which events in human history occur. This seems to provide a striking balance between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. Man does what God has willed, but man also does what he “pleases” (see note on the word “matter” in 3:1).

³ tn The noun עֵת (’et, “point in time”) has a basic two-fold range of meanings: (1) “time of an event” and (2) “time for an event” (BDB 773 s.v. עֵת). The latter has subcategories: (a) “usual time,” (b) “the proper, suitable or appropriate time,” (c) “the appointed time,” and (d) “uncertain time” (Eccl 9:11). Here it connotes “a proper, suitable time for an event” (HALOT 900 s.v. עֵת 6; BDB s.v. עֵת 2.b). Examples: “the time for rain” (Ezra 10:13), “a time of judgment for the nations” (Ezek 30:3), “an appropriate time for every occasion” (Eccl 3:1), “the time when mountain goats are born” (Job 39:1), “the rain in its season” (Deut 11:14; Jer 5:24), “the time for the harvest” (Hos 2:11; Ps 1:3), “food in its season” (Ps 104:27), “no one knows his hour of destiny” (Eccl 9:12), “the right moment” (Eccl 8:5); cf. HALOT 900 s.v. עֵת 6.

⁴ tn The noun חֵפֶץ (khefets, here “matter, business”) has a broad range of meanings: (1) “delight; joy,” (2) “desire; wish; longing,” (3) “the good pleasure; will; purpose,” (4) “precious stones” (i.e., jewelry), i.e., what someone takes delight in, and (5) “matter; business,” as a metonymy of adjunct to what someone takes delight in (Eccl 3:1, 17; 5:7; 8:6; Isa 53:10; 58:3, 13; Pss 16:3; 111:2; Prov 31:13); see HALOT 340 s.v. חֵפֶץ 4; BDB 343 s.v. חֵפֶץ 4. It is also sometimes used in reference to the “good pleasure” of God, that is, his sovereign plan, e.g., Judg 13:23; Isa 44:28; 46:10; 48:14 (BDB 343 s.v. חֵפֶץ). While the theme of the sovereignty of God permeates Eccl 3:1–4:3, the content of 3:1-8 refers to human activities that are planned and purposed by man. The LXX translated it with πράγματι (pragmati, “matter”). The term is translated variously by modern English versions: “every purpose” (KJV, ASV), “every event” (NASB), “every delight” (NASB margin), “every affair” (NAB), “every matter” (RSV, NRSV), “every activity” (NEB, NIV), “every project” (MLB), and “every experience” (NJPS).

⁵ tn Heb “under heaven.”

NET Notes: Ecc 3:2

¹ tn The verb יָלָד (yalad, “to bear”) is used in the active sense of a mother giving birth to a child (HALOT 413 s.v. ילד; BDB 408 s.v. יָלָד). However, in light of its parallelism with “a time to die,” it should be taken as a metonymy of cause (i.e., to give birth to a child) for effect (i.e., to be born).

² sn In 3:2-8, Qoheleth uses fourteen sets of merisms (a figure using polar opposites to encompass everything in between, that is, totality), e.g., Deut 6:6-9; Ps 139:2-3 (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 435).

NET Notes: Ecc 3:6

¹ tn The term לְאַבֵּד (lÿ’abbed, Piel infinitive construct from אָבַד, ’avad, “to destroy”) means “to lose” (e.g., Jer 23:1) as the contrast with בָּקַשׁ (baqash, “to seek to find”) indicates (HALOT 3 s.v. I אבד; BDB 2 s.v. אבד 3). This is the declarative or delocutive-estimative sense of the Piel: “to view something as lost” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 28, §145; IBHS 403 §24.2g).

NET Notes: Ecc 3:9

¹ tn The term הָעוֹשֶׂה (ha’oseh, article + Qal active participle ms from עָשַׂה, ’asah, “to do”) functions substantively (“the worker”); see BDB 794 s.v. עָשַׂה II.1. This is a figurative description of man (metonymy of association), and plays on the repetition of עָשַׂה (verb: “to do,” noun: “work”) throughout the passage. In the light of God’s orchestration of human affairs, man’s efforts cannot change anything. It refers to man in general with the article functioning in a generic sense (see IBHS 244-45 §13.5.1f; Joüon 2:511 §137.m).

² sn This rhetorical question is an example of negative affirmation, expecting a negative answer: “Man gains nothing from his toil!” (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 949-51). Any advantage that man might gain from his toil is nullified by his ignorance of divine providence.

NET Notes: Ecc 3:10

¹ tn Heb “the sons of man.”

NET Notes: Ecc 3:11

¹ sn The Hebrew adjective translated beautifully functions as a metonymy of effect (i.e., to appear beautiful) for cause (i.e., to make it fit): “to fit beautifully.” It is used in parallelism with Qoheleth’s term for evaluation: טוֹב (tov, “good”) in 5:17.

² tn The word “but” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “darkness”; perhaps “eternity” or “the future.” The meaning of the noun עֹלָם (’olam) is debated. It may mean: (1) “ignorance”; (2) time reference: (a) “eternity” or (b) “the future”; or (3) “knowledge” (less likely). The arguments for these options may be summarized: (1) Most suggest that עֹלָם is the defectively written form of עוֹלָם “duration; eternity” (e.g., Eccl 1:4; 2:16; 3:14; 9:6; 12:5); see BDB 762 s.v. III עוֹלָם 2.k. Within this school of interpretation, there are several varieties: (a) BDB 762 s.v. III עוֹלָם 2.k suggests that here it denotes “age [i.e., duration] of the world,” which is attested in postbiblical Hebrew. The term III עֹלָם “eternity” = “world” (Jastrow 1084 s.v. עָלַם III) is used in this sense in postbiblical Hebrew, mostly in reference to the Messianic age, or the world to come (e.g., Tg. Genesis 9:16; Tg. Onq. Exodus 21:6; Tg. Psalms 61:7). For example, “the world (עֹלָם) shall last six thousand years, and after one thousand years it shall be laid waste” (b. Rosh HaShanah 31a) and “the world (עֹלָם) to come” (b. Sotah 10b). The LXX and the Vulgate took the term in this sense. This approach was also adopted by several English translations: “the world” (KJV, Douay, ASV margin). (b) HALOT 799 s.v. עוֹלָם 5 and THAT 2:242 suggest that the term refers to an indefinite, unending future: “eternity future” or “enduring state referring to past and future” (see also BDB 762 s.v. III עוֹלָם 2.i). In this sense, the noun עֹלָם functions as a metonymy of association: “a sense of eternity,” but not in a philosophical sense (see J. Barr, Biblical Words for Time [SBT], 117, n. 4). This approach is supported by three factors: (i) the recurrence of עוֹלָם (“eternity”) in 3:14, (ii) the temporal qualification of the statement in the parallel clause (“from beginning to end”), and (iii) by the ordinary meaning of the noun as “eternity” (HALOT 798–799 s.v. עוֹלָם). The point would be that God has endowed man with an awareness of the extra-temporal significance of himself and his accomplishments (D. R. Glenn, “Ecclesiastes,” BKCOT, 984). This is the most frequent approach among English versions: “the timeless” (NAB), “eternity” (RSV, MLB, ASV, NASB, NIV, NJPS), “a sense of time past and time future” (NEB), and “a sense of past and future” (NRSV). (3) Other scholars suggest that עוֹלָם simply refers to the indefinite future: “the future,” that is, things to come (e.g., HALOT 799 s.v. עוֹלָם 2; BDB 762 s.v. III עוֹלָם 2.a; THAT 2:241). The plural עֹלָמִים (’olamim, “things to come”) was used in this sense in Eccl 1:10 (e.g., 1 Kgs 8:13 = 2 Chr 6:2; Pss 61:5; 77:8; 145:13; Dan 9:24; cf. HALOT 799 s.v. עוֹלָם 2). The point would simply be that God has not only ordained all the events that will take place in man’s life (3:1-8), but also preoccupies man with the desire to discover what will happen in the future in terms of the orchestration or timing of these events in his life (3:9-11). This fits well with the description of God’s orchestration of human events in their most appropriate time (3:1-10) and the ignorance of man concerning his future (3:11b). Elsewhere, Qoheleth emphasizes that man cannot learn what the future holds in store for him (e.g., 8:7, 17). This approach is only rarely adopted: “the future” (NJPS margin). (2) The second view is that עֹלָם is not defectively written עוֹלָם (“eternity”) but the segholate noun II עֶלֶם (’elem) that means “dark” (literal) or “ignorance; obscurity; secrecy” (figurative). The related noun תַּעֲלֻמָה (ta’alumah) means “hidden thing; secret,” and the related verb עָלַם (’alam) means “to hide; to conceal” (BDB 761 s.v. I עָלַם; HALOT 834–35 s.v. עלם). This is related to the Ugaritic noun “dark” and the Akkadian verb “to be black; to be dark” (see HALOT 834-35 s.v. עלם). In postbiblical Hebrew the root II עֶלֶם means (i) “secret” and (ii) “forgetfulness” (Jastrow 1084 s.v. עֶלֶם I). Thus the verse would mean that God has “obscured” man’s knowledge so that he cannot discover certain features of God’s program. This approach is adopted by Moffatt which uses the word “mystery.” Similarly, the term may mean “forgetfulness,” that is, God has plagued man with “forgetfulness” so that he cannot understand what God has done from the beginning to the end (e.g., Eccl 1:11). (3) The third view (Delitzsch) is to relate עֹלָם to a cognate Arabic root meaning “knowledge.” The point would be that God has endowed man with “knowledge,” but not enough for man to discover God’s eternal plan. This approach is only rarely adopted: “knowledge” (YLT).

⁴ tn Heb “in their heart.” The Hebrew term translated heart functions as a metonymy of association for man’s intellect, emotions, and will (BDB 524–25 s.v. לֵב 3–6, 9). Here, it probably refers to man’s intellectual capacities, as v. 11 suggests.

⁵ tn The compound preposition מִבְּלִי (mibbÿli, preposition מִן [min] + negative particle בְּלִי [bÿli]) is used as a conjunction here. Elsewhere, it can express cause: “because there is no [or is not]” (e.g., Deut 9:28; 28:55; Isa 5:13; Ezek 34:5; Lam 1:4; Hos 4:6), consequence: “so that there is no [or is not]” (e.g., Ezek 14:5; Jer 2:15; 9:9-11; Zeph 3:6), or simple negation: “without” (e.g., Job 4:11, 20; 6:6; 24:7-8; 31:19). BDB 115 s.v. בְּלִי 3.c.β suggests the negative consequence: “so that not,” while HALOT 133 s.v. בְּלִי 5 suggests the simple negation: “without the possibility of.”

⁶ tn Heb “man.”

⁷ tn Heb “the work that God has done.” The phrase אֶת־הַמַּעֲשֶׂה אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה (’et-hamma’aseh ’asher-’asah, “the work which he [i.e., God] has done”) is an internal cognate accusative (direct object and verb are from the same root), used for emphasis (see IBHS 167 §10.2.1g). The repetition of the verb עָשַׂה (“to do”) in 3:11 and 3:14 suggests that this phrase refers to God’s foreordination of all the events and timing of human affairs: God has “made” ( = “foreordained”; עָשַׂה) everything appropriate in his sovereign timing (3:11a), and all that God has “done” ( = “foreordained”; עָשַׂה) will come to pass (3:14). Thus, the verb עָשַׂה functions as a metonymy of effect (i.e., God’s actions) for cause (i.e., God’s sovereign foreordination). The temporal clause “from beginning to end” (3:11) supports this nuance.

⁸ tn Traditionally, “what God has done from the beginning to the end.” The temporal clause מֵרֹאשׁ וְעַד־סוֹף (mero’sh vÿ’ad-sof, “from the beginning to the end”) is traditionally taken in reference to “eternity” (the traditional understanding of הָעֹלָם [ha’olam] earlier in the verse; see the note on “ignorance”), e.g., KJV, NEB, NAB, ASV, NASB, NIV, RSV, NRSV. However, if הָעֹלָם simply denotes “the future” (e.g., HALOT 799 s.v. עוֹלָם 2; BDB 762 s.v. III עוֹלָם 2.a; THAT 2:241), this temporal clause would refer to the events God has ordained to transpire in an individual’s life, from beginning to end. This approach is adopted by one English version: “but without man ever guessing, from first to last, all the things that God brings to pass” (NJPS). This would fit well in the context begun in 3:1 with the fourteen merisms encompassing man’s life, starting with “a time to be born” (i.e., from the beginning in 3:11) and concluding with “a time to die” (i.e., to the end in 3:11). This approach is also supported by the admonition of 3:12-13, namely, since no one knows what will happen to him in the future days of his life, Qoheleth recommends that man enjoy each day as a gift from God.

⁹ tn The phrase “of their lives” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: Ecc 3:12

¹ tn Heb “I know.”

² tn Heb “for them”; the referent (people, i.e., mankind) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Qoheleth uses the exceptive particle אִם…כִּי (ki…’im, “except”) to identify the only exception to the futility within man’s life (BDB 474 s.v. כִּי 2).

⁴ tn Heb “to do good.” The phrase לַעֲשׂוֹת טוֹב (la’asot tov) functions idiomatically for “to experience [or see] happiness [or joy].” The verb עָשַׂה (’asah) probably denotes “to acquire; to obtain” (BDB 795 s.v. עָשַׂה II.7), and טוֹב (tov) means “good; pleasure; happiness,” e.g., Eccl 2:24; 3:13; 5:17 (BDB 375 s.v. טוֹב 1).

NET Notes: Ecc 3:13

¹ tn Heb “for it.” The referent of the 3rd person feminine singular independent person pronoun (“it”) is probably the preceding statement: “to eat, drink, and find satisfaction.” This would be an example of an anacoluthon (GKC 505-6 §167.b). Thus the present translation uses “these things” to indicate the reference back to the preceding.

NET Notes: Ecc 3:15

¹ tn The phrase “to do again” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “God will seek that which is driven away.” The meaning of יְבַקֵּשׁ אֶת־נִרְדָּף (yÿvaqqesh ’et-nirdaf) is difficult to determine: יְבַקֵּשׁ (yÿvaqqesh) is Piel imperfect 3rd person masculine singular from בָּקַשׁ (baqash, “to seek”) and נִרְדָּף (nirdaf) is a Niphal participle 3rd person masculine singular from רָדַף (radaf, “to drive away”). There are several options: (1) God watches over the persecuted: יְבַקֵּשׁ (“seeks”) functions as a metonymy of cause for effect (i.e., to protect), and אֶת־נִרְדָּף (“what is driven away”) refers to “those who are persecuted.” But this does not fit the context. (2) God will call the past to account: יְבַקֵּשׁ functions as a metonymy of cause for effect (i.e., to hold accountable), and אֶת־נִרְדָּף is a metonymy of attribute (i.e., the past). This approach is adopted by several English translations: “God requires that which is past” (KJV), “God will call the past to account” (NIV) and “God summons each event back in its turn” (NEB). (3) God finds what has been lost: יְבַקֵּשׁ functions as a metonymy of cause for effect (i.e., to find), and אֶת־נִרְדָּף refers to what has been lost: “God restores what would otherwise be displaced” (NAB). (4) God repeats what has already occurred: יְבַקֵּשׁ functions as a metonymy of effect (i.e., to repeat), and אֶת־נִרְדָּף is a metonymy (i.e., that which has occurred). This fits the context and provides a tight parallel with the preceding line: “That which is has already been, and that which will be has already been” (3:15a) parallels “God seeks [to repeat] that which has occurred [in the past].” This is the most popular approach among English versions: “God restores that which has past” (Douay), “God seeks again that which is passed away” (ASV), “God seeks what has passed by” (NASB), “God seeks what has been driven away” (RSV), “God seeks out what has passed by” (MLB), “God seeks out what has gone by” (NRSV), and “God is ever bringing back what disappears” (Moffatt).

³ tn The phrase “in the past” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: Ecc 3:16

¹ tn Heb “under the sun.”

² tn Or “righteousness.”

NET Notes: Ecc 3:17

¹ tn The phrase “a time of judgment” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: Ecc 3:18

¹ tn The phrase “it is” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “the sons of man.” The phrase עַל־דִּבְרַת בְּנֵי הָאָדָם (’al-divrat bÿne ha’adam) is handled variously: (1) introduction to the direct discourse: “I said to myself concerning the sons of men” (NASB), (2) direct discourse: “I thought, ‘As for men, God tests them’” (NIV), (3) indirect discourse: “I said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men” (KJV), and (4) causal conjunction: “I said, ‘[It is] for the sake of the sons of men.” Since the phrase “sons of men” is contrasted with “animals” the translation “humans” has been adopted.

³ tn The meaning of לְבָרָם (lÿvaram, preposition + Qal infinitive construct from בָּרַר, barar, + 3rd person masculine plural suffix) is debated because the root has a broad range of meanings: (1) “to test; to prove; to sift; to sort out” (e.g., Dan 11:35; 12:10); (2) “to choose; to select” (e.g., 1 Chr 7:40; 9:22; 16:41; Neh 5:18); (3) “to purge out; to purify” (e.g., Ezek 20:38; Zeph 3:9; Job 33:3); and (4) “to cleanse; to polish” (Isa 49:2; 52:11); see HALOT 163 s.v. בָּרַר; BDB 141 s.v. בָּרַר. The meanings “to prove” (Qal), as well as “to cleanse; to polish” (Qal), “to keep clean” (Niphal), and “to cleanse” (Hiphil) might suggest the meaning “to make clear” (M. A. Eaton, Ecclesiastes [TOTC], 85-86). The meaning “to make clear; to prove” is well attested in postbiblical Mishnaic Hebrew (Jastrow 197-98 s.v. בָּרַר). For example, “they make the fact as clear (bright) as a new garment” (b. Ketubbot 46a) and “the claimant must offer clear evidence” (b. Sanhedrin 23b). The point would be that God allows human injustice to exist in the world in order to make it clear to mankind that they are essentially no better than the beasts. On the other hand, the LXX adopts the nuance “to judge,” while Targum and Vulgate take the nuance “to purge; to purify.” BDB 141 s.v. בָּרַר 4 suggests “to test, prove,” while HALOT 163 s.v. בָּרַר 2 prefers “to select, choose.”

⁴ tn The two infinitives לְבָרָם (lÿvaram, “to make it clear to them”) and וְלִרְאוֹת (vÿlir’ot, “and to show”) function as a verbal hendiadys (the two verbs are associated with one another to communicate a single idea). The first verb functions adverbially and the second retains its full verbal force: “to clearly show them.”

NET Notes: Ecc 3:19

¹ tn Heb “of the sons of man.”

NET Notes: Ecc 3:21

¹ tn Heb “the spirit of the sons of man.”

NET Notes: Ecc 3:22

¹ tn Heb “man.”

² tn Heb “his works.”

³ tn Heb “his.”

⁴ tn Heb “what will be after him” (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV) or “afterward” (cf. NJPS).

Geneva Bible: Ecc 3:1

To every [thing there is] a ^{( a )} season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

^{( a )} He speaks of this diversity of time for two causes first to declare that there is nothing in this world perpetual: next to teach us not to be grieved, if we have not all things at once according to our desires, neither enjoy them so long as we would wish.

Geneva Bible: Ecc 3:10

I have seen the labour, which God hath given to the sons of men ^{( b )} to be exercised in it.

^{( b )} Read (Ecc 1:13).

Geneva Bible: Ecc 3:11

He hath made every [thing] beautiful in its time: also he hath set the ^{( c )} world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

^{( c )} God has given man a desire and affection to seek out the things of this world, and to labour in it.

Geneva Bible: Ecc 3:13

And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it [is] the ^{( d )} gift of God.

^{( d )} Read (Ecc 2:24) and these places declare that we should do all things with sobriety and in the fear of God, as he gives not his gifts to the intent that they should be abused.

Geneva Bible: Ecc 3:14

I know that, whatever God doeth, it shall be for ^{( e )} ever: nothing can be added to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth [it], that [men] should fear before him.

^{( e )} That is, man will never be able to prevent God's work, but as he has determined so it will come to pass.

Geneva Bible: Ecc 3:15

That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God ^{( f )} requireth that which is past.

^{( f )} God only causes what which is past, to return.

Geneva Bible: Ecc 3:17

I said in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for [there is] a time ^{( g )} there for every purpose and for every work.

^{( g )} Meaning, with God, however man neglects his duty.

Geneva Bible: Ecc 3:18

I said in my heart concerning the state of the sons of men, that God might ^{( h )} tempt them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

^{( h )} And made them pure in their first creation.

Geneva Bible: Ecc 3:19

For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing ^{( i )} befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all [is] vanity.

^{( i )} Man is not able by his reason and judgment to put differences between man and beast, as concerning those things to which both are subject: for the eye cannot judge any otherwise of a man being dead than of a beast, which is dead: yet by the word of God and faith we easily know the diversity as in (Ecc 3:21).

Geneva Bible: Ecc 3:21

Who ^{( k )} knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

^{( k )} Meaning, that reason cannot comprehend that which faith believes in.

Geneva Bible: Ecc 3:22

Wherefore I perceive that [there is] nothing better, than that a man should ^{( l )} rejoice in his own works; for that [is] his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?

^{( l )} By the often repetition of this sentence as in (Ecc 2:24, Ecc 3:12, Ecc 3:22, Ecc 5:17, Ecc 8:15) he declares that man by reason can comprehend nothing better in this life than to use the gifts of God soberly and comfortably: for to know further, is a special gift of God revealed by his Spirit.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Rentang Ayat

Maclaren: Ecc 3:2 - A Libation To Jehovah

A Time To Plant'

A time to plant.'--Eccles. 3:2.

The writer enumerates in this context a number of opposite courses of conduct arranged in pairs, each of which is right at the right time. The view thus presented seems to him to be depressing, and to make life difficult to understand, and aimless. We always appear to be building up with one hand and pulling down with the other. The ship never heads for two miles together in the same direction. The history of human affairs appears to be as purposeless as the play of the wind on the desert sands, which it sometimes piles into huge mounds and then scatters.

So he concludes that only God, who appoints the seasons that demand opposite courses of conduct, can understand what it all means. The engine-driver knows why he reverses his engine, and not the wheels that are running in opposite directions in consecutive moments according to his will.

Now that is a one-sided view, of course, for it is to be remembered that the Book of Ecclesiastes is the logbook of a voyager after truth, and tells us all the wanderings and errors of his thinking until he has arrived at the haven of the conclusion that he announces in the final word : Hear the sum of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.'

I have nothing to do just now with the conclusion which he arrives at, but the facts from which he starts are significant and important. There are things in life, God has so arranged it, which can only be done fittingly, and for the most part of all, at certain seasons; and the secret of success is the discernment of present duty, and the prompt performance of it.

And this is especially true about your time of life, my young friends. There are things, very important things, which, unless you do them now, the overwhelming probability is that you will never do at all; and the certainty is that you will not do them half as well. And so I want to ask you to look at these words, which, by a legitimate extension of the writer's meaning, and taking them in a kind of parabolic way, may sum up for us the whole of the special duties of youth. A time to plant.'

I. Now, My First Remark Is This : That You Are Now In The Planting Time Of Your Lives.

No wise forester will try to shift shrubs or to put them into his gardens or woods, except in late autumn or early spring. And our lives are as really under the dominion of the law of seasons as the green world of the forest and the fields. Speaking generally, and admitting the existence of many exceptions, the years between childhood and, say, two or three-and-twenty, for a young man or woman, for the most part settle the main outline of their character, and thereby determine their history, which, after all, is mainly the outcome of their character.

You have wide possibilities before you, of moulding your characters into beauty, and purity, holiness, and strength.

For one thing, you have got no past, or next to none, written all over, which it is hard to erase. You have substantially a clean sheet on which to write what you like. Your stage of life predisposes you in favour of novelty. New things are glad things to you, whereas to us older people a new thought coming into some of our brains is like a new bit of furniture coming into a crowded room. All the other pieces need to be arranged, and it is more of a trouble than anything else. You are flexible and plastic as yet, like the iron running out of the blast furnace in a molten stream, which in half an hour's time will be a rigid bar that no man can bend.

You have all these things in your favour, and so, dear young friends, whether you think of it or not, whether voluntarily or not, I want you to remember that this awful process is going on inevitably and constantly in every one of you. You are planting, whether you recognise the fact or no. What are you planting?

Well, for one thing, you are making habits, which are but actions hardened, like the juice that exudes from the pine-tree, liquid, or all but liquid, when it comes out, and when exposed to the air, is solidified and tenacious. The old legend of the man in the tower who got a slim thread up to his window, to which was attached one thicker and then thicker, and so on ever increasing until he hauled in a cable, is a true parable of what goes on in every human life. Some one deed, a thin film like a spider's thread, draws after it a thicker, by that inevitable law that a thing done once tends to be done twice, and that the second time it is easier than the first time. A man makes a track with great difficulty across the snow in a morning, but every time that he travels it, it is a little harder, and the track is a little broader, and it is easier walking. You play with the tiger's whelp of some pleasant, questionable enjoyment, and you think that it will always keep so innocent, with its budding claws not able to draw blood, but it grows--it grows. And it grows according to its kind, and what was a plaything one day is a full-grown and ravening wild beast in a while. You are making habits, whatever else you are making, and you are planting in your hearts seeds that will spring and bear fruit according to their kind.

Then remember, you are planting belief.--Most of us, I am afraid, get our opinions by haphazard; like the child in the well-known story, whose only account of herself was that she expected she growed.' That is the way by which most of you come to what you dignify by the name of your opinions. They come in upon you, you do not know how. Youth is receptive of anything new. You can learn a vast deal more easily than many of us older people can. Set down a man who has never learned the alphabet, to learn his letters, and see what a task it is for him. Or if he takes a pen in his hand for the first time, look how difficult the stiff wrist and thick knuckles find it to bend. Yours is the time for forming your opinions, for forming some rational and intelligent account of yourself and the world about you. See to it, that you plant truth in your hearts, under which you may live sheltered for many days.

Then again, you are planting character, which is not only habit, but something more. You are making yourselves, whatever else you are making. You begin with almost boundless possibilities, and these narrow and narrow and narrow, according to your actions, until you have laid the rails on which you travel--one narrow line that you cannot get off. A man's character is, if I may use a chemical term, a precipitate' from his actions. Why, it takes acres of roses to make a flask of perfume; and all the long life of a man is represented in his ultimate character. Character is formed like those chalk cliffs in the south, built up eight hundred feet, beetling above the stormy sea; and all made up of the relics of microscopic animals. So you build up a great solid structure--yourself--out of all your deeds. You are making your character, your habits, your opinions.--And you are making your reputation too. And you will not be able to get rid of that. This is the time for you to make a good record or a bad one, in other people's opinions.

And so, young men and women, boys and girls, I want you to remember the permanent effects of your most fleeting acts. Nothing ever dies that a man does. Nothing! You go into a museum, and you will see standing there a slab of red sandstone, and little dints and dimples upon it. What are they? Marks made by a flying shower that lasted for five minutes, nobody knows how many millenniums ago. And there they are, and there they will be until the world is burned up. So our fleeting deeds are all recorded here, in our permanent character. Everything that we have done is laid up there in the testimony of the rocks :--

Through our soul the echoes roll,And grow for ever and for ever.'You are now living in a time to plant.'

II. Notice, In The Next Place, That As Surely As Now Is The Time To Plant, Then Will Be A Time To Reap.

I do not know whether the writer of my text meant the harvest, when he put in antithesis to my text the other clause, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.' Probably, as most of the other pairs are opposites, here, too, we are to see an opposite rather than a result; the destructive action of plucking up, and not the preservative action of gathering a harvest, But, however that may be, let me remind you that there stands, irrefragable, for every human soul and every human deed, this great solemn law of retribution.

Now what lies in that law? Two things--that the results are similar in kind, and more in number. The law of likeness, and the law of increase, both of them belong to the working of the law of retribution. And so, be sure that you will find out that all your past lives on into your present; and that the present, in fact, is very little more than the outcome of the past. What you plant as a youth you will reap as a man. This mysterious life of ours is all sowing and reaping intermingled, right away on to the very end. Each action is in turn the child of all the preceding and the parent of all that follows. But still, though that be true, your time of life is predominantly the time of sowing; and my time of life, for instance, is predominantly the time of reaping. There are a great many things that I could not do now if I wished. There are a great many things in our past that I, and men of my age, would fain alter; but there they stand, and nothing can do away the marks of that which once has been. We have to reap, and so will you some day.

And I will tell you what you will have to reap, as sure as you are sitting in those pews. You will have the enlarged growth of your present characteristics. A man takes a photograph upon a sensitive plate, half the size of the palm of my hand; and then he enlarges it to any size he pleases. And that is what life does for all of us. The pictures, drawn small on the young man's imagination, on the young woman's dreaming heart, be they of angels or of beasts, are permanent; and they will get bigger and bigger and bigger, as you get older. You do not reap only as much as you sowed, but some sixty fold, and some an hundred fold.'

And you will reap the increased dominion of your early habits. There is a grim verse in the Book of Proverbs that speaks about a man being tied and bound by the chains of his sins. And that is just saying that the things which you chose to do when you were a boy, many of them you will have to do when you are a man; because you have lost the power, though sometimes not the will, of doing anything else. There be men that sow the wind, and they do not reap the wind, but the law of increase comes in and they reap the whirlwind. There be men who, according to the old Greek legend, sow dragon's teeth and they reap armed soldiers. There are some of you that are sowing to the flesh, and as sure as God lives, you will of the flesh reap corruption.' Whatsoever a man soweth, that,' even here, shall he also reap.'

And let me remind you that that law of inheriting the fruit of our doings is by no means exhausted by the experience of life. Whenever conscience is awakened it at once testifies not only of a broken law, but of a living Law-giver; and not only of retribution here, but of retribution hereafter. And I for my part believe that the modern form of Christianity and the tendencies of the modern pulpit, influenced by some theological discussions, about details in the notion of retribution that have been going on of late years, have operated to make ministers of the Gospel too chary of preaching, and hearers indisposed to accept, the message of the terror of the Lord.' My dear friends! retribution cannot stop on this side of the grave, and if you are going yonder you are carrying with you the necessity in yourself for inheriting the results of your life here. I beseech you, do not put away such thoughts as this, with the notion that I am brandishing before you some antiquated doctrine, fit only to frighten old women and children. The writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes was no weak-minded, superstitious fanatic. He was far more disposed to scepticism than to fanaticism. But for all that, with all his sympathy for young men's breadth and liberality, with his tolerance for all sorts and ways of living, with all his doubts and questionings, he came to this, and this was his teaching to the young men whom in idea he had gathered round his chair,--Rejoice, oh young man, in thy youth. And let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes.' By all means, God has put you into a fair world, and meant you to get all the good out of it. But,' and that not as a kill-joy, know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment,' and shape your characters accordingly.

III. Still Further, Let Me Say, These Things Being So, You Especially Need To Ponder Them.

That is so, because you especially are in danger of forgetting them. It is meant that young people should live by impulse much more than by reflection.

If nature put not forth her powerAbout the opening of the flower,Who is there that could live an hour?

The days of calculation will come soon enough; and I do not want to hurry them. I do not want to put old heads upon young shoulders. I would rather see the young ones, a great deal. But I want you not to go down to the level of the beast, living only by instinct and by impulse. You have got brains, you are meant to use them. You have the great divine gift of reason, that looks before and after, and though you have not much experience yet, you can, if you will, reflect upon such things as I have just been saying to you, and take them into your hearts, and live accordingly. My dear young friend! enjoy yourself, live buoyantly, yield to your impulses, be glad for the beautiful life that is unfolding around you, and the strong nature that is blossoming within you. And then take this other lesson, Ponder the path of thy feet,' and remember that all the while you dance along the flowery path, you are planting what you will have to reap.

Then, still further, it is especially needful for you that you should ponder these things, because unless you do you will certainly go wrong. If you do not plant good, somebody else will plant evil. An untilled field is not a field that nothing grows in, but it is a field full of weeds; and the world and the flesh and the devil, the temptations round about you and the evil tendencies in you, unless they are well kept down and kept off, are sure to fill your souls full of all manner of seeds that will spring up to bitterness, and poison, and death. Oh! think, think! for it is the only chance of keeping your hearts from being full of wickedness--think what you are sowing, and think what will the harvest be. There are some of you, as I said, sowing to the flesh, young men living impure and wicked lives, and their bones are full of the sins of their youth.' There are some of you letting every wind bring the thistledown of vanities, and scatter them all across your hearts, that they may spring up prickly, and gifted with a fatal power of self-multiplication. There are some of you, young men, and young women too, whose lives are divided between Manchester business and that ignoble thirst for mere amusement which is eating all the dignity and the earnestness out of the young men of this city. I beseech you, do not slide into habits of frivolity, licentiousness, and sin, for want of looking after yourselves. Remember, if you do not ponder the path of your feet, you are sure to take the turn to the left.

Again, it is needful for you to ponder these things, for if you waste this time, it will never come back to you any more. It is useless to sow corn in August. There are things in this world that a man can only get when he is young, such as sound education, for instance; business habits, habits of industry, of application, of concentration, of self-control, a reputation which may avail in the future. If you do not begin to get these before you are five-and-twenty, you will never get them.

And although the certainty is not so absolute in regard to spiritual and religious things, the dice are frightfully weighted, and the chances are terribly small that a young man who, like some of you, has passed his early years in church or chapel, in weekly contact with earnest preaching, and has not accepted the Saviour, will do it when he grows old. He may; he may. But it is a great deal more likely that he will not.

IV. The Conclusion Of The Whole Matter Is, Begin On The Spot, To Trust And To Serve Jesus Christ.

These are the best things to plant, simple reliance upon His death for your forgiveness, upon His power to make you pure and clean; simple submission to His commandment. Oh! dear young friend; if you have these in your hearts everything will come right. You will get habit on your side, and that is much; and you will be saved from a great deal of misery which would he yours if you went wrong first, and then came right.

If you will plant a cutting of the tree of life in your heart it will yield everything to you when it grows. The people in the South Seas, if they have a palm-tree, can get out of it bread and drink, food, clothing, shelter, light, materials for books, cordage for their boats, needles to sew with, and everything. If you will take Jesus Christ, and plant Him in your hearts, everything will come out of that. That Tree bears twelve manners of fruits, and yields His fruit every month.' With Christ in your heart all other fair things will be planted there; and with Him in your heart, all evil things which you may already have planted there, will be rooted out. Just as when some strong exotic is carried to some distant land and there takes root, it exterminates the feebler vegetation of the place to which it comes; so with Christ in my heart the sins, the evil habits, the passions, the lusts, and all other foul spawn and offspring, will die and disappear. Take Him, then, dear friend l by simple faith, for your Saviour. He will plant the good seed in your spirit, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle.' Your lives will become fruitful of goodness and of joy, according to that ancient promise: The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age.'

Maclaren: Ecc 3:11 - A Libation To Jehovah

Eternity In The Heart

He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also He hath set the world in their heart.'--Eccles. 3:11.

THERE is considerable difficulty in understanding what precise meaning is to be attached to these words, and what precise bearing they have on the general course of the writer's thoughts; but one or two things are, at any rate, quite clear.

The Preacher has been enumerating all the various vicissitudes of prosperity and adversity, of construction and destruction, of society and solitude, of love and hate, for which there is scope and verge enough in one short human life; and his conclusion is, as it always is in the earlier part of this book, that because there is such an endless diversity of possible occupation, and each of them lasts but for a little time, and its opposite has as good a right of existence as itself; therefore, perhaps, it might be as well that a man should do nothing as do all these opposite things which neutralise each other, and the net result of which is nothing. If there be a time to be born and a time to die, nonentity would be the same when all is over. If there be a time to plant and a time to pluck, what is the good of planting? If there be a time for love and a time for hate, why cherish affections which are transient and may be succeeded by their opposites?

And then another current of thought passes through his mind, and he gets another glimpse somewhat different, and says in effect, No! that is not all true--God has made all these different changes, and although each of them seems contradictory of the other, in its own place and at its own time each is beautiful and has a right to exist.' The contexture of life, and even the perplexities and darknesses of human society, and the varieties of earthly condition--if they be confined within their own proper limits, and regarded as parts of a whole--they are all co-operant to an end. As from wheels turning different ways in some great complicated machine, and yet fitting by their cogs into one another, there may be a resultant direct motion produced even by these apparently antagonistic forces.

But the second clause of our text adds a thought which is in some sense contrasted with this.

The word rendered world' is a very frequent one in the Old Testament, and has never but one meaning, and that meaning is eternity. He hath set eternity in their heart.'

Here, then, are two antagonistic facts. They are transient things, a vicissitude which moves within natural limits, temporary events which are beautiful in their season. But there is also the contrasted fact, that the man who is thus tossed about, as by some great battledore wielded by giant powers in mockery, from one changing thing to another, has relations to something more lasting than the transient. He lives in a world of fleeting change, but he has eternity' in his heart.' So between him and his dwelling-place, between him and his occupations, there is a gulf of disproportion. He is subjected to these alternations, and yet bears within him a repressed but immortal consciousness that he belongs to another order of things, which knows no vicissitude and fears no decay. He possesses stifled and misinterpreted longings which, however starved, do yet survive, after unchanging Being and eternal Rest. And thus endowed, and by contrast thus situated, his soul is full of the blank misgiving of a creature moving about in worlds not realised.' Out of these two facts--says our text--man's where and man's what, his nature and his position, there rises a mist of perplexity and darkness that wraps the whole course of the divine actions--unless, indeed, we have reached that central height of vision above the mists, which this Book of Ecclesiastes puts forth at last as the conclusion of the whole matter--Fear God, and keep His commandments.' If transitory things with their multitudinous and successive waves toss us to solid safety on the Rock of Ages, then all is well, and many mysteries will be clear. But if not, if we have not found, or rather followed, the one God-given way of harmonising these two sets of experiences--life in the transient, and longings for the eternal--then their antagonism darkens our thoughts of a wise and loving Providence, and we have lost the key to the confused riddle which the world then presents. He hath made everything beautiful in his time: also He hath set Eternity in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.'

Such, then, being a partial but, perhaps, not entirely inadequate view of the course of thought in the words before us, I may now proceed to expand the considerations thus brought under our notice in them. These may be gathered up in three principal ones: the consciousness of Eternity in every heart; the disproportion thence resulting between this nature of ours and the order of things in which we dwell; and finally, the possible satisfying of that longing in men's hearts--a possibility not indeed referred to in our text, but unveiled as the final word of this Book of Ecclesiastes, and made clear to us in Jesus Christ.

I. Consider That Eternity Is Set In Every Human Heart.

The expression is, of course, somewhat difficult, even if we accept generally the explanation which I have given. It may be either a declaration of the actual immortality of the soul, or it may mean, as I rather suppose it to do, the consciousness of eternity which is part of human nature.

The former idea is no doubt closely connected with the latter, and would here yield an appropriate sense. We should then have the contrast between man's undying existence and the transient trifles on which he is tempted to fix his love and hopes. We belong to one set of existences by our bodies, and to another by our souls. Though we are parts of the passing material world, yet in that outward frame is lodged a personality that has nothing in common with decay and death. A spark of eternity dwells in these fleeting frames. The laws of physical growth and accretion and maturity and decay, which rule over all things material, do not apply to my true self. In our embers is something that doth live.' Whatsoever befalls the hairs that get grey and thin, and the hands that become wrinkled and palsied, and the heart that is worn out by much beating, and the blood that clogs and clots at last, and the filmy eye, and all the corruptible frame; yet, as the heathen said, I shall not all die,' but deep within this transient clay house, that must crack and fall and be resolved into the elements out of which it was built up, there dwells an immortal guest, an undying personal self. In the heart, the inmost spiritual being of every man, eternity, in this sense of the word, does dwell.

Commonplaces,' you say. Yes; commonplaces, which word means two things--truths that affect us all, and also truths which, because they are so universal and so entirely believed, are all but powerless. Surely it is not time to stop preaching such truths as long as they are forgotten by the overwhelming majority of the people who acknowledge them. Thank God! the staple of the work of us preachers is the reiteration of commonplaces, which His goodness has made familiar, and our indolence and sin have made stale and powerless.

My brother! you would he a wiser man if, instead of turning the edge of statements which you know to be true, and which, if true, are infinitely solemn and important, by commonplace sarcasm about pulpit commonplaces, you would honestly try to drive the familiar neglected truth home to your mind and heart. Strip it of its generality and think, It is true about me. I live for ever. My outward life will cease, and my dust will return to dust--but I shall last undying.' And ask yourselves--What then? Am I making "provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof," in more or less refined fashion, and forgetting to provide for that which lives for evermore? Eternity is in my heart. What a madness it is to go on, as if either I were to continue for ever among the shows of time, or when I leave them all, to die wholly and be done with altogether!'

But, probably, the other interpretation of these words is the truer. The doctrine of immortality does not seem to be stated in this Book of Ecclesiastes, except in one or two very doubtful expressions. And it is more in accordance with its whole tone to suppose the Preacher here to be asserting, not that the heart or spirit is immortal, but that, whether it is or no, in the heart is planted the thought, the consciousness of eternity--and the longing after it.

Let me put that into other words. We, brethren, are the only beings on this earth who can think the thought and speak the word--Eternity. Other creatures are happy while immersed in time; we have another nature, and are disturbed by a thought which shines high above the roaring sea of circumstance in which we float.

I do not care at present about the metaphysical puzzles that have been gathered round that conception, nor care to ask whether it is positive or negative, adequate or inadequate. Enough that the word has a meaning, that it corresponds to a thought which dwells in men's minds. It is of no consequence at all for our purpose, whether it is a positive conception, or simply the thinking away of all limitations. I know what God is, when you do not ask me.' I know what eternity is, though I cannot define the word to satisfy a metaphysician. The little child taught by some grandmother Lois, in a cottage, knows what she means when she tells him you will live for ever,' though both scholar and teacher would be puzzled to put it into other words. When we say eternity flows round this bank and shoal of time, men know what we mean. Heart answers to heart; and in each heart lies that solemn thought--for ever!

Like all other of the primal thoughts of men's souls, it may be increased in force and clearness, or it may be neglected and opposed, and all but crushed. The thought of God is natural to man, the thought of right and wrong is natural to man--and yet there may be atheists who have blinded their eyes, and there may be degraded and almost animal natures who have seared their consciences and called sweet bitter and evil good. Thus men may so plunge themselves into the present as to lose the consciousness of the eternal--as a man swept over Niagara, blinded by the spray and deafened by the rush, would see or hear nothing outside the green walls of the death that encompassed him. And yet the blue sky with its peaceful spaces stretches above the hell of waters.

So the thought is in us all--a presentiment and a consciousness; and that universal presentiment itself goes far to establish the reality of the unseen order of things to which it is directed. The great planet that moves on the outmost circle of our system was discovered because that next it wavered in its course in a fashion which was inexplicable, unless some unknown mass was attracting it from across millions of miles of darkling space. And there are' perturbations' in our spirits which cannot be understood, unless from them we may divine that far-off and unseen world, that has power from afar to sway in their orbits the little lives of mortal men. It draws us to itself--but, alas! the attraction may be resisted and thwarted. The dead mass of the planet bends to the drawing, but we can repel the constraint which the eternal world would exercise upon us--and so that consciousness which ought to be our nobleness, as it is our prerogative, may become our shame, our misery, and our sin.

That Eternity which is set in our hearts is not merely the thought of ever-during Being, or of an everlasting order of things to which we are in some way related. But there are connected with it other ideas besides those of mere duration. Men know what perfection means. They understand the meaning of perfect goodness; they have the notion of infinite Wisdom and boundless Love. These thoughts are the material of all poetry, the thread from which the imagination creates all her wondrous tapestries. This capacity for the Infinite,' as people call it--which is only a fine way of putting the same thought as that in our text--which is the prerogative of human spirits, is likewise the curse of many spirits. By their misuse of it they make it a fatal gift, and turn it into an unsatisfied desire which gnaws their souls, a famished yearning which roars, and suffers hunger.' Knowing what perfection is, they turn to limited natures and created hearts for their rest. Having the haunting thought of an absolute Goodness, a perfect Wisdom, an endless Love, an eternal Life--they try to find the being that corresponds to their thought here on earth, and so they are plagued with endless disappointment.

My brother! God has put eternity in your heart. Not only will you live for ever, but also in your present life you have a consciousness of that eternal and infinite and all-sufficient Being that lives above. You have need of Him, and whether you know it or not, the tendrils of your spirits, like some climbing plant not fostered by a careful hand but growing wild, are feeling out into the vacancy in order to grasp the stay which they need for their fruitage and their strength.

By the make of our spirits, by the possibilities that dawn dim before us, by the thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof that they were born for immortality,'--by all these and a thousand other signs and facts in every human life we say, God has set eternity in their hearts!'

II. And Then Turn To The Second Idea That Is Here.

The disproportion between this our nature, and the world in which we dwell.

The writer of this book (whether Solomon or no we need not stay to discuss) looks out upon the world; and in accordance with the prevailing tone of all the earlier parts of his contemplations, finds in this prerogative of man but another reason for saying, All is vanity and vexation of spirit.'

Two facts meet him antagonistic to one another : the place that man occupies, and the nature that man hears. This creature with eternity in his heart, where is he set? what has he got to work upon? what has he to love and hold by, to trust to, and anchor his life on? A crowd of things, each well enough, but each having a time--and though they be beautiful in their time, yet fading and vanishing when it has elapsed. No multiplication of times will make eternity. And so with that thought in his heart, man is driven out among objects perfectly insufficient to meet it.

Christ said, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head '--and while the words have their proper and most pathetic meaning in the history of His own earthly life of travail and toil for our sakes, we may also venture to give them the further application, that all the lower creatures are at rest here, and that the more truly a man is man, the less can he find, among all the shadows of the present, a pillow for his head, a place of repose for his heart. The animal nature is at home in the material world, the human nature is not.

Every other creature presents the most accurate correspondence between nature and circumstances, powers and occupations. Man alone is like some poor land-bird blown out to sea, and floating half-drowned with clinging plumage on an ocean where the dove finds no rest for the sole of her foot,' or like some creature that loves to glance in the sunlight, but is plunged into the deepest recesses of a dark mine. In the midst of a universe marked by the nicest adaptations of creatures to their habitation, man alone, the head of them all, presents the unheard-of anomaly that he is surrounded by conditions which do not fit his whole nature, which are not adequate for all his powers, on which he cannot feed and nurture his whole being. To what purpose is this waste?' Hast thou made all men in vain?'

Everything is beautiful in its time.' Yes, and for that very reason, as this Book of Ecclesiastes says in another verse, Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.' It was happy when we loved; but the day of indifference and alienation and separation comes. Our spirits were glad when we were planting; but the time for plucking up that which was planted is sure to draw near. It was blessed to pour out our souls in the effluence of love, or in the fullness of thought, and the time to speak was joyous; but the dark day of silence comes on. When we twined hearts and clasped hands together it was glad, and the time when we embraced was blessed; but the time to refrain from embracing is as sure to draw near. It is good for the eyes to behold the sun, but so certainly as it rolls to its bed in the west, and leaves the world to darkness' and to us, do all earthly occupations wane and fade, and all possessions shrivel and dwindle, and all associations snap and drop and end, and the whirligig of time works round and takes away everything which it once brought us.

And so man, with eternity in his heart, with the hunger in his spirit after an unchanging whole, an absolute good, an ideal perfectness, an immortal being --is condemned to the treadmill of transitory revolution. Nothing continueth in one stay, For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof.' It is limited, it is changeful, it slips from under us as we stand upon it, and therefore, mystery and perplexity stoop down upon the providence of God, and misery and loneliness enter into the heart of man. These changeful things, they do not meet our ideal, they do not satisfy our wants, they do not last even our duration.

The misery of man is great upon him,' said the text quoted a moment ago. And is it not? Is this present life enough for you? Sometimes you fancy it is. Many of us habitually act on the understanding that it is, and treat all that I have been saying about the disproportion between our nature and our circumstances as not true about them. This world not enough for me!' you say--Yes! it is; only let me get a little more of it, and keep what I get, and I shall be all right.' So then--a little more' is wanted, is it? And that little more' will always be wanted, and besides it, the guarantee of permanence will always be wanted, and failing these, there will be a hunger that nothing can fill which belongs to earth. Do you remember the bitter experience of the poor prodigal, he would fain have filled his belly with the husks'? He tried his best to live upon the horny, in nutritious pods, but he could not; and after them he still was perishing with hunger.' So it is with us all when we try to fill the soul and satisfy the spirit with earth or aught that holds of it. It is as impossible to still the hunger of the heart with that, as to stay the hunger of the body with wise sayings or noble sentiments.

I appeal to your real selves, to your own past experience. Is it not true that, deep below the surface contentment with the world and the things of the world, a dormant but slightly slumbering sense of want and unsatisfied need lies in your souls? Is it not true that it wakes sometimes at a touch; that the tender, dying light of sunset, or the calm abysses of the mighty heavens, or some strain of music, or a line in a book, or a sorrow in your heart, or the solemnity of a great joy, or close contact with sickness and death, or the more direct appeals of Scripture and of Christ, stir a wistful yearning and a painful sense of emptiness in your hearts, and of insufficiency in all the ordinary pursuits of your lives? It cannot but be so; for though it be true that our natures are in some measure subdued to what we work in, and although it is possible to atrophy the deepest parts of our being by long neglect or starvation, yet you will never do that so thoroughly but that the deep-seated longing will break forth at intervals, and the cry of its hunger echo through the soul. Many of us do our best to silence it. But I, for my part, believe that, however you have crushed and hardened your souls by indifference, by ambition, by worldly cares, by frivolous or coarse pleasures, or by any of the thousand other ways in which you can do it--yet there is some response in your truest self to my poor words when I declare that a soul without God is an empty and an aching soul!

These things which, even in their time of beauty, are not enough for a man's soul--have all but a time to be beautiful in, and then they fade and die. A great botanist made what he called a floral clock' to mark the hours of the day by the opening and closing of flowers. It was a graceful and yet a pathetic thought. One after another they spread their petals, and their varying colours glow in the light. But one after another they wearily shut their cups, and the night falls, and the latest of them folds itself together, and all are hidden away in the dark. So our joys and treasures, were they sufficient did they last, cannot last. After a summer's day comes a summer's night, and after a brief space of them comes winter, when all are killed and the leafless trees stand silent,

Bare, ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.'

We cleave to these temporal possessions and joys, and the natural law of change sweeps them away from us one by one. Most of them do not last so long as we do, and they pain us when they pass away from us. Some of them last longer than we do, and they pain us when we pass away from them. Either way our hold of them is a transient hold, and one knows not whether is the sadder--the bare garden beds where all have done blowing, and nothing remains but a tangle of decay, or the blooming beauty from which a man is summoned away, leaving others to reap what he has sown. Tragic enough are both at the best--and certain to befall us all. We live and they fade; we die and they remain. We live again and they are far away. The facts are so, We may make them a joy or a sorrow as we will Transiency is stamped on all our possessions, occupations, and delights. We have the hunger for eternity in our souls, the thought of eternity in our hearts, the destination for eternity written on our inmost being, and the need to ally ourselves with eternity proclaimed even by the most short-lived trifles of time. Either these things will be the blessing or the curse of our lives. Which do you mean that they shall be for you?

III. These Thoughts Lead Us To Consider The Possible Satisfying Of Our Souls.

This Book of Ecclesiastes is rather meant to enforce the truth of the weariness and emptiness of a godless life, than of the blessedness of a godly one. It is the record of the struggles of a soul--the confessions of an inquiring spirit'--feeling and fighting its way through many errors, and many partial and unsatisfactory solutions of the great problem of life, till he reaches the one in which he can rest. When he has touched that goal his work is done. And so the devious way is told in the book at full length, while a sentence sets forth the conclusion to which he was working, even when he was most bewildered. The conclusion of the whole matter' is Fear God and keep His commandments.' That is all that a man needs. It is the whole of man.' All is' not vanity and vexation of spirit' then--but all things work together for good to them that love God.'

The Preacher in his day learned that it was possible to satisfy the hunger for eternity, which had once seemed to him a questionable blessing. He learned that it was a loving Providence which had made man's home so little fit for him, that he might seek the city which hath foundations.' He learned that all the pain of passing beauty, and the fading flowers of man's goodliness, were capable of being turned into a solemn joy. Standing at the centre, he saw order instead of chaos, and when he had come back, after all his search, to the old simple faith of peasants and children in Judah, to fear God and keep His commandments, he understood why God had set eternity in man's heart, and then flung him out, as if in mockery, amidst the stormy waves of the changeful ocean of time.

And we, who have a further word from God, may have a fuller and yet more blessed conviction, built upon our own happy experience, if we choose, that it is possible for us to have that deep thirst slaked, that longing appeased. We have Christ to trust to and to love. He has given Himself for us that all our many sins against the eternal love and our guilty squandering of our hearts upon transitory treasures may be forgiven. He has come amongst us, the Word in human flesh, that our poor eyes may see the Eternal walking amidst the things of time and sense, and may discern a beauty in Him beyond whatsoever things are lovely.' He has come that we through Him may lay hold on God, even as in Him God lays hold on us. As in mysterious and transcendent union the divine takes into itself the human in that person of Jesus, and Eternity is blended with Time; we, trusting Him and yielding our hearts to Him, receive into our poor lives an incorruptible seed, and for us the soul-satisfying realities that abide for ever mingle with and are reached through the shadows that pass away.

Brethren, yield yourselves to Him! In conscious unworthiness, in lowly penitence, let us cast ourselves on Jesus Christ, our Sacrifice, for pardon and peace! Trust Him and love Him l Live by Him and for Him! And then, the loftiest thoughts of our hearts, as they seek after absolute perfection and changeless love, shall be more than fulfilled in Him who is more than all that man ever dreamed, because He is the perfection of man, and the Son of God.

Love Christ and live in Him, taking Him for the motive, the spring, and the very atmosphere of your lives, and then no capacities will languish for lack of either stimulus or field, and no weariness will come over you, as if you were a stranger from your home. For if Christ be near us, all things go well with us. If we live for Him, the power of that motive will make all our nature blossom like the vernal woods, and dry branches break into leafage. If we dwell in Him, we shall be at home wherever we are, like the patriarch who pitched his tent in many lands, but always had the same tent wherever he went. So we shall have the one abode, though its place in the desert may vary--and we shall not need to care whether the encampment be beneath the palm-trees and beside the wells of Elim, or amidst the drought of Marah, so long as the same covering protects us, and the same pillar of fire burns above us.

Love Christ, and then the eternity in the heart will not be a great aching void, but will be filled with the everlasting life which Christ gives, and is. The vicissitude will really become the source of freshness and progress which God meant it to be. Everything which, when made our all-sufficient portion, becomes stale and unprofitable, even in its time, will be apparelled in celestial light. It shall all be lovely and pleasant while it lasts, and its beauty will not be saddened by the certainty of its decay, nor its empty place a pain when it has passed away.

Take Christ for Saviour and Friend, your Guide and Support through time, and Himself your Eternity and Joy, then all discords are reconciled--and all things are yours--whether the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's.'

MHCC: Ecc 3:1-10

To expect unchanging happiness in a changing world, must end in disappointment. To bring ourselves to our state in life, is our duty and wisdom in this world. God's whole plan for the government of the world will be found altogether wise, just, and good. Then let us seize the favourable opportunity for every good purpose and work. The time to die is fast approaching. Thus labour and sorrow fill the world. This is given us, that we may always have something to do; none were sent into the world to be idle.

MHCC: Ecc 3:11-15

Every thing is as God made it; not as it appears to us. We have the world so much in our hearts, are so taken up with thoughts and cares of worldly things, that we have neither time nor spirit to see God's hand in them. The world has not only gained possession of the heart, but has formed thoughts against the beauty of God's works. We mistake if we think we were born for ourselves; no, it is our business to do good in this life, which is short and uncertain; we have but little time to be doing good, therefore we should redeem time. Satisfaction with Divine Providence, is having faith that all things work together for good to them that love him. God doeth all, that men should fear before him. The world, as it has been, is, and will be. There has no change befallen us, nor has any temptation by it taken us, but such as is common to men.

MHCC: Ecc 3:16-22

Without the fear of the Lord, man is but vanity; set that aside, and judges will not use their power well. And there is another Judge that stands before the door. With God there is a time for the redressing of grievances, though as yet we see it not. Solomon seems to express his wish that men might perceive, that by choosing this world as their portion, they brought themselves to a level with the beasts, without being free, as they are, from present vexations and a future account. Both return to the dust from whence they were taken. What little reason have we to be proud of our bodies, or bodily accomplishments! But as none can fully comprehend, so few consider properly, the difference between the rational soul of man, and the spirit or life of the beast. The spirit of man goes upward, to be judged, and is then fixed in an unchangeable state of happiness or misery. It is as certain that the spirit of the beast goes downward to the earth; it perishes at death. Surely their case is lamentable, the height of whose hopes and wishes is, that they may die like beasts. Let our inquiry be, how an eternity of existence may be to us an eternity of enjoyment? To answer this, is the grand design of revelation. Jesus is revealed as the Son of God, and the Hope of sinners.

Matthew Henry: Ecc 3:1-10

The scope of these verses is to show, 1. That we live in a world of changes, that the several events of time, and conditions of human life, are vastly different from one another, and yet occur promiscuously, and we are continually passing and repassing between them, as in the revolutions of every day and every year. In the wheel of nature (Jam 3:6) sometimes one spoke is uppermost and by and by the contrary; there is a constant ebbing and flowing, waxing and waning; from one extreme to the other does the fashion of this world change, ever did, and ever will. 2. That every change concerning us, with the time and season of it, is unalterably fixed and determined by a supreme power; and we must take things as they come, for it is not in our power to change what is appointed for us. And this comes in here as a reason why, when we are in prosperity, we should by easy, and yet not secure - not to be secure because we live in a world of changes and therefore have no reason to say, Tomorrow shall be as this day (the lowest valleys join to the highest mountains), and yet to be easy, and, as he had advised (Ecc 2:24), to enjoy the good of our labour, in a humble dependence upon God and his providence, neither lifted up with hopes, nor cast down with fears, but with evenness of mind expecting every event. Here we have,

I. A general proposition laid down: To every thing there is a season, Ecc 3:1. 1. Those things which seem most contrary the one to the other will, in the revolution of affairs, each take their turn and come into play. The day will give place to the night and the night again to the day. Is it summer? It will be winter. Is it winter? Stay a while, and it will be summer. Every purpose has its time. The clearest sky will be clouded, Post gaudia luctus - Joy succeeds sorrow; and the most clouded sky will clear up, Post nubila Phoebus - The sun will burst from behind the cloud. 2. Those things which to us seem most casual and contingent are, in the counsel and foreknowledge of God, punctually determined, and the very hour of them is fixed, and can neither be anticipated nor adjourned a moment.

II. The proof and illustration of it by the induction of particulars, twenty-eight in number, according to the days of the moon's revolution, which is always increasing or decreasing between its full and change. Some of these changes are purely the act of God, others depend more upon the will of man, but all are determined by the divine counsel. Every thing under heaven is thus changeable, but in heaven there is an unchangeable state, and an unchangeable counsel concerning these things. 1. There is a time to be born and a time to die. These are determined by the divine counsel; and, as we were born, so we must die, at the time appointed, Act 17:26. Some observe that here is a time to be born and a time to die, but no time to live; that is so short that it is not worth mentioning; as soon as we are born we begin to die. But, as there is a time to be born and a time to die, so there will be a time to rise again, a set time when those that lie in the grave shall be remembered, Job 14:13. 2. A time for God to plant a nation, as that of Israel in Canaan, and, in order to that, to pluck up the seven nations that were planted there, to make room for them; and at length there was a time when God spoke concerning Israel too, to pluck up and to destroy, when the measure of their iniquity was full, Jer 18:7, Jer 18:9. There is a time for men to plant, a time of the year, a time of their lives; but, when that which was planted has grown fruitless and useless, it is time to pluck it up. 3. A time to kill, when the judgments of God are abroad in a land and lay all waste; but, when he returns in ways of mercy, then is a time to heal what he has torn (Hos 6:1, Hos 6:2), to comfort a people after the time that he has afflicted them, Psa 90:15. There is a time when it is the wisdom of rulers to use severe methods, but there is a time when it is as much their wisdom to take a more gentle course, and to apply themselves to lenitives, not corrosives. 4. A time to break down a family, an estate, a kingdom, when it has ripened itself for destruction; but God will find a time, if they return and repent, to rebuild what he has broken down; there is a time, a set time, for the Lord to build up Zion, Psa 102:13, Psa 102:16. There is a time for men to break up house, and break off trade, and so to break down, which those that are busy in building up both must expect and prepare for. 5. A time when God's providence calls to weep and mourn, and when man's wisdom and grace will comply with the call, and will weep and mourn, as in times of common calamity and danger, and there it is very absurd to laugh, and dance, and make merry (Isa 22:12, Isa 22:13; Eze 21:10); but then, on the other hand, there is a time when God calls to cheerfulness, a time to laugh and dance, and then he expects we should serve him with joyfulness and gladness of heart. Observe, The time of mourning and weeping is put first, before that of laughter and dancing, for we must first sow in tears and then reap in joy. 6. A time to cast away stones, by breaking down and demolishing fortifications, when God gives peace in the borders, and there is no more occasion for them; but there is a time to gather stones together, for the making of strong-holds, Ecc 3:5. A time for old towers to fall, as that in Siloam (Luk 12:4), and for the temple itself to be so ruined as that not one stone should be left upon another; but also a time for towers and trophies too to be erected, when national affairs prosper. 7. A time to embrace a friend when we find him faithful, but a time to refrain from embracing when we find he is unfair or unfaithful, and that we have cause to suspect him; it is then our prudence to be shy and keep at a distance. It is commonly applied to conjugal embraces, and explained by 1Co 7:3-5; Joe 2:16. 8. A time to get, get money, get preferment, get good bargains and a good interest, when opportunity smiles, a time when a wise man will seek (so the word is); when he is setting out in the world and has a growing family, when he is in his prime, when he prospers and has a run of business, then it is time for him to be busy and make hay when the sun shines. There is a time to get wisdom, and knowledge, and grace, when a man has a price put into his hand; but then let him expect there will come a time to spend, when all he has will be little enough to serve his turn. Nay, there will come a time to lose, when what has been soon got will be soon scattered and cannot be held fast. 9. A time to keep, when we have use for what we have got, and can keep it without running the hazard of a good conscience; but there may come a time to cast away, when love to God may oblige us to cast away what we have, because we must deny Christ and wrong our consciences if we keep it (Mat 10:37, Mat 10:38), and rather to make shipwreck of all than of the faith; nay, when love to ourselves may oblige us to cast it away, when it is for the saving of our lives, as it was when Jonah's mariners heaved their cargo into the sea. 10. A time to rend the garments, as upon occasion of some great grief, and a time to sew, them again, in token that the grief is over. A time to undo what we have done and a time to do again what we have undone. Jerome applies this to the rending of the Jewish church and the sewing and making up of the gospel church thereupon. 11. A time when it becomes us, and is our wisdom and duty, to keep silence, when it is an evil time (Amo 5:13), when our speaking would be the casting of pearl before swine, or when we are in danger of speaking amiss (Psa 39:2); but there is also a time to speak for the glory of God and the edification of others, when silence would be the betraying of a righteous cause, and when with the mouth confession is to be made to salvation; and it is a great part of Christian prudence to know when to speak and when to hold our peace. 12. A time to love, and to show ourselves friendly, to be free and cheerful, and it is a pleasant time; but there may come a time to hate, when we shall see cause to break off all familiarity with some that we have been fond of, and to be upon the reserve, as having found reason for a suspicion, which love is loth to admit. 13. A time of war, when God draws the sword for judgment and gives it commission to devour, when men draw the sword for justice and the maintaining of their rights, when there is in the nations a disposition to war; but we may hope for a time of peace, when the sword of the Lord shall be sheathed and he shall make wars to cease (Psa 46:9), when the end of the war is obtained, and when there is on all sides a disposition to peace. War shall not last always, nor is there any peace to be called lasting on this side the everlasting peace. Thus in all these changes God has set the one over-against the other, that we may rejoice as though we rejoiced not and weep as though we wept not.

III. The inferences drawn from this observation. If our present state be subject to such vicissitude, 1. Then we must not expect our portion in it, for the good things of it are of no certainty, no continuance (Ecc 3:9): What profit has he that works? What can a man promise himself from planting and building, when that which he thinks is brought to perfection may so soon, and will so surely, be plucked up and broken down? All our pains and care will not alter either the mutable nature of the things themselves or the immutable counsel of God concerning them. 2. Then we must look upon ourselves as upon our probation in it. There is indeed no profit in that wherein we labour; the thing itself, when we have it, will do us little good; but, if we make a right use of the disposals of Providence about it, there will be profit in that (Ecc 3:10): I have seen the travail which God has given to the sons of men, not to make up a happiness by it, but to be exercised in it, to have various graces exercised by the variety of events, to have their dependence upon God tried by every change, and to be trained up to it, and taught both how to want and how to abound, Phi 4:12. Note, (1.) There is a great deal of toil and trouble to be seen among the children of men. Labour and sorrow fill the world. (2.) This toil and this trouble are what God has allotted us. He never intended this world for our rest, and therefore never appointed us to take our ease in it. (3.) To many it proves a gift. God gives it to men, as the physician gives a medicine to his patient, to do him good. This travail is given to us to make us weary of the world and desirous of the remaining rest. It is given to us that we may be kept in action, and may always have something to do; for we were none of us sent into the world to be idle. Every change cuts us out some new work, which we should be more solicitous about, than about the event.

Matthew Henry: Ecc 3:11-15

We have seen what changes there are in the world, and must not expect to find the world more sure to us than it has been to others. Now here Solomon shows the hand of God in all those changes; it is he that has made every creature to be that to us which it is, and therefore we must have our eye always upon him.

I. We must make the best of that which is, and must believe it best for the present, and accommodate ourselves to it: He has made every thing beautiful in his time (Ecc 3:11), and therefore, while its time lasts, we must be reconciled to it: nay, we must please ourselves with the beauty of it. Note, 1. Every thing is as God has made it; it is really as he appointed it to be, not as it appears to us. 2. That which to us seems most unpleasant is yet, in its proper time, altogether becoming. Cold is as becoming in winter as heat in summer; and the night, in its turn, is a black beauty, as the day, in its turn, is a bright one. 3. There is a wonderful harmony in the divine Providence and all its disposals, so that the events of it, when they come to be considered in their relations and tendencies, together with the seasons of them, will appear very beautiful, to the glory of God and the comfort of those that trust in him. Though we see not the complete beauty of Providence, yet we shall see it, and a glorious sight it will be, when the mystery of God shall be finished. Then every thing shall appear to have been done in the most proper time and it will be the wonder of eternity, Deu 32:4. Eze 1:18.

II. We must wait with patience for the full discovery of that which to us seems intricate and perplexed, acknowledging that we cannot find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end, and therefore must judge nothing before the time. We are to believe that God has made all beautiful. Every thing is done well, as in creation, so in providence, and we shall see it when the end comes, but till then we are incompetent judges of it. While the picture is in drawing, and the house in building, we see not the beauty of either; but when the artist has put his last hand to them, and given them their finishing strokes, then all appears very good. We see but the middle of God's works, not from the beginning of them (then we should see how admirably the plan was laid in the divine counsels), nor to the end of them, which crowns the action (then we should see the product to be glorious), but we must wait till the veil be rent, and not arraign God's proceedings nor pretend to pass judgment on them. Secret things belong not to us. Those words, He has set the world in their hearts, are differently understood. 1. Some make them to be a reason why we may know more of God's works than we do; so Mr. Pemble: "God has not left himself without witness of his righteous, equal, and beautiful ordering of things, but has set it forth, to be observed in the book of the world, and this he has set in men's hearts, given man a large desire, and a power, in good measure, to comprehend and understand the history of nature, with the course of human affairs, so that, if men did but give themselves to the exact observation of things, they might in most of them perceive an admirable order and contrivance."2. Others make them to be a reason why we do not know so much of God's works as we might; so bishop Reynolds: "We have the world so much in our hearts, are so taken up with thoughts and cares of worldly things, and are so exercised in our travail concerning them, that we have neither time nor spirit to eye God's hand in them."The world has not only gained possession of the heart, but has formed prejudices there against the beauty of God's works.

III. We must be pleased with our lot in this world, and cheerfully acquiesce in the will of God concerning us, and accommodate ourselves to it. There is no certain, lasting, good in these things; what good there is in them we are here told, Ecc 3:12, Ecc 3:13. We must make a good use of them, 1. For the benefit of others. All the good there is in them is to do good with them, to our families, to our neighbours, to the poor, to the public, to its civil and religious interests. What have we our beings, capacities, and estates for, but to be some way serviceable to our generation? We mistake if we think we were born for ourselves. No; it is our business to do good; it is in doing good that there is the truest pleasure, and what is so laid out is best laid up and will turn to the best account. Observe, It is to do good in this life, which is short and uncertain; we have but a little time to be doing good in, and therefore had need to redeem time. It is in this life, where we are in a state of trial and probation for another life. Every man's life is his opportunity of doing that which will make for him in eternity. 2. For our own comfort. Let us make ourselves easy, rejoice, and enjoy the good of our labour, as it is the gift of God, and so enjoy God in it, and taste his love, return him thanks, and make him the centre of our joy, eat and drink to his glory, and serve him with joyfulness of heart, in the abundance of all things. If all things in this world be so uncertain, it is a foolish thing for men sordidly to spare for the present, that they may hoard up all for hereafter; it is better to live cheerfully and usefully upon what we have, and let tomorrow take thought for the things of itself. Grace and wisdom to do this is the gift of God, and it is a good gift, which crowns the gifts of his providential bounty.

IV. We must be entirely satisfied in all the disposals of the divine Providence, both as to personal and public concerns, and bring our minds to them, because God, in all, performs the thing that is appointed for us, acts according to the counsel of his will; and we are here told, 1. That that counsel cannot be altered, and therefore it is our wisdom to make a virtue of necessity, by submitting to it. It must be as God wills: I know (and every one knows it that knows any thing of God) that whatsoever God does it shall be for ever, Ecc 3:14. He is in one mind, and who can turn him? His measures are never broken, nor is he ever put upon new counsels, but what he has purposed shall be effected, and all the world cannot defeat nor disannul it. It behoves us therefore to say, "Let it be as God wills,"for, how cross soever it may be to our designs and interests, God's will is his wisdom. 2. That that counsel needs not to be altered, for there is nothing amiss in it, nothing that can be amended. If we could see it altogether at one view, we should see it so perfect that nothing can be put to it, for there is no deficiency in it, nor any thing taken from it, for there is nothing in it unnecessary, or that can be spared. As the word of God, so the works of God are every one of them perfect in its kind, and it is presumption for us either to add to them or to diminish from them, Deu 4:2. It is therefore as much our interest, as our duty, to bring our wills to the will of God.

V. We must study to answer God's end in all his providences, which is in general to make us religious. God does all that men should fear before him, to convince them that there is a God above them that has a sovereign dominion over them, at whose disposal they are and all their ways, and in whose hands their times are and all events concerning them, and that therefore they ought to have their eyes ever towards him, to worship and adore him, to acknowledge him in all their ways, to be careful in every thing to please him, and afraid of offending him in any thing. God thus changes his disposals, and yet is unchangeable in his counsels, not to perplex us, much less to drive us to despair, but to teach us our duty to him and engage us to do it. That which God designs in the government of the world is the support and advancement of religion among men.

VI. Whatever changes we see or feel in this world, we must acknowledge the inviolable steadiness of God's government. The sun rises and sets, the moon increases and decreases, and yet both are where they were, and their revolutions are in the same method from the beginning according to the ordinances of heaven; so it is with the events of Providence (Ecc 3:15): That which has been is now. God has not of late begun to use this method. No; things were always as mutable and uncertain as they are now, and so they will be: That which is to be has already been; and therefore we speak inconsiderately when we say, "Surely the world was never so bad as it is now,"or "None ever met with such disappointments as we meet with,"or "The times will never mend;"they may mend with us, and after a time to mourn there may come a time to rejoice, but that will still be liable to the common character, to the common fate. The world, as it has been, is and will be constant in inconstancy; for God requires that which is past, that is, repeats what he has formerly done and deals with us no otherwise than as he has used to deal with good men; and shall the earth be forsaken for us, or the rock removed out of his place? There has no change befallen us, nor any temptation by it overtaken us, but such as is common to men. Let us not be proud and secure in prosperity, for God may recall a past trouble, and order that to seize us and spoil our mirth (Psa 30:7); nor let us despond in adversity, for God may call back the comforts that are past, as he did to Job. We may apply this to our past actions, and our behaviour under the changes that have affected us. God will call us to account for that which is past; and therefore, when we enter into a new condition, we should judge ourselves for our sins in our former condition, prosperous or afflicted.

Matthew Henry: Ecc 3:16-22

Solomon is still showing that every thing in this world, without piety and the fear of God, is vanity. Take away religion, and there is nothing valuable among men, nothing for the sake of which a wise man would think it worth while to live in this world. In these verses he shows that power (than which there is nothing men are more ambitious of) and life itself (than which there is nothing men are more fond, more jealous of) are nothing without the fear of God.

I. Here is the vanity of man as mighty, man in his best estate, man upon the throne, where his authority is submitted to, man upon the judgment-seat, where his wisdom and justice are appealed to, and where, if he be governed by the laws of religion, he is God's viceregent; nay, he is of those to whom it is said, You are gods; but without the fear of God it is vanity, for, set that aside, and,

1. The judge will not judge aright, will not use his power well, but will abuse it; instead of doing good with it he will do hurt with it, and then it is not only vanity, but a lie, a cheat to himself and to all about him, Ecc 3:16. Solomon perceived, by what he had read of former times, what he heard of other countries, and what he had seen in some corrupt judges, even in the land of Israel, notwithstanding all his care to prefer good men, that there was wickedness in the place of judgment. It is not so above the sun: far be it from God that he should do iniquity, or pervert justice. But under the sun it is often found that that which should be the refuge, proves the prison, of oppressed innocency. Man being in honour, and not understanding what he ought to do, becomes like the beasts that perish, like the beasts of prey, even the most ravenous, Psa 49:20. Not only from the persons that sat in judgment, but even in the places where judgment was, in pretence, administered, and righteousness was expected, there was iniquity; men met with the greatest wrongs in those courts to which they fled for justice. This is vanity and vexation; for, (1.) It would have been better for the people to have had no judges than to have had such. (2.) It would have been better for the judges to have had no power than to have had it and used it to such ill purposes; and so they will say another day.

2. The judge will himself be judged for not judging aright. When Solomon saw how judgment was perverted among men he looked up to God the Judge, and looked forward to the day of his judgment (Ecc 3:17): " I said in my heart that this unrighteous judgment is not so conclusive as both sides take it to be, for there will be a review of the judgment; God shall judge between the righteous and the wicked, shall judge for the righteous and plead their cause, though now it is run down, and judge against the wicked and reckon with them for all their unrighteous decrees and the grievousness which they have prescribed, "Isa 10:1. With an eye of faith we may see, not only the period, but the punishment of the pride and cruelty of oppressors (Psa 92:7), and it is an unspeakable comfort to the oppressed that their cause will be heard over again. Let them therefore wait with patience, for there is another Judge that stands before the door. And, though the day of affliction may last long, yet there is a time, a set time, for the examination of every purpose, and every work done under the sun. Men have their day now, but God's day is coming, Psa 37:13. With God there is a time for the re-hearing of causes, redressing of grievances, and reversing of unjust decrees, though as yet we see it not here, Job 24:1.

II. Here is the vanity of man as mortal. He now comes to speak more generally concerning the estate of the sons of men in this world, their life and being on earth, and shows that their reason, without religion and the fear of God, advances them but little above the beasts. Now observe,

1. What he aims at in this account of man's estate. (1.) That God may be honoured, may be justified, may be glorified - that they might clear God (so the margin reads it), that if men have an uneasy life in this world, full of vanity and vexation, they may thank themselves and lay no blame on God; let them clear him, and not say that he made this world to be man's prison and life to be his penance; no, God made man, in respect both of honour and comfort, little lower than the angels; if he be mean and miserable, it is his own fault. Or, that God (that is, the world of God) might manifest them, and discover them to themselves, and so appear to be quick and powerful, and a judge of men's characters; and we may be made sensible how open we lie to God's knowledge and judgment. (2.) That men may be humbled, may be vilified, may be mortified - that they might see that they themselves are beasts. It is no easy matter to convince proud men that they are but men (Psa 9:20), much more to convince bad men that they are beasts, that, being destitute of religion, they are as the beasts that perish, as the horse and the mule that have no understanding. Proud oppressors are as beasts, as roaring lions and ranging bears. Nay, every man that minds his body only, and not his soul, makes himself no better than a brute, and must wish, at least, to die like one.

2. The manner in which he verifies this account. That which he undertakes to prove is that a worldly, carnal, earthly-minded man, has no preeminence above the beast, for all that which he sets his heart upon, places his confidence, and expects a happiness in, is vanity, Ecc 3:19. Some make this to be the language of an atheist, who justifies himself in his iniquity (Ecc 3:16) and evades the argument taken from the judgment to come (Ecc 3:17) by pleading that there is not another life after this, but that when man dies there is an end of him, and therefore while he lives he may live as he lists; but others rather think Solomon here speaks as he himself thinks, and that it is to be understood in the same sense with that of his father (Psa 49:14), Like sheep they are laid in the grave, and that he intends to show the vanity of this world's wealth and honours "By the equal condition in mere outward respects (as bishop Reynolds expounds it) between men and beasts,"(1.) The events concerning both seem much alike (Ecc 3:19); That which befals the sons of men is no other than that which befals beasts; a great deal of knowledge of human bodies is gained by the anatomy of the bodies of brutes. When the deluge swept away the old world the beasts perished with mankind. Horses and men are killed in battle with the same weapons of war. (2.) The end of both, to an eye of sense, seems alike too: They have all one breath, and breathe in the same air, and it is the general description of both that in their nostrils is the breath of life (Gen 7:22), and therefore, as the one dies, so dies the other; in their expiring there is no visible difference, but death makes much the same change with a beast that it does with a man. [1.] As to their bodies, the change is altogether the same, except the different respects that are paid to them by the survivors. Let a man be buried with the burial of an ass (Jer 22:19) and what preëminence then has he above a beast? The touch of the dead body of a man, by the law of Moses, contracted a greater ceremonial pollution than the touch of the carcase even of an unclean beast or fowl. And Solomon here observes that all go unto one place; the dead bodies of men and beasts putrefy alike; all are of the dust, in their original, for we see all turn to dust again in their corruption. What little reason then have we to be proud of our bodies, or any bodily accomplishments, when they must not only be reduced to the earth very shortly, but must be so in common with the beasts, and we must mingle our dust with theirs! [2.] As to their spirits there is indeed a vast difference, but not a visible one, Ecc 3:21. It is certain that the spirit of the sons of men at death is ascending; it goes upwards to the Father of spirits, who made it, to the world of spirits to which it is allied; it dies not with the body, but is redeemed from the power of the grave, Psa 49:15. It goes upwards to be judged and determined to an unchangeable state. It is certain that the spirit of the beast goes downwards to the earth; it dies with the body; it perishes and is gone at death. The soul of a beast is, at death, like a candle blown out - there is an end of it; whereas the soul of a man is then like a candle taken out of a dark lantern, which leaves the lantern useless indeed, but does itself shine brighter. This great difference there is between the spirits of men and beasts; and a good reason it is why men should set their affections on things above, and lift up their souls to those things, not suffering them, as if they were the souls of brutes, to cleave to this earth. But who knows this difference? We cannot see the ascent of the one and the descent of the other with our bodily eyes; and therefore those that live by sense, as all carnal sensualists do, that walk in the sight of their eyes and will not admit any other discoveries, by their own rule of judgment have no preëminence above the beasts. Who knows, that is, who considers this? Isa 53:1. Very few. Were it better considered, the world would be every way better; but most men live as if they were to be here always, or as if when they die there were an end of them; and it is not strange that those live like beasts who think they shall die like beasts, but on such the noble faculties of reason are perfectly lost and thrown away.

3. An inference drawn from it (Ecc 3:22): There is nothing better, as to this world, nothing better to be had out of our wealth and honour, than that a man should rejoice in his own works, that is, (1.) Keep a clear conscience, and never admit iniquity into the place of righteousness. Let every man prove his own work, and approve himself to God in it, so shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, Gal 6:4. Let him not get nor keep any thing but what he can rejoice in. See 2Co 1:12. (2.) Live a cheerful life. If God have prospered the work of our hands unto us, let us rejoice in it, and take the comfort of it, and not make it a burden to ourselves and leave others the joy of it; for that is our portion, not the portion of our souls (miserable are those that have their portion in this life, Psa 17:14, and fools are those that choose it and take up with it, Luk 12:19), but it is the portion of the body; that only which we enjoy is ours out of this world; it is taking what is to be had and making the best of it, and the reason is because none can give us a sight of what shall be after us, either who shall have our estates or what use they will make of them. When we are gone it is likely we shall not see what is after us; there is no correspondence that we know of between the other world and this, Job 14:21. Those in the other world will be wholly taken up with that world, so that they will not care for seeing what is done in this; and while we are here we cannot foresee what shall be after us, either as to our families or the public. It is not for us to know the times and seasons that shall be after us, which, as it should be a restraint to our cares about this world, so it should be a reason for our concern about another. Since death is a final farewell to this life, let us look before us to another life.

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:1

"Everything has its time, and every purpose under the heavens its hour."The Germ. language is poor in synonyms of time. Zöckler translates: Everything has its steplang7 Frist ..., but by steplang7 Frist we think only of a fixed term of duration, not of a period of beginning, which, though not exclusively, is yet here primarily meant; we have therefore adopted Luther's excellent translation. Certainly זמן (from זמן , cogn. סמן , signare ), belonging to the more modern Heb., means a Frist ( e.g. , Dan 2:16) as well as a steplang7 Zeitpunkt , point of time; in the Semit. (also Assyr. simmu , simanu , with ס ) it is the most common designation of the idea of time. עת is abbreviated either from ענת ( ועד , to determine) or from ענת (from ענה , cogn. אנה , to go towards, to meet). In the first case it stands connected with מועד on the one side, and with עדּן (from עדד , to count) on the other; in the latter case, with עונה , Exo 21:10 (perhaps also ען and ענת in כען , כּענת ). It is difficult to decide this point; proportionally more, however, can be said for the original ענת (Palest.-Aram. ענתּא ), as also the prep. of participation את is derived from אנת (meeting, coming together).

(Note: Vid ., Orelli's work on the Heb. Synon. der Zeit u. Ewigkeit , 1871. He decides for the derivation from ועד morf ; Fleischer (Levy's Chald. W.B. II. 572) for the derivation from ענה , the higher power of אנה , whence (Arab.) inan , right time. We have, under Job 24:1, maintained the former derivation.)

The author means to say, if we have regard to the root signification of the second conception of time - (1) that everything has its fore-determined time, in which there lies both a determined point of time when it happens, and a determined period of time during which it shall continue; and (2) that every matter has a time appointed for it, or one appropriate, suitable for it. The Greeks were guided by the right feeling when they rendered זמן by χρόνος , and עת by καιρός .

Olympiodorus distinguishes too sharply when he understands the former of duration of time, and the latter of a point of time; while the state of the matter is this, that by χρόνος the idea comprehends the termini a quo and ad quem , while by καιρός it is limited to the terminus a quo . Regarding חפץ , which proceeds from the ground-idea of being inclined to, and intention, and thus, like πρᾶγμα and χρῆμα , to the general signification of design, undertaking, res gesta , res .

The illustration commences with the beginning and the ending of the life of man and (in near-lying connection of thought) of plants.

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:2

(Note: These seven verses, 2-8, are in Codd and Edd., like Jos 12:9., and Est 9:7., arranged in the form of a song, so that one עת (time) always stands under another, after the scheme described in Megilla 16 b , Massecheth Sofrim xiii. 3, but without any express reference to this passage in Koheleth. J has a different manner of arranging the words, the first four lines of which we here adduce: -

'ēth	lāmoth veeth	lalěděth 'ēth
'ēth	nathu'ǎ lǎ'ǎqor veeth	lathǎ'ǎth
'ēth	lirpō veeth	lǎhǎrog
'ēth	livnoth veeth	liphrots )

"To be born has its time, and to die has its time; to plant has its time, and to root up that which is planted has its time."The inf . ללדת signifies nothing else than to bring forth; but when that which is brought forth comes more into view than she who brings forth, it is used in the sense of being born (cf. Jer 25:34, לט = להטּבח ); ledah, Hos 9:11, is the birth; and in the Assyr., li -id -tu , li -i -tu , li -da -a -tu , designates posterity, progenies . Since now lālǎděth has here lāmuth as contrast, and thus does not denote the birth-throes of the mother, but the child's beginning of life, the translation, "to be born has its time,"is more appropriate to what is designed than "to bring forth has its time."What Zöckler, after Hitzig, objects that by lěděth a הפץ an undertaking, and thus a conscious, intended act must be named, is not applicable; for לכּל standing at the beginning comprehends doing and suffering, and death also (apart from suicide) is certainly not an intended act, frequently even an unconscious suffering. Instead of לטעת (for which the form לטּעת

(Note: This Abulwalid found in a correct Damascus ms., Michlol 81 b .)

is found, cf. למּוՀ˜ , Psa 66:9), the older language uses לנטע , Jer 1:10. In still more modern Heb. the expression used would be ליטע , i.e. , לטּע ( Shebîith ii. 1). עקד has here its nearest signification: to root up (denom. of עקּד , root), like עקר , 2Ki 3:25, where it is the Targ. word for הפּיל (to fell trees).

From out-rooting, which puts an end to the life of plants, the transition is now made to putting to death.

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:3

"To put to death has its time, and to heal has its time; to pull down has its time, and to build has its time."That harog (to kill) is placed over against "to heal,"Hitzig explains by the remark that harog does not here include the full consequences of the act, and is fitly rendered by "to wound."But "to put to death"is nowhere = "nearly to put to death,"- one who is harug is not otherwise to be healed than by resurrection from the dead, Eze 37:6. The contrast has no need for such ingenuity to justify it. The striking down of a sound life stands in contrast to the salvation of an endangered life by healing, and this in many situations of life, particularly in war, in the administration of justice, and in the defence of innocence against murder or injury, may be fitting. Since the author does not present these details from a moral point of view, the time here is not that which is morally right, but that which, be it morally right or not, has been determined by God, the Governor of the world and Former of history, who makes even that which is evil subservient to His plan. With the two pairs of γένεσις καὶ φθορά there are two others associated in Ecc 3:3; with that, having reference, 2 b , to the vegetable world, there here corresponds one referring to buildings; to פּרוץ (synon. הרוՀ¡ , Jer 1:10) stands opposed בּנות (which is more than גּדור ), as at 2Ch 32:5.

These contrasts between existence and non-existence are followed by contrasts within the limits of existence itself: -

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:4

"To weep has its time, and to laugh has its time; to mourn has its time, and to dance has its time."It is possible that the author was led by the consonance from livnoth to livkoth , which immediately follows it; but the sequence of the thoughts is at the same time inwardly mediated, for sorrow kills and joy enlivens, Sir. 32:21-24. ספוד is particularly lamentation for the dead, Zec 12:10; and רקוד , dancing (in the more modern language the usual word for hholēl , kirkēr , hhāgǎg ) at a marriage festival and on other festal occasions.

It is more difficult to say what leads the author to the two following pairs of contrasts: -

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:5

"To throw stones has its time, and to gather together stones has its time; to embrace has its time, and to refrain from embracing has its time."Did the old Jewish custom exist at the time of the author, of throwing three shovelfuls of earth into the grave, and did this lead him to use the phrase השׁ אבּ ? But we do not need so incidental a connection of the thought, for the first pair accords with the specific idea of life and death; by the throwing of stones a field is destroyed, 2Ki 3:25, or as expressed at 2Ki 3:19 is marred; and by gathering the stones together and removing them (which is called סקּל ), it is brought under cultivation. Does לה , to embrace, now follow because it is done with the arms and hands? Scarcely; but the loving action of embracing stands beside the hostile, purposely injurious throwing of stones into a field, not exclusively (2Ki 4:16), but yet chiefly (as e.g. , at Pro 5:20) as referring to love for women; the intensive in the second member is introduced perhaps only for the purpose of avoiding the paronomasia lirhhoq mahhavoq .

The following pair of contrasts is connected with the avoiding or refraining from the embrace of love: -

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:6

"To seek has its time, and to lose has its time; to lay up has its time, and to throw away has its time."Vaihinger and others translate לאבּד , to give up as lost, which the Pih . signifies first as the expression of a conscious act. The older language knows it only in the stronger sense of bringing to ruin, making to perish, wasting (Pro 29:3). But in the more modern language, אבד , like the Lat. perdere , in the sense of "to lose,"is the trans. to the intrans. אבד , e.g. , Tahoroth ; viii. 3, "if one loses ( המאבּד ) anything,"etc.; Sifri , at Deu 24:19, "he who has lost ( מאבּד ) a shekel,"etc. In this sense the Palest.-Aram. uses the Aphel אובד , e.g. , Jer. Mezîa ii. 5, "the queen had lost ( אובדת ) her ornament."The intentional giving up, throwing away from oneself, finds its expression in להשׁ .

The following pair of contrasts refers the abandoning and preserving to articles of clothing: -

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:7

7 a . "To rend has its time, and to sew has its time."When evil tidings come, when the tidings of death come, then is the time for rending the garments (2Sa 13:31), whether as a spontaneous outbreak of sorrow, or merely as a traditionary custom. - The tempest of the affections, however, passes by, and that which was torn is again sewed together.

Perhaps it is the recollection of great calamities which leads to the following contrasts: -

7 b . "To keep silence has its time, and to speak has its time."Severe strokes of adversity turn the mind in quietness back upon itself; and the demeanour most befitting such adversity is silent resignation (cf. 2Ki 2:3, 2Ki 2:5). This mediation of the thought is so much the more probable, as in all these contrasts it is not so much the spontaneity of man that comes into view, as the pre-determination and providence of God.

The following contrasts proceed on the view that God has placed us in relations in which it is permitted to us to love, or in which our hatred is stirred up: -

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:8

"To love has its time, and to hate has its time; war has its time, and peace has its time."In the two pairs of contrasts here, the contents of the first are, not exclusively indeed (Psa 120:7), but yet chiefly referred to the mutual relations of peoples. It is the result of thoughtful intention that the quodlibet of 2 x 7 pairs terminates this for and against in "peace;"and, besides, the author has made the termination emphatic by this, that here "instead of infinitives, he introduces proper nouns"(Hitz.).

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:9

Since, then, everything has its time depending not on human influence, but on the determination and providence of God, the question arises: "What gain hath he that worketh in that wherewith he wearieth himself?"It is the complaint of Ecc 1:3 which is here repeated. From all the labour there comes forth nothing which carries in it the security of its continuance; but in all he does man is conditioned by the change of times and circumstances and relations over which he has no control. And the converse of this his weakness is short-sightedness.

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:10-11

"I saw the travail, which God gave to the children of men to fatigue themselves with it - : He hath well arranged everything beautiful in its appointed time; He hath also put eternity in their heart, so that man cannot indeed wholly search through from beginning to end the work which God accomplisheth."As at Ecc 1:14, ראיתי is here seeing in the way of research, as elsewhere, e.g. , at Ecc 2:24, it is as the result of research. In Ecc 3:10 the author says that he closely considered the labour of men, and in Ecc 3:11 he states the result. It is impossible to render the word ענין everywhere by the same German (or English) word: Ecc 1:13, wearisome trouble; Ecc 2:26, business; here: steplang7 Geschäftigkeit , the idea is in all the three places the same, viz., an occupation which causes trouble, costs effort. What presented itself to the beholder was (1) that He (viz., God, cf. Ecc 3:10 and Ecc 3:11) has made everything beautiful in its time. The author uses יפה as synon. of טוב (Ecc 3:17); also in other languages the idea of the beautiful is gradually more and more generalized. The suffix in בּעתּו does not refer to God, but to that which is in the time; this word is = ἐν καιρῷ ιδίῳ (Symm.), at its proper time ( vid ., Psa 1:3; Psa 104:27; Jer 5:24, etc.), since, as with יחדּו (together with) and כּלּו (every one), the suffix is no longer thought of as such. Like יפה , בעתו as pred. conception belongs to the verb: He has made everything beautiful; He has made everything (falling out) at its appointed time. - The beauty consists in this, that what is done is not done sooner or later than it ought to be, so as to connect itself as a constituent part to the whole of God's work. The pret. עשׂה is to be also interpreted as such: He "has made,"viz., in His world-plan, all things beautiful, falling out at the appointed time; for that which acquires an actual form in the course of history has a previous ideal existence in the knowledge and will of God ( vid ., under Isa 22:11; Isa 37:26).

That which presented itself to the beholder was - (2) the fact that He (God) had put את־העלם in their hearts ( i.e. , the hearts of men). Gaab and Spohn interpret 'olam in the sense of the Arab. 'ilam , knowledge, understanding; and Hitz., pointing the word accordingly עלם , translates: "He has also placed understanding in their heart, without which man,"etc. The translation of אשׁר אשׁלי is not to be objected to; מבּ is, however, only seldom a conjunction, and is then to be translated by eo quod , Exo 14:11; 2Ki 1:3, 2Ki 1:6, 2Ki 1:16, which is not appropriate here; it will thus be here also a prep., and with asher following may mean "without which,"as well as "without this, that"= "besides that"(Venet. ἄνευ τοῦ ὃτι , "except that"), as frequently כּי אפס , e.g. , at Amo 9:8. But that Arab. 'ilam is quite foreign to the Heb., which has no word עלם in the sense of "to rise up, to be visible, knowable,"which is now also referred

(Note: Vid ., Fried. Delitzsch's Assyr. Stud . (1874), p. 39. Otherwise Fleischer, who connects 'alima , "to know,"with 'alam , "to conceal,"so that to know = to be concealed, sunk deep, initiated in something (with ba of the obj., as sh'ar , whence shâ'ir , the poet as "one who marks").)

to for the Assyr. as the stem-word of עילם = highland. It is true Hitzig believes that he has found the Heb. עלם = wisdom, in Sir. 6:21, where there is a play on the word with נעלם , "concealed:" σοφία γὰρ κατὰ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτῆς ἐστί , καὶοὐ πολλοῖς ἐστὶ φανερά . Drusius and Eichhorn have here already taken notice of the Arab. 'ilam ; but Fritzsche with right asks, "Shall this word as Heb. be regarded as traceable only here and falsely pointed only at Ecc 3:11, and shall no trace of it whatever be found in the Chald., Syr., and Rabbin.?"We have also no need of it. That Ben-Sira has etymologically investigated the word חכמה as going back to חכם , R. chap, "to be firm, shut up, dark"( vid ., at Psa 10:8), is certainly very improbable, but so much the more probable (as already suggested by Drusius) that he has introduced

(Note: Grätz translates eth -ha'olam by "ignorance"( vid ., Orelli, p. 83). R. Achwa in the Midrash has added here the scriptio defectiva with the remark, שהועלם וגו , "for the mysterious name of God is concealed from them.")

into חכמה , after the Aram. אכם , nigrescere , the idea of making dark. Does eth -ha'olam in this passage before us then mean "the world"(Jerome, Luther, Ewald), or "desire after the knowledge of the world"(Rashi), or "worldly-mindedness"(Gesen., Knobel)? The answer to this has been already given in my Psychol . p. 406 (2nd ed.): "In post-bibl. Heb. 'olam denotes not only 'eternity' backwards and forwards as infinite duration, but also 'the world' as that which endures for ever ( αἰών , seculum ); the world in this latter sense is, however, not yet known

(Note: In the Phoen. also, 'olam , down to a late period, denotes not the world, but eternity: melek 'olam , βασιλεὺς αἰώνος ( αἰώνιος ), seculo frugifero on a coin = the fruit-bringing 'olam ( Αἰών ).)

to the bibl. language, and we will thus not be able to interpret the words of Koheleth of the impulse of man to reflect on the whole world."In itself, the thought that God has placed the whole world in man's heart is not untrue: man is, indeed, a micro-cosmos , in which the macrocosmos mirrors itself (Elster), but the connection does not favour it; for the discussion does not proceed from this, that man is only a member in the great universe, and that God has given to each being its appointed place, but that in all his experience he is conditioned by time, and that in the course of history all that comes to him, according to God's world-plan, happens at its appointed time. But the idea by which that of time, את ( זמן ), is surpassed is not the world, but eternity, to which time is related as part is to the whole (Cicero, Inv . i. 26. 39, tempus est pars quaedam aeternitatis ). The Mishna language contains, along with the meaning of world, also this older meaning of 'olam , and has formed from it an adv. עולמית , aeterne . The author means to say that God has not only assigned to each individually his appointed place in history, thereby bringing to the consciousness of man the fact of his being conditioned, but that He has also established in man an impulse leading him beyond that which is temporal toward the eternal: it lies in his nature not to be contented with the temporal, but to break through the limits which it draws around him, to escape from the bondage and the disquietude within which he is held, and amid the ceaseless changes of time to console himself by directing his thoughts to eternity.

This saying regarding the desiderium aeternitatis being planted in the heart of man, is one of the profoundest utterances of Koheleth. In fact, the impulse of man shows that his innermost wants cannot be satisfied by that which is temporal. He is a being limited by time, but as to his innermost nature he is related to eternity. That which is transient yields him no support, it carries him on like a rushing stream, and constrains him to save himself by laying hold on eternity. But it is not so much the practical as the intellectual side of this endowment and this peculiar dignity of human nature which Koheleth brings her to view.

It is not enough for man to know that everything that happens has its divinely-ordained time. There is an instinct peculiar to his nature impelling him to pass beyond this fragmentary knowledge and to comprehend eternity; but his effort is in vain, for (3) "man is unable to reach unto the work which God accomplisheth from the beginning to the end."The work of God is that which is completing itself in the history of the world, of which the life of individual men is a fragment. Of this work he says, that God has wrought it עשׂה ; because, before it is wrought out in its separate "time,"it is already completed in God's plan. Eternity and this work are related to each other as the accomplished and the being accomplished, they are interchangeably the πλήρωμα to each other. ימצא is potential, and the same in conception as at Ecc 8:17; Job 11:7; Job 37:23; a knowledge is meant which reaches to the object, and lays hold of it. A laying hold of this work is an impossibility, because eternity, as its name 'olam denotes, is the concealed, i.e. , is both forwards and backwards immeasurable. The desiderium aeternitatis inherent in man thus remains under the sun unappeased. He would raise himself above the limits within which he is confined, and instead of being under the necessity of limiting his attention to isolated matters, gain a view of the whole of God's work which becomes manifest in time; but this all-embracing view is for him unattainable.

If Koheleth had known of a future life - which proves that as no instinct in the natural world is an allusion, so also the impulse toward the eternal, which is natural to man, is no illusion-he would have reached a better ultimatum than the following: -

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:12

"Thus I then perceived that among them (men) there is nothing better than to enjoy themselves, and indulge themselves in their life."The resignation would acquire a reality if לע טוב meant "to do good," i.e. , right (lxx, Targ., Syr., Jer., Venet.); and this appears of necessity to be its meaning according to Ecc 7:20. But, with right, Ginsburg remarks that nowhere else - neither at Ecc 2:24, nor Ecc 3:22; Ecc 5:17; Ecc 8:15; Ecc 9:7 - is this moral rendering given to the ultimatum ; also טוב ור , 13 a , presupposes for לע טוב a eudemonistic sense. On the other hand, Zöckler is right in saying that for the meaning of עשות תוב , in the sense of "to be of good cheer"(Luth.), there is no example. Zirkel compares εὖ πράττειν , and regards it as a Graecism. But it either stands ellipt. for לע לו טוב (= להיטיב לו ), or, with Grätz, we have to read טוב לראות ; in any case, an ethical signification is here excluded by the nearest connection, as well as by the parallels; it is not contrary to the view of Koheleth, but this is not the place to express it. Bam is to be understood after baadam , Ecc 2:24. The plur., comprehending men, here, as at Ecc 3:11, wholly passes over into the individualizing sing.

But this enjoyment of life also, Koheleth continues, this advisedly the best portion in the limited and restrained condition of man, is placed beyond his control: -

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:13

"But also that he should eat and drink, and see good in all his labour, is for every man a gift of God."The inverted and yet anacoluthistic formation of the sentence is quite like that at Ecc 5:18. כּל־הא signifies, properly, the totality of men = all men, e.g. , Psa 116:11; but here and at 5:18; 12:13, the author uses the two words so that the determ. second member of the st. constr . does not determine the first (which elsewhere sometimes occurs, as bethulath Israel , a virgin of Israel, Deu 22:19): every one of men (cf. πᾶς τις βροτῶν ). The subst. clause col -haadam is subject: every one of men, in this that he eats ... is dependent on God. Instead of מיּד the word מתּת (abbrev. from מתּנת ) is here used, as at Ecc 5:18. The connection by vegam is related to the preceding adversat.: and (= but) also (= notwithstanding that), as at Ecc 6:7, Neh 5:8, cf. Jer 3:10, where gam is strengthened by becol -zoth . As for the rest, it follows from Ecc 3:13, in connection with Ecc 2:24-26, that for Koheleth εὐποΐ́α and εὐθυμία reciprocally condition each other, without, however, a conclusion following therefrom justifying the translation "to do good," Ecc 3:12 . Men's being conditioned in the enjoyment of life, and, generally, their being conditioned by God the Absolute, has certainly an ethical end in view, as is expressed in the conclusion which Koheleth now reaches: -

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:14

"Thus I discerned it then, that all that God will do exists for ever; nothing is to be added to it, and nothing taken from it: God has thus directed it, that men should fear before Him."This is a conclusion derived from the facts of experience, a truth that is valid for the present and for the time to come. We may with equal correctness render by quidquid facit and quidquid faciet . But the pred. shows that the fut. expression is also thought of as fut.; for הוּ יה לע does not mean: that is for ever (Hitz.), which would be expressed by the subst. clause הוּא לעולם ; but: that shall be for ever (Zöck.), i.e. , will always assert its validity. That which is affirmed here is true of God's directing and guiding events in the natural world, as well as of the announcements of His will and His controlling and directing providence in the history of human affairs. All this is removed beyond the power of the creature to alter it. The meaning is not that one ought not to add to or to take from it (Deu 13:1; Pro 30:6), but that such a thing cannot be done ( vid ., Sir. 18:5). And this unchangeableness characterizing the arrangements of God has this as its aim, that men should fear Him who is the All-conditioning and is Himself unconditioned: he has done it that they (men) should fear before Him, אשׂה שׁ , fecit ut ; cf. Eze 36:27. ποιεῖν ἳνα , Rev 13:15; and "fear before Him,"as at Ecc 8:12.; cf. 1Ch 16:30 with Psa 96:9. The unchangeableness of God's action shows itself in this, that in the course of history similar phenomena repeat themselves; for the fundamental principles, the causal connections, the norms of God's government, remain always the same.

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:15

"That which is now hath been long ago; and that which will be hath already been: God seeketh after that which was crowded out."The words: "hath been long ago"( הוּא כּבר ), are used of that which the present represents as something that hath been, as the fruit of a development; the words: "hath already been"( היה כּבר ), are used of the future ( ל אשׁר , τὸ μέλλον , vid ., Gesen. §132. 1), as denying to it the right of being regarded as something new. The government of God is not to be changed, and does not change; His creative as well as His moral ordering of the world produces with the same laws the same phenomena (the ו corresponds to this line of thought here, as at Ecc 3:14 ) - God seeks את־ן (cf. Ecc 7:7; Ewald, §277d). Hengstenberg renders: God seeks the persecuted (lxx, Symm., Targ., Syr.), i.e. , visits them with consolation and comfort. Nirdaph here denotes that which is followed, hunted, pressed, by which we may think of that which is already driven into the past; that God seeks, seeks it purposely, and brings it back again into the present; for His government remains always, and brings thus always up again that which hath been. Thus Jerome: Deut instaurat quod abiit ; the Venet.: ὃ τηεὸς ζητήσει τὸ ἀπεληλαμένον ; and thus Geier, among the post-Reform. interpreters: praestat ut quae propulsa sunt ac praeterierunt iterum innoventur ac redeant ; and this is now the prevailing exposition, after Knobel, Ewald, and Hitzig. The thought is the same as if we were to translate: God seeks after the analogue. In the Arab., one word in relation to another is called muradif , if it is cogn. to it; and mutaradifat is the technical expression for a synonym. In Heb. the expression used is שׁמות נרדּפים , they who are followed the one by another, - one of which, as it were, treads on the heels of another. But this designation is mediated through the Arab. In evidence of the contrary, ancient examples are wanting.

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:16

"And, moreover, I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that wickedness was there."The structure of the verse is palindromic, like Ecc 1:6; Ecc 2:10; Ecc 4:1. We might also render מקום as the so-called casus absol ., so that שׁם ... מק is an emphatic בּמקום (Hitz.), and the construction like Jer 46:5; but the accentuation does not require this (cf. Gen 1:1); and why should it not be at once the object to ראיתי , which in any case it virtually is? These two words שׁמה הרשׁע might be attribut. clauses: where wickedness (prevails), for the old scheme of the attributive clause (the tsfat ) is not foreign to the style of this book ( vid ., Ecc 1:13, nathan = nethano ; and Ecc 5:12, raithi = reithiha ); but why not rather virtual pred. accus.: vidi locum juris ( quod ) ibi impietas ? Cf. Neh 13:23 with Psa 37:25. The place of "judgment"is the place where justice should be ascertained and executed; and the place of "righteousness,"that where righteousness should ascertain and administer justice; for mishpat is the rule (of right), and the objective matter of fact; tsedek , a subjective property and manner of acting. רשׁע is in both cases the same: wickedness (see under Psa 1:1), which bends justice, and is the contrary of tsěděk , i.e. , upright and moral sternness. רשׁע elsewhere, like mělěk̂ tsěděk , preserves in p . its e , but here it takes rank along with חסד , which in like manner fluctuates (cf. Psa 130:7 with Pro 21:21). שׁמּה is here = שׁם , as at Psa 122:5, etc.; the locative ah suits the question Where? as well as in the question Whither? - He now expresses how, in such a state of things, he arrived at satisfaction of mind.

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:17

"I said in mine heart: God shall judge the righteous as well as the wicked: for there is there a time for every purpose and for every work."Since "the righteous"stands first, the word ישׁפּט has here the double sense of judging [richtens = setting upright] = acting uprightly, justly by one, as in the shofteni of Psa 7:9; Psa 26:1, etc., and of judging = inflicting punishment. To the righteous, as well as to the wicked,

(Note: The lxx (in Aquila's manner): σὺν τὸν δίκαιον καὶ σὺν τὸν ἀσεβῆ - according to the Talm. hermeneut. rule, that where the obj. is designated by את , with that which is expressly named, something else is associated, and is to be thought of along with it.)

God will administer that which of right belongs to them. But this does not immediately happen, and has to be waited for a long time, for there is a definite time for every undertaking (Ecc 3:1), and for ( על , in the more modern form of the language, interchanges promiscue with אל ht and ל , e.g. , Jer 19:15; Eze 22:3; Ewald, §217 i ) every work there is a "time."This שׁם , defended by all the old interpreters, cannot have a temporal sense: tunc = in die judicii (Jerome, Targ.), cf. Psa 14:5; 36:13, for "a time of judgment there is for all one day"is not intended, since certainly the שׁם (day of judgment) is this time itself, and not the time of this time. Ewald renders שׁם as pointing to the past, for he thus construes: the righteous and the unrighteous God will judge (for there is a time for everything), and judge ( vav thus explicat., "and that too,""and indeed") every act there, i.e. , everything done before. But this שׁם is not only heavy, but also ambiguous and purposeless; and besides, by this parenthesizing of the words וגו עת כּי for there is a time for everything, the principal thought, that with God everything, even His act of judgment, has its time, is robbed of its independence and of the place in the principal clause appropriate to it. But if שׁם is understood adverbially, it certainly has a local meaning connected with it: there, viz., with God, apud Deum ; true, for this use of the word Gen 49:24 affords the only example, and it stands there in the midst of a very solemn and earnest address. Therefore it lies near to read, with Houbig., Döderl., Palm., and Hitz., שׁם , "a definite time ... has He (God) ordained;" שׂום ( שׂים ) is the usual word for the ordinances of God in the natural world and in human history (Pro 8:29; Exo 21:13; Num 24:23; Hab 1:12, etc.), and, as in the Assyr. simtuv , so the Heb. שׂימה ( שׂוּמה ), 2Sa 13:32, signifies lot or fate, decree.

(Note: Vid ., Schrader's Keilsch. u. A. T. p. 105, simtu ubilsu , i.e. , fate snatched him away (Heb. simah hovilathhu ), cf. Fried. Delitzsch's Assyr. Stud . p. 66f.)

With this reading, Elster takes exception to the position of the words; but at Jdg 6:19 also the object goes before שׂם , and "unto every purpose and for every work"is certainly the complement of the object-conception, so that the position of the words is in reality no other than at Ecc 10:20 ; Dan 2:17 . Quite untenable is Herzfeld's supposition (Fürst, Vaih.), that שׁם has here the Talm. signification: aestimat , taxat , for (1) this שׁוּם = Arab. sham , has not על , but the accus. after it; (2) the thought referring to the tie on which Ecc 3:18 rests is thereby interrupted. Whether we read שׂם , or take שׁם in the sense of עמּו (Job 25:2; Job 23:14, etc.), the thought is the same, and equally congruous: God will judge the innocent and the guilty; it shall be done some time, although not so soon as one might wish it, and think necessary, for God has for every undertaking and for every work its fixed time, also its judicial decision ( vid ., at Psa 74:3); He permits wickedness, lets it develope itself, waits long before He interposes ( vid ., under Isa 18:4.).

Reflecting on God's delay to a time hidden from men, and known only to Himself, Koheleth explains the matter to himself in the following verse: -

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:18

"Thus I said then in mine heart: (it happeneth) for the sake of the children of men that God might sift them, and that they might see that they are like the cattle, they in themselves."Regarding על־דּב for the sake of = on account of as at Ecc 8:2, vid ., under Psa 110:4, where it signifies after ( κατά ) the state of the matter. The infin. לבּ is not derived from בּוּר . - לּבוּר , Ecc 9:1, is only the metaplastic form of לבר or לברר - but only from בּרר , whose infin. may take the form בּר , after the form רד , to tread down, Isa 45:1, שׁך , to bow, Jer 5:26; but nowhere else is this infin. form found connected with a suff.; קחם , Hos 11:3, would be in some measure to be compared, if it could be supposed that this = בּקחתּם , sumendo eos . The root בר proceeds, from the primary idea of cutting, on the one side to the idea of separating, winnowing, choosing out; and, on the other, to that of smoothing, polishing, purifying ( vid ., under Isa 49:2). Here, by the connection, the meaning of winnowing, i.e. , of separating the good from the bad, is intended, with which, however, as in לברר , Dan 11:35, the meaning of making clear, making light, bringing forward into the light, easily connects itself (cf. Shabbath 138 a , 74 a ), of which the meaning to winnow (cf. להבר , Jer 4:11) is only a particular form;

(Note: Not "to sift,"for not בּרר but רקּד , means "to sift"(properly, "to make to keep up,""to agitate"); cf. Shebîith v. 9.)

cf. Sanhedrin 7 b : "when a matter is clear, brwr, to thee (free from ambiguity) as the morning, speak it out; and if not, do not speak it."

In the expression לב האל , the word האל is, without doubt, the subject, according to Gesen. §133. 2. 3; Hitz. regards האל as genit., which, judged according to the Arab., is correct; it is true that for li -imti -ḥânihim allahi (with genit. of the subj.), also allahu (with nominat. of the subj.) may be used; but the former expression is the more regular and more common ( vid ., Ewald's Gramm. Arab . §649), but not always equally decisive with reference to the Heb. usus loq . That God delays His righteous interference till the time appointed beforehand, is for the sake of the children of men, with the intention, viz., that God may sift them, i.e. , that, without breaking in upon the free development of their characters before the time, He may permit the distinction between the good and the bad to become manifest. Men, who are the obj. to לב , are the subject to לראותו to be supplied: et ut videant ; it is unnecessary, with the lxx, Syr., and Jerome, to read ולראות (= וּלהר ): ut ostenderet . It is a question whether המּה

(Note: המּה שׁהם בּהמה thus accented rightly in F. Cf. Michlol 216 a .)

is the expression of the copula: sunt ( sint ), or whether hēmmah lahěm is a closer definition, co-ordinate with shehem behēmah . The remark of Hitzig, that lahěm throws back the action on the subject, is not clear. Does he suppose that lahem belongs to liroth ? That is here impossible. If we look away from lahem , the needlessly circumstantial expression הם ... שה can still be easily understood: hemmah takes up, as an echo, behemah , and completes the comparison (compare the battology in Hos 13:2). This play upon words musically accompanying the thought remains also, when, according to the accentuation שׁה בהם ה לה , we take hemmah along with lahem , and the former as well as the latter of these two words is then better understood. The ל in להם is not that of the pure dat. (Aben Ezra: They are like beasts to themselves, i.e. , in their own estimation), but that of reference, as at Gen 17:20, "as for Ishmael;"cf. Psa 3:3; 2Ki 5:7; cf. אל , 1Sa 1:27, etc. Men shall see that they are cattle (beasts), they in reference to themselves, i.e. , either they in reference to themselves mutually (Luther: among themselves), or: they in reference to themselves. To interpret the reference as that of mutual relation, would, in looking back to Ecc 3:16, commend itself, for the condemnation and oppression of the innocent under the appearance of justice is an act of human brutishness. But the reason assigned in Ecc 3:19 does not accord with this reciprocal rendering of lahem . Thus lahem will be meant reflexively, but it is not on that account pleonastic (Knobel), nor does it ironically form a climax: ipsissimi = steplang7 höchstselbst (Ewald, §315a); but "they in reference to themselves"is = they in and of themselves, i.e. , viewed as men (viewed naturally). If one disregards the idea of God's interfering at a future time with the discordant human history, and, in general, if one loses sight of God, the distinction between the life of man and of beast disappears.

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:19

"For the children of men are a chance, and the beast a chance, and they both have once chance: as the death of the one, so that death of the other, and they have all one breath; and there is no advantage to a man over a beast, for all is vain."If in both instances the word is pointed מקרה (lxx), the three-membered sentence would then have the form of an emblematical proverb (as e.g. , Pro 25:25): "For as the chance of men, so ( vav of comparison) the chance of the beast; they have both one chance." מקרה with segol cannot possibly be the connecting form (Luzz.), for in cases such as מע שׂ ם , Isa 3:24, the relation of the words is appositional, not genitival. This form מקר , thus found three times, is vindicated by the Targ. (also the Venet.) and by Mss.; Joseph Kimchi remarks that "all three have segol , and are thus forms of the absolutus ."The author means that men, like beasts, are in their existence and in their death influenced accidentally, i.e. , not of necessity, and are wholly conditioned, not by their own individual energy, but by a power from without - are dependent beings, as Solon (Herod. i. 32) says to Croesus: "Man is altogether συμφορή ," i.e. , the sport of accident. The first two sentences mean exclusively neither that men (apart from God) are, like beasts, the birth of a blind accident (Hitz.), nor that they are placed under the same law of transitoriness (Elst.); but of men, in the totality of their being, and doing, and suffering, it is first said that they are accidental beings; then, that which separates them from this, that they all, men like beasts, are finally exposed to one, i.e. , to the same fate. As is the death of one, so is the death of the other; and they all have one breath, i.e. , men and beasts alike die, for this breath of life ( חיּים רוּח , which constitutes a beast - as well as a man a חיּה נפשׁ ) departs from the body (Psa 104:29). In זה ... זה (as at Ecc 6:5; Exo 14:20, and frequently), להם (mas. as genus potius ) is separately referred to men and beasts. With the Mishnic בּמות = bibl. כּמו (cf. Maaser Sheni , v. 2), the כּמות here used has manifestly nothing to do. The noun מותר , which in the Book of Proverbs (Pro 14:23; Pro 21:5, not elsewhere) occurs in the sense of profit, gain, is here in the Book of Koheleth found as a synon. of יתרון , "preference,"advantage which is exclusively peculiar to it. From this, that men and beasts fall under the same law of death, the author concludes that there is no preference of a man to a beast; he doubtless means that in respect of the end man has no superiority; but he expresses himself thus generally because, as the matter presented itself to him, all-absorbing death annulled every distinction. He looks only to the present time, without encumbering himself with the historical account of the matter found in the beginning of the Tôra ; and he adheres to the external phenomenon, without thinking, with the Psalmist in Ps 49, that although death is common to man with the beast, yet all men do not therefore die as the beast does. That the beast dies because it must, but that in the midst of this necessity of nature man can maintain his freedom, is for him out of view. הבל הכּל , the ματαιότης , which at last falls to man as well as to the beast, throws its long dark shadows across his mind, and wholly shrouds it.

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:20

"All goes hence to one place; all has sprung out of the dust, and all returns to the dust again."The "one place"is (as at Ecc 6:6) the earth, the great graveyard which finally receives all the living when dead. The art. of the first העפר is that denoting species; the art. of the second is retrospective: to the dust whence he sprang (cf. Psa 104:29; Psa 146:4); otherwise, Gen 3:19 (cf. Job 34:15), "to dust shalt thou return,"shalt become dust again. From dust to dust (Sir. 40:11; 41:10) is true of every living corporeal thing. It is true there exists the possibility that with the spirit of the dying man it may be different from what it is with the spirit of the dying beast, but yet that is open to question.

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:21

"Who knoweth with regard to the spirit of the children of men, whether it mounteth upward; and with regard to the spirit of a beast, whether it goeth downward to the earth?"The interrogative meaning of העלה and הירדת is recognised by all the old translators: lxx, Targ., Syr., Jerome, Venet., Luther. Among the moderns, Heyder ( vid ., Psychol . p. 410), Hengst., Hahn, Dale, and Bullock take the h in both cases as the article: "Who knoweth the spirit of the children of men, that which goeth upward ... ?"But (1) thus rendered the question does not accord with the connection, which requires a sceptical question; (2) following "who knoweth,"after Ecc 2:19; Ecc 6:12, cf. Jos 2:14, an interrogative continuance of the sentence was to be expected; and (3) in both cases היא stands as designation of the subject only for the purpose of marking the interrogative clause (cf. Jer 2:14), and of making it observable that ha'olah and hayorěděth are not appos. belonging as objects to רוח and ורוח . It is questionable, indeed, whether the punctuation of these words, העלה and היּרדת , as they lie before us, proceeds from an interrogative rendering. Saadia in Emunoth c. vi., and Juda Halevi in the Kuzri ii. 80, deny this; and so also do Aben Ezra and Kimchi. And they may be right. For instead of העלה , the pointing ought to have been העלה (cf. העלה , Job 13:25) when used as interrog. an ascendens; even before א the compens. lengthening of the interrog. ha is nowhere certainly found

(Note: For ה is to be read with a Pattach in Jdg 6:31; Jdg 12:5; Neh 6:11; cf. under Gen 19:9; Gen 27:21. In Num 16:22 the ה of האישׁ is the art., the question is not formally designated.

instead of the virtual reduplication; and thus also the parallel היּר is not to be judged after היּי , Lev 10:19, הדּ , Eze 18:29, - we must allow that the punctation seeks, by the removal of the two interrog. ha ( ה ), to place that which is here said in accord with Ecc 12:7. But there is no need for this. For יודע מי does not quite fall in with that which Lucretius says (Lib. I):

"Ignoratur enim quae sit natura animai,

Nata sit an contra nascentibus insinuetur?

An simul intereat nobiscum morte diremta?"

It may certainly be said of mi yode'a , as of ignoratur , that it does not exclude every kind of knowledge, but only a sure and certain knowledge resting on sufficient grounds; interire and ירד לם are also scarcely different, for neither of the two necessarily signifies annihilation, but both the discontinuance of independent individual existence. But the putting of the question by Koheleth is different, for it discloses more definitely than this by Lucretius, the possibility of a different end for the spirit of a man from that which awaits the spirit of a beast, and thus of a specific distinction between these two principles of life. In the formation even of the dilemma: Whether upwards or downwards, there lies an inquiring knowledge; and it cannot surprise us if Koheleth finally decides that the way of the spirit of a man is upwards, although it is not said that he rested this on the ground of demonstrative certainty. It is enough that, with the moral necessity of a final judgment beyond the sphere of this present life, at the same time also the continued existence of the spirit of man presented itself to him as a postulate of faith. One may conclude from the desiderium aeternitatis (Ecc 3:11) implanted in man by the Creator, that, like the instincts implanted in the beasts, it will be calculated not for deception, but for satisfaction; and from the למעלה , Pro 15:24 - i.e. , the striving of a wise man rising above earthly, temporary, common things, - that death will not put an end to this striving, but will help it to reach its goal. But this is an indirect proof, which, however, is always inferior to the direct in force of argument. He presupposes that the Omnipotence and Wisdom which formed the world is also at the same time Love. Thus, though at last, it is faith which solves the dilemma, and we see from Ecc 12:7 that this faith held sway over Koheleth. In the Book of Sirach, also, the old conception of Hades shows itself as yet dominant; but after the οὐκ ἀτηάνατος υἱὸς ἀντηρώπου , 17:25, we read towards the end, where he speaks of Elias: καὶ τὰρ ἡμεῖς ζωῇ ζησόμεθα , 48:11. In the passage before us, Koheleth remains in doubt, without getting over it by the hand of faith. In a certain reference the question he here proposes is to the present day unanswered; for the soul, or, more correctly, according to the biblical mode of conception the spirit from which the soul-life of all corporeal beings proceeds, is a monas, and as such is indestructible. Do the future of the beast's soul and of man's soul not then stand in a solidaric mutual relation to each other? In fact, the future life presents to us mysteries the solution of which is beyond the power of human thought, and we need not wonder that Koheleth , this sober-minded, intelligent man, who was inaccessible to fantastic self-deception, arrives, by the line of thought commenced at Ecc 3:16, also again at the ultimatum .

Keil-Delitzsch: Ecc 3:22

"Thus I then saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his works, for that is his portion; for who can bring him to this, that he gains an insight into that which shall be after him?"Hengstenberg, who has decided against the interrog. signification of the twice-repeated ה in Ecc 3:21, now also explains אהריו ... בּמה , not: What shall become of him after it (his death)? but: What further shall be done after the state in which he now finds himself? Zöckler, although rightly understanding both ה as well as אחריו (after him = when he will be separated, or separates from this life, Ecc 7:14; Ecc 9:3; cf. Gen 24:67), yet proceeds on that explanation of Hengstenberg's, and gives it the rendering: how things shall be on the earth after his departure. But (1) for this thought, as Ecc 6:12 shows, the author had a more suitable form of expression; (2) this thought, after the author has, Ecc 3:21, explained it as uncertain whether the spirit of a man in the act of death takes a different path from that of a beast, is altogether aside from the subject, and it is only an apologetic tendency not yet fully vanquished which here constrains him. The chain of thought is however this: How it will be with the spirit of a man when he dies, who knows? What will be after death is thus withdrawn from human knowledge. Thus it is best to enjoy the present, since we connect together (Ecc 2:24) labour and enjoyment mediated thereby. This joy of a man in his work - i.e. , as Ecc 5:18 : which flows from his work as a fountain, and accompanies him in it (Ecc 8:15) - is his portion, i.e. , the best which he has of life in this world. Instead of בּמה־שּׁ , the punctuation is בּמה , because שׁיהיה אחריו is a kindred idea; vid .' regarding מה under Ecc 2:22. And לראות בּ is sued, because it is not so much to be said of the living, that he cannot foresee how it shall be with him when he dies, as that he can gain no glimpse into that world because it is an object that has for him no fixity.

Constable: Ecc 2:18--6:10

B. General Observations 2:18-6:9

Thus far Solomon had reflected on the futility of all human endeavor generally (1:3-11) and the futility of human achievement (1:12-15) and his own achievements in particular (2:1-17). Next he turned to an evaluation of labor, his own (2:18-20) as well as that of all other people (2:21-6:9).

Constable: Ecc 3:1--4:4

2. Labor and divine providence 3:1-4:3

In this section Solomon expressed his conviction that in view of God's incomprehensible workings all human toil is without permanent profit.

3:1-8 As is customary in Ecclesiastes the writer began this section by stating a thesis (v. 1). He then proceeded to illustrate and to prove it true (vv. 2-8). "Event" (v. 1) means human activity that one engages in by deliberate choice. Each of these events has its proper time and duration.

Verses 2-8 are a poem in which the preacher listed 14 opposites.

"The fact that Solomon utilized polar opposites in a multiple of seven and began his list with birth and death is highly significant. The number seven suggests the idea of completeness and the use of polar opposites--a well-known poetic device called merism--suggests totality (cf. Ps. 139:2-3)."³⁴

The casting of stones (v. 5) probably refers to the ancient custom of destroying a farmer's field by throwing stones on it. The gathering of stones describes the clearing of stones from a field.³⁵ The fact that there are proper times for expressing love and other times for refraining from love reminds us that there are standards for sex, though this is not the only application.

"Verses 1-8 have an important connection with the theme of the book and relate closely to what precedes and to what follows. Man is to take his life day by day from the hand of God (2:24-26; 3:12-13), realizing that God has a fitting time for each thing to be done (v. 1). The significance of this section is that man is responsible to discern the right times for the right actions; and when he does the right action according to God's time, the result is beautiful' (v. 11)."³⁶

3:9 Another rhetorical question expects another negative response (cf. 1:3; 2:11). There is no net gain in one's toil given Solomon's perspective.

". . . one thing that elevates us above the animal world, in addition to the God-given sense of eternity [v. 11], is the desire to understand the whole. This accounts for all science, philosophy, and human knowledge, as well as theology."³⁷

3:10-11 God's plan is unfathomable. Nevertheless, God has an appropriate time for every activity (v. 11). The meaning is not, "beautiful in its own way," as the song goes. God has also placed within the heart of every person a sense of eternity and a desire to know the eternal significance of what we do (v. 11, "set eternity in their heart").

"This quest is a deep-seated desire, a compulsive drive, because man is made in the image of God to appreciate the beauty of creation (on an aesthetic level); to know the character, composition, and meaning of the world (on an academic and philosophical level); and to discern its purpose and destiny (on a theological level). . . . Man has an inborn inquisitiveness and capacity to learn how everything in his experience can be integrated to make a whole."³⁸

"Eternity' to Old Testament people was not timelessness or absence of time. They knew no such realm. It was, rather, extension of time--as far back and as far forward as one could imagine--'time in its wholeness' (JB), sense of time past and future' (NEB)."³⁹

We cannot grasp fully all of God's plans. Consequently because we cannot see the full consequences of our works beyond the grave our labor lacks ultimate gratification.

Verse 11 "summarizes the teacher's whole argument, and in context (3:10-15) it serves equally well as a summary for the entire wisdom corpus."⁴⁰

3:12-13 Solomon repeated his former counsel in view of this limited perspective (cf. 2:24). "Do good" (v. 12) should read "enjoy themselves." We could translate verse 13, "If any man eats and drinks and finds satisfaction in all his toil, it is a gift of God."⁴¹

3:14-15 Solomon described God's plans and our proper response in view of our inability to comprehend them fully. We should fear God.

3:16-4:3 A phenomenon that makes it most difficult for us to understand God's ways and respond to them properly is the problem of injustice in this life. Solomon believed God would eventually balance the scales of justice (v. 17) and that He uses injustice for His own purposes (v. 18). Probably Solomon believed judgment would take place on earth (Prov. 22:22-23), though he did not teach this explicitly. God uses injustice to remind us of our finite bestiality, among other things. We behave as beasts and die like them (vv. 18-20). "The same place" (v. 20) is the grave, not that man's future is identical to an animal's. No one can observe any differences between the future of man and animals, but God has revealed these differences. In view of these things Solomon repeated his counsel (v. 22).

God has, of course, enabled us to see what will occur after we die by giving us additional revelation after Solomon's time. The alternative response to the one Solomon advocated is despair, which reflecting on unjust oppression causes (4:1-3).

Pendahuluan / Garis Besar

JFB: Ecclesiastes (Pendahuluan Kitab)

The Hebrew title is Koheleth, which the speaker in it applies to himself (Ecc 1:12), "I, Koheleth, was king over Israel." It means an Assembler or Convener of a meeting and a Preacher to such a meeting. The feminine form of the Hebrew noun, and its construction once (Ecc 7:27) with a feminine verb, show that it not only signifies Solomon, the Preacher to assemblies (in which case it is construed with the verb or noun masculine), but also Divine Wisdom (feminine in Hebrew) speaking by the mouth of the inspired king. In six cases out of seven it is construed with the masculine. Solomon was endowed with inspired wisdom (1Ki 3:5-14; 1Ki 6:11-12; 1Ki 9:1-9; 1Ki 11:9-11), specially fitting him for the task. The Orientals delight in such meetings for grave discourse. Thus the Arabs formerly had an assembly yearly, at Ocadh, for hearing and reciting poems. Compare "Masters of assemblies" (see on Ecc 12:11, also Ecc 12:9). "The Preacher taught the people knowledge," probably viva voce ("orally"); 1Ki 4:34; 1Ki 10:2, 1Ki 10:8, 1Ki 10:24; 2Ch 9:1, 2Ch 9:7, 2Ch 9:23, plainly refer to a somewhat public divan met for literary discussion. So "spake," thrice repeated (1Ki 4:32-33), refers not to written compositions, but to addresses spoken in assemblies convened for the purpose. The Holy Ghost, no doubt, signifies also by the term that Solomon's doctrine is intended for the "great congregation," the Church of all places and ages (Psa 22:25; Psa 49:2-4).

Solomon was plainly the author (Ecc 1:12, Ecc 1:16; Ecc 2:15; Ecc 12:9). That the Rabbins attribute it to Isaiah or Hezekiah is explicable by supposing that one or the other inserted it in the canon. The difference of its style, as compared with Proverbs and Song of Solomon, is due to the difference of subjects, and the different period of his life in which each was written; the Song, in the fervor of his first love to God; Proverbs, about the same time, or somewhat later; but Ecclesiastes in late old age, as the seal and testimony of repentance of his apostasy in the intervening period: Psa 89:30, Psa 89:33 proves his penitence. The substitution of the title Koheleth for Solomon (that is, peace), may imply that, having troubled Israel, meantime he forfeited his name of peace (1Ki 11:14, 1Ki 11:23); but now, having repented, he wishes to be henceforth a Preacher of righteousness. The alleged foreign expressions in the Hebrew may have been easily imported, through the great intercourse there was with other nations during his long reign. Moreover, supposed Chaldaisms may be fragments preserved from the common tongue of which Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee, and Arabic were offshoots.

THE SCOPE of Ecclesiastes is to show the vanity of all mere human pursuits, when made the chief end, as contrasted with the real blessedness of true wisdom, that is, religion. The immortality of the soul is dwelt on incidentally, as subsidiary to the main scope. Moses' law took this truth for granted but drew its sanctions of rewards and punishments in accordance with the theocracy, which was under a special providence of God as the temporal King of Israel, from the present life, rather than the future. But after Israel chose an earthly king, God withdrew, in part, His extraordinary providence, so that under Solomon, temporal rewards did not invariably follow virtue, and punishments vice (compare Ecc 2:16; Ecc 3:19; Ecc 4:1; Ecc 5:8; Ecc 7:15; Ecc 8:14; Ecc 9:2, Ecc 9:11). Hence the need arises to show that these anomalies will be rectified hereafter, and this is the grand "conclusion," therefore, of the "whole" book, that, seeing there is a coming judgment, and seeing that present goods do not satisfy the soul, "man's whole duty is to fear God and keep his commandments" (Ecc 12:13-14), and meanwhile, to use, in joyful and serene sobriety, and not abuse, the present life (Ecc 3:12-13).

It is objected that sensual epicurism seems to be inculcated (Ecc 3:12-13, Ecc 3:22, &c.); but it is a contented, thankful enjoyment of God's present gifts that is taught, as opposed to a murmuring, anxious, avaricious spirit, as is proved by Ecc 5:18, compare with Ecc 5:11-15, not making them the chief end of life; not the joy of levity and folly; a misunderstanding which he guards against in Ecc 7:2-6; Ecc 11:9; Ecc 12:1. Again, Ecc 7:16; Ecc 9:2-10, might seem to teach fatalism and skepticism. But these are words put in the mouth of an objector; or rather, they were the language of Solomon himself during his apostasy, finding an echo in the heart of every sensualist, who wishes to be an unbeliever, and, who, therefore, sees difficulties enough in the world around wherewith to prop up his wilful unbelief. The answer is given (Ecc 7:17-18; Ecc 9:11-12; Ecc 11:1, Ecc 11:6; Ecc 12:13). Even if these passages be taken as words of Solomon, they are to be understood as forbidding a self-made "righteousness," which tries to constrain God to grant salvation to imaginary good works and external strictness with which it wearies itself; also, that speculation which tries to fathom all God's inscrutable counsels (Ecc 8:17), and that carefulness about the future forbidden in Mat 6:25.

THE CHIEF GOOD is that the possession of that which makes us happy, is to be sought as the end, for its own sake; whereas, all other things are but means towards it. Philosophers, who made it the great subject of inquiry, restricted it to the present life, treating the eternal as unreal, and only useful to awe the multitude with. But Solomon shows the vanity of all human things (so-called philosophy included) to satisfy the soul, and that heavenly wisdom alone is the chief good. He had taught so when young (Pro 1:20; Pro 8:1); so also; in Song of Solomon, he had spiritualized the subject in an allegory; and now, after having long personally tried the manifold ways in which the worldly seek to reach happiness, he gives the fruit of his experience in old age.

It is divided into two parts-- Ecc. 1:1-6:10 showing the vanity of earthly things; Ecc. 6:10-12:14, the excellence of heavenly wisdom. Deviations from strict logical methods occur in these divisions, but in the main they are observed. The deviations make it the less stiff and artificial, and the more suited to all capacities. It is in poetry; the hemistichal division is mostly observed, but occasionally not so. The choice of epithets, imagery, inverted order of words, ellipses, parallelism, or, in its absence, similarity of diction, mark versification.

JFB: Ecclesiastes (Garis Besar)

• INTRODUCTION. (Ecc. 1:1-18)

TSK: Ecclesiastes 3 (Pendahuluan Pasal)

Overview

Ecc 3:1, By the necessary change of times, vanity is added to human travail; Ecc 3:11, There is an excellency in God’s works; Ecc 3:16, But as for man, God shall judge his works hereafter, though here he be like a beast.

Poole: Ecclesiastes 3 (Pendahuluan Pasal)

CHAPTER 3

Every thing hath its time; in which, to enjoy it, and therewith do good to others, is our good, Ecc 3:1-13 . God doth all according to his decree that we should fear him, and there is nothing new, Ecc 3:14,15 . The vanity of unjust judgment; God is the great Judge of all, Ecc 3:16,17 ; and he will make men know that they are here but as brute beasts, Ecc 3:18-22 .

MHCC: Ecclesiastes (Pendahuluan Kitab)

The name of this book signifies " The Preacher." The wisdom of God here preaches to us, speaking by Solomon, who it is evident was the author. At the close of his life, being made sensible of his sin and folly, he recorded here his experience for the benefit of others, as the book of his repentance; and he pronounced all earthly good to be " vanity and vexation of spirit." It convinces us of the vanity of the world, and that it cannot make us happy; of the vileness of sin, and its certain tendency to make us miserable. It shows that no created good can satisfy the soul, and that happiness is to be found in God alone; and this doctrine must, under the blessed Spirit's teaching, lead the heart to Christ Jesus.

MHCC: Ecclesiastes 3 (Pendahuluan Pasal)

(Ecc 3:1-10) The changes of human affairs.

(Ecc 3:11-15) The Divine counsels unchangeable.

(Ecc 3:16-22) The vanity of worldly power.

Matthew Henry: Ecclesiastes (Pendahuluan Kitab)

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Book of Ecclesiastes

We are still among Solomon's happy men, his happy servants, that stood continually before him to hear his wisdom; and they are the choicest of all the dictates of his wisdom, such as were more immediately given by divine inspiration, that are here transmitted to us, not to be heard, as by them, but once, and then liable to be mistaken or forgotten, and by repetition to lose their beauty, but to be read, reviewed, revolved, and had in everlasting remembrance. The account we have of Solomon's apostasy from God, in the latter end of his reign (1Ki 11:1), is the tragical part of his story; we may suppose that he spoke his Proverbs in the prime of his time, while he kept his integrity, but delivered his Ecclesiastes when he had grown old (for of the burdens and decays of age he speaks feelingly Ecc 12:1-14), and was, by the grace of God, recovered from his backslidings. There he dictated his observations; here he wrote his own experiences; this is what days speak, and wisdom which the multitude of years teaches. The title of the book and the penman we shall meet with in the first verse, and therefore shall here only observe,

I. That it is a sermon, a sermon in print; the text is (Ecc 1:2), Vanity of vanities, all is vanity; that is the doctrine too; it is proved at large by many arguments and an induction of particulars, and divers objections are answered, and in the close we have the use and application of all, by way of exhortation, to remember our Creator, to fear him, and to keep his commandments. There are indeed many things in this book which are dark and hard to be understood, and some things which men of corrupt minds wrest to their own destruction, for want of distinguishing between Solomon's arguments and the objections of atheists and epicures; but there is enough easy and plain to convince us (if we will admit the conviction) of the vanity of the world, and its utter insufficiency to make us happy, the vileness of sin, and its certain tendency to make us miserable, and of the wisdom of being religious, and the solid comfort and satisfaction that are to be had in doing our duty both to God and man. This should be intended in every sermon, and that is a good sermon by which these points are in any measure gained. II. That it is a penitential sermon, as some of David's psalms are penitential psalms; it is a recantation-sermon, in which the preacher sadly laments his own folly and mistake, in promising himself satisfaction in the things of this world, and even in the forbidden pleasures of sense, which now he finds more bitter than death. His fall is a proof of the weakness of man's nature: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor say, " I shall never be such a fool as to do so and so," when Solomon himself, the wisest of men, played the fool so egregiously; nor let the rich man glory in his riches, since Solomon's wealth was so great a snare to him, and did him a great deal more hurt than Job's poverty did him. His recovery is a proof of the power of God's grace, in bringing one back to God that has gone so far from him; it is a proof too of the riches of God's mercy in accepting him notwithstanding the many aggravations of his sin, pursuant to the promise made to David, that if his children should commit iniquity they should be corrected, but not abandoned and disinherited, 2Sa 7:14, 2Sa 7:15. Let him therefore that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall; and let him that has fallen make haste to get up again, and not despair either of assistance or acceptance therein. III. That it is a practical profitable sermon. Solomon, being brought to repentance, resolves, like his father, to teach transgressors God's way (Psa 51:13) and to give warning to all to take heed of splitting upon those rocks which had been fatal to him; and these were fruits meet for repentance. The fundamental error of the children of men, and that which is at the bottom of all their departures from God, is the same with that of our first parents, hoping to be as gods by entertaining themselves with that which seems good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise. Now the scope of this book is to show that this is a great mistake, that our happiness consists not in being as gods to ourselves, to have what we will and do what we will, but in having him that made us to be a God to us. The moral philosophers disputed much about man's felicity, or chief good. Various opinions they had about it; but Solomon, in this book, determines the question, and assures us that to fear God and to keep his commandments is the whole of man. He tried what satisfaction might be found in the wealth of the world and the pleasures of sense, and at last pronounced all vanity and vexation; yet multitudes will not take his word, but will make the same dangerous experiment, and it proves fatal to them. He, 1. Shows the vanity of those things in which men commonly look for happiness, as human learning and policy, sensual delight, honour and power, riches and great possessions. And then, 2. He prescribes remedies against the vexation of spirit that attends them. Though we cannot cure them of their vanity, we may prevent the trouble they give us, by sitting loose to them, enjoying them comfortable, but laying our expectations low from them, and acquiescing in the will of God concerning us in every event, especially by remembering God in the days of our youth, and continuing in his fear and service all our days, with an eye to the judgment to come.

Matthew Henry: Ecclesiastes 3 (Pendahuluan Pasal)

Solomon having shown the vanity of studies, pleasures, and business, and made it to appear that happiness is not to be found in the schools of the learned, nor in the gardens of Epicurus, nor upon the exchange, he proceeds, in this chapter, further to prove his doctrine, and the inference he had drawn from it, That therefore we should cheerfully content ourselves with, and make use of, what God has given us, by showing, I. The mutability of all human affairs (Ecc 3:1-10). II. The immutability of the divine counsels concerning them and the unsearchableness of those counsels (Ecc 3:11-15). III. The vanity of worldly honour and power, which are abused for the support of oppression and persecution if men be not governed by the fear of God in the use of them (Ecc 3:16). For a check to proud oppressors, and to show them their vanity, he reminds them, 1. That they will be called to account for it in the other world (Ecc 3:17). 2. That their condition, in reference to this world (for of that he speaks), is no better than that of the beasts (Ecc 3:18-21). And therefore he concludes that it is our wisdom to make use of what power we have for our own comfort, and not to oppress others with it.

Constable: Ecclesiastes (Pendahuluan Kitab)

Introduction

Title

The title of this book in the Hebrew text is all of verse 1. The Septuagint translation (third century B.C.) gave it the name "Ekklesiastes" from which the English title is a transliteration. This word is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word qohelet that the NASB translated "Preacher" in verse 1. The Hebrew word designates a leader who speaks before an assembly of people. The NIV translation "Teacher" is also a good one.

Writer and Date

The commentators sometimes treat the Hebrew word qohelet ("Preacher"; 1:1-2, 12; 7:27; 12:8-10) as a proper name.¹ However the fact that the article is present on the Hebrew word in 12:8, and perhaps in 7:27, seems to indicate that qohelet is a title: "the preacher" or "the teacher."

Internal references point to Solomon as this preacher (cf. 1:1, 12-2:26; 2:4-9; 12:9). Both Jewish and Christian interpreters believed Solomon was the writer until the eighteenth century. With the rise of literary and historical Bible criticism a widespread rejection of Solomonic authorship set in. Rejection of Solomonic authorship rests mainly on linguistic factors (vocabulary and syntax) that some scholars feel were more characteristic of a time much later than Solomon's, namely, about 450-250 B.C.² Conservative scholars have refuted this linguistic argument.³ Several more or less conservative scholars have rejected Solomonic authorship.⁴ Yet there is no information in the Bible that would eliminate Solomon as the writer.

Assuming that Solomon wrote the book in its entirety, he must have done so during his lifetime and probably during his reign (971-931 B.C.). It has seemed probable to some expositors that he may have written Song of Solomon in his youth, Proverbs in his middle life, and Ecclesiastes in his old age (cf. 2:1-11; 11:9; 12:1). This theory rests on the contents of the three inspired Bible books that he evidently wrote, specifically clues in these books about the age of their writer.

"Ecclesiastes is best placed after his apostasy, when both his recent turmoil and repentance were still fresh in his mind."⁵

Purpose

This book helps the reader develop a God-centered worldview and recognize the dangers of a self-centered worldview. It does not describe the life of faith or teach what the responsibilities of faith in God are. It also prescribes the limits of human philosophy (cf. 3:11; 8:16-17). The book teaches that people are accountable to God and that we should avoid self-indulgence that leads to the exploitation of others for selfish gain.

"Christians may ask how the stress on using and enjoying life tallies with the NT command Do not love the world' (1 John 2:15). The answer is that the Teacher (Ecclesiastes) would have agreed fully with John's next statement that everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away' (vv. 16-17). One could hardly find a better statement than this of the whole theme of Ecclesiastes (e.g., 2:1-11; 5:10). Life in the world has significance only when man remembers his Creator (12:1).

"There always have been two kinds of teaching about the way to holiness. One is by withdrawal as far as possible from the natural in order to promote the spiritual. The other is to use and transform the natural into the expression of the spiritual. While each kind of teaching has its place, some people need one emphasis rather than the other. Ecclesiastes definitely teaches the second."⁶

"Ecclesiastes does not pretend to preach the Gospel. Rather, it encourages the reader to a God-centered worldview rather than falling victim to frustrations and unanswered questions. None of its contents has to be rejected in the light of the NT. Although the NT revelation is vastly greater than that in Ecclesiastes, the two are not devoid of similarities (e.g., James 4:13-17). Like the people of God in Solomon's time, believers today are subject to the unexpected changes and chances common to mankind. Yet they know that God works through every vicissitude of life. Respecting the future, which for Solomon was shrouded in a shadow land, Christians have the glorious hope of being in the presence of Christ himself (2 Cor 5:6; Phil 1:23)."⁷

Message⁸

I believe that the message of Ecclesiastes is essentially a positive one. This may seem strange since the vanity of various human endeavors is such a major theme of this book. Nevertheless the total statement that Solomon made was positive.

He was saying, I believe, that even though every human endeavor lacks ultimate value, we should live life in the fear of God (i.e., with the proper recognition of Him). Furthermore we should enjoy life maximally as a gift from God. Ecclesiastes 12:13 is very similar to Proverbs 1:7 and 3:5-6. In both these books, as well as in Job, the fear of God is the prerequisite for successful living here and now.

The difference between Ecclesiastes and Proverbs is that in Ecclesiastes the emphasis is on the inability of every human endeavor to provide ultimate value. In Proverbs the emphasis is on the comparative value of living in the fear of God.

Solomon's attitude is very important for us to grasp to understand this book. He never lost sight of God's existence. He was not an atheist or even an apostate. The fact that Solomon kept God in view throughout the book enabled him to see that all is vanity under the sun. The person who disregards God does not say that. For him what is under the sun is all that is meaningful.

I do not believe Solomon did everything he said he did in rebellion against God. Some things were acts of disobedience, but many other things were experiments in living designed to discover the relative value of various experiences.

The major revelations of the book are three.

First, Ecclesiastes reveals that every human endeavor lacks ultimate value. All is vanity in that sense.

Solomon stated this thesis in 1:2.

Then Solomon supported his thesis with examples he took from nature (1:3-11).

Next Solomon appealed to various human achievements to apply his thesis. He did this first by citing his own personal experiments and observations on this subject (1:12-2:17). Then he referred to facts observable by all people that confirm the same conclusion (2:18-6:9).

Solomon next showed that every human endeavor lacks ultimate value by reminding us of the limits of human wisdom (6:10-11:6). He supported these assertions also with empirical evidence (what people experience generally in life). God's will will indeed happen. However man does not know God's plan fully. Therefore man does not know exactly what will happen.

The second major revelation of this book is that people should live life in the fear of God and enjoy life as much as they can. This is really Solomon's practical conclusion to the truthfulness of the thesis that he proved in 1:3-11:6.

Since death is coming we should enjoy life now, not in disregard for God, but in the fear of God (11:7-8).

We should enjoy life in our youth while at the same time remembering that God will judge our lives (11:9-10). Moreover we should behave responsibly in our youth since old age is coming (12:1-7).

The third major revelation of the book is its statement of what true wisdom is (12:13). God intends people to rejoice, but to remember God and to live with recognition of Him (cf. Prov. 3:5-6). Failing to fear God will result in a life of vanity. To fear God and live in harmony with His will will result in a life of fullness.

Let me point out some implications of the teaching of this book.

Conviction results in conduct that produces character. That is a basic reality of life regardless of what one's convictions may be. When we have a conviction that God exists and we live under His loving authority, our conduct will be obedience to His will. Furthermore responsibility and joy will mark our character. However if we believe that God either does not exist or is not worth consideration, our conduct will be disregard of His will, and vanity will mark our character.

To dethrone God is to lose the key to life. We may pursue many human endeavors, but all we will find is vanity, lack of ultimate fulfillment. On the other hand if we enthrone God we will enter into the fullness of life (John 17:3; Ps. 16:11).

Outline⁹

I. The introductory affirmation 1:1-11

A. Title and theme 1:1-2

1. The title 1:1

2. The theme 1:2

B. The futility of all human endeavor 1:3-11

1. The vanity of work 1:3

2. The illustrations from life 1:4-11

II. The futility of work 1:12-6:9

A. Personal observations 1:12-2:17

1. Solomon's investigation of human achievement 1:12-15

2. Solomon's evaluation of his investigation of human achievement 1:16-18

3. Solomon's investigation of pleasure 2:1-11

4. Solomon's evaluation of his investigation of pleasure 2:12-17

B. General observations 2:18-6:9

1. The outcome of labor 2:18-26

2. Labor and divine providence 3:1-4:3

3. The motivations of labor 4:4-16

4. The perishable fruits of labor 5:1-6:9

III. The limitations of wisdom 6:10-11:6

A. God's sovereign foreordination of all things 6:10-12

B. God's inscrutable plan chs. 7-8

1. Adversity and prosperity 7:1-14

2. Righteousness and wickedness 7:15-27

3. The value and limitations of wisdom ch. 8

C. Man's ignorance of the future 9:1-11:6

1. The future of the righteous on earth 9:1-10

2. The future of the wise on earth 9:11-10:11

3. The folly of criticism in view of the uncertain future 10:12-20

4. Wise behavior in view of the uncertain future 11:1-6

IV. The way of wisdom 11:7-12:14

A. Joyous and responsible living 11:7-12:7

1. Joyful living 11:7-10

2. Responsible living 12:1-7

B. The concluding summary 12:8-14

Constable: Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes

Bibliography

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Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: Ecclesiastes (Pendahuluan Kitab)

ECCLESIASTES.

INTRODUCTION.

This Book is called Ecclesiastes, or the preacher, (in Hebrew, Coheleth ) because in it Solomon, as an excellent preacher, setteth forth the vanity of the things of this world, to withdraw the hearts and affections of men from such empty toys. (Challoner) --- Coheleth is a feminine noun, to indicate the elegance of the discourse. It is very difficult to discriminate the objections of free-thinkers from the real sentiments of the author. It is most generally supposed that Solomon wrote this after his repentance; but this is very uncertain. St. Jerome (in chap. xii. 12.) informs us that the collectors of the sacred books had some scruple about admitting this; and Luther speaks of it with great disrespect: (Coll. conviv.) but the Church has always maintained its authority. See Conc. v. Act. 4. Philast. 132. (Calmet) --- It refutes the false notions of worldlings, concerning felicity; and shews that it consists in the service of God and fruition. (Worthington)

Gill: Ecclesiastes (Pendahuluan Kitab)

INTRODUCTION TO ECCLESIASTES

This book has been universally received into the canon of the Scriptures, by Jews and Christians. The former, indeed, had once some controversy ^a about it; and they thought to have hid it, or put it among the apocryphal books; because, at first sight, some things seemed contradictory to each other ^b, and to incline to heresy ^c, atheism, and epicurism, and to assert the eternity of the world ^d: but they better considered of it; and when they observed those passages were capable of a good sense, and that the whole agreed with the law of God, they changed their minds ^e. And so likewise it has been rejected by some heretical persons, of the Christian name, as Theodore and Mopsuest, and others; and by deists, and some deistically inclined. But it carries in it such internal evidences of a divine original, as cannot well be denied; it delivers out and inculcates such divine instructions, concerning the duties of men to God, and one another; concerning the contempt of the world, and the carnal pleasures of it; the fear and worship of God, and a future judgment; as none but the wisdom of God could suggest. There are various things in it which seem to be referred to by Christ and his apostles; at least there is an entire agreement between them: among the many things that might be observed, compare Ecc 11:5 with Joh 3:8; and Ecc 11:9 with 2Co 5:10; and Ecc 7:20 with 1Jo 1:8. As to the author of it, there are evident marks of its being written by Solomon; yet, by some Jewish writers, it is ascribed to Isaiah ^f, which seems exceeding strange; for though he was a great prophet, and an evangelical preacher, yet no king in Jerusalem; whatever may be said for his being of the house of David, and of the royal family, as some have thought: and, besides, there is no agreement in style between this book and the writings of Isaiah. Others of them ascribe it to Hezekiah and his men ^g: Hezekiah was indeed the son of David, and David in expressly called his father; and he was a prince of great character, both with respect to religion, and to wealth and grandeur; see 2Ch 29:2; which might induce them to such a conceit; though it seems to take its rise from Hezekiah's men being the copiers of some of Solomon's proverbs, Pro 25:1; but the proof from thence must be exceeding weak; that because they were the transcribers of some of his proverbs, therefore were the writers of this book; and especially King Hezekiah; for, whatever may be said of his character, it falls greatly short of Solomon's wisdom or riches; and such things are said, with for respect to both, in this book, as cannot agree with him: and, on the other hand, it does not appear that he was addicted to wine and women, and gave himself a loose to carnal pleasures, as the writer of this book had formerly done. Grotius thinks it was written by some persons in the times of Zerubbabel, and published under the name of Solomon, as a penitent; which is quite shocking, that an inspired writing should have a false title put to it, and be imposed upon the church of God under a wrong name: besides, the name of Solomon is never mentioned in it; though this, by the way, betrays a conviction that he is intended in the title of it: nor are many persons concerned in it; it appears throughout the whole to be the work of a single person, who often speaks as such in it. That Zerubbabel should be meant by the one shepherd, Ecc 12:11, is a mere fancy; it is better interpreted, as by many, of Jesus Christ: his chief argument for this conjecture is, because there are three or four Chaldee words in it, as he supposes; which yet does not appear, and are nowhere to be found but in Daniel, Ezra, and the Chaldee interpreter: and so there are in the book of Proverbs, Pro 31:2; but it does not follow, that because these words, or others, are but once used in Scripture, that they are not originally Hebrew; since the language was more extensive and better understood in Solomon's time than now, when we have only the copy of the Old Testament in which it is preserved. In short, what is said of the descent and dignity of the writer of this book, of his wisdom, wealth, riches, and grandeur, of his virtues and of his vices, agrees with none as with Solomon; to which may be added, that there is one passage in it, the same he used in his prayer at the dedication of the temple, Ecc 7:20; compared with 1Ki 8:46. As to the time in which it was written by him, it seems to have been in his old age, as the Jewish writers observe ^h; after his sin and fall, and recovery out of it, and when he was brought to true repentance for it: it was after he had made him great works, and built houses, his own house and the house of God, which were twenty years in building; it was after he had acquired not only vast riches and treasures, which must require time, but had gotten knowledge of all things in nature; and had seen all the works that are done under the sun, and had made trial of all pleasures that were to be enjoyed; see Ecc 1:1; it was after he had been ensnared by women, which he confesses and laments, Ecc 7:26; and his description of old age seems to be made, not merely upon the theory of it, but from a feeling experience of the evils and infirmities of it, Ecc 12:1. The general scope and design of it is to expose the vanity of all worldly enjoyments; to show that a man's happiness does not lie in natural wisdom and knowledge; nor in worldly wealth; nor in civil honour, power, and authority; nor in the mere externals of religion; but in the fear of God, and the worship of him. It encourages men to a free use of the good things of life in a moderate way, with thankfulness to God; to submit with cheerfulness to adverse dispensations of Providence; to fear God and honour the king; to be dutiful to civil magistrates, and kind to the poor; to expect a future state, and an awful judgment; with many other useful things.

Gill: Ecclesiastes 3 (Pendahuluan Pasal)

INTRODUCTION TO ECCLESIASTES 3

The general design of this chapter is to confirm what is before observed, the vanity and inconstancy of all things; the frailty of man, and changes respecting him; his fruitless toil and labour in all his works; that it is best to be content with present things, and cheerful in them, and thankful for them; that all comes from the hand of God; that such good men, who have not at present that joy that others have, may have it, since there is a time for it; and that sinners should not please themselves with riches gathered by them, since they may be soon taken from them, for there is a time for everything, Ecc 3:1; of which there is an induction of particulars, Ecc 3:2; so that though every thing is certain with God, nothing is certain with men, nor to be depended on, nor can happiness be placed therein; there is no striving against the providence of God, nor altering the course of things; the labour of man is unprofitable, and his travail affliction and vexation, Ecc 3:9; and though all God's works are beautiful in their season, they are unsearchable to man, Ecc 3:11; wherefore it is best cheerfully to enjoy the present good things of life, Ecc 3:12; and be content; for the will and ways and works of God are unalterable, permanent, and perfect, Ecc 3:14; and though wicked men may abuse the power reposed in them, and pervert public justice, they will be called to an account for it in the general judgment, for which there is a time set, Ecc 3:16; and yet, such is the stupidity of the generality of men, that they have no more sense of death and judgment than the brutes, and live and die like them, Ecc 3:18; wherefore it is best of all to make a right use of power and riches, or what God has given to men, for their own good and that of others, since they know not what shall be after them, Ecc 3:22.