Earthly pursuits are no doubt lawful in their proper time and order (@Ec 3:1-8), but unprofitable when out of time and place; as for instance, when pursued as the solid and chief good (@Ec 3:9,10); whereas God makes everything beautiful in its season, which man obscurely comprehends (@Ec 3:11). God allows man to enjoy moderately and virtuously His earthly gifts (@Ec 3:12,13). What consoles us amidst the instability of earthly blessings is, God's counsels are immutable (@Ec 3:14).
1. Man has his appointed cycle of seasons and vicissitudes, as the
sun, wind, and water (@Ec 1:5-7).
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,"
@Ec 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 (@Ec 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.
2. time to die--(@Ps 31:15 Heb 9:27).
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 18:7,9 Am 9:15 Mt 15:13).
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.
to heal--God has His times for "healing" (literally, @Isa 38:5,21;
figuratively, @De 32:39 Ho 6:1; spiritually, @Ps 147:3 Isa 57:19).
To heal spiritually, before the sinner feels his wound, would be
"out of time," and so injurious.
time to break down--cities, as Jerusalem, by Nebuchadnezzar.
build up--as Jerusalem, in the time of Zerubbabel; spiritually
(@Am 9:11), "the set time" (@Ps 102:13-16).
4. mourn--namely, for the dead (@Ge 23:2).
dance--as David before the ark (@2Sa 6:12-14 Ps 30:11); spiritually
(@Mt 9:15 Lu 6:21 15:25). The Pharisees, by requiring sadness
out of time, erred seriously.
5. cast away stones--as out of a garden or vineyard (@Isa 5:2).
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 (@Mt 3:9); so the restored
Jews hereafter (@Ps 102:13,14 Zec 9:16).
refrain . . . embracing--(@Joe 2:16 1Co 7:5,6).
6. time to get--for example, to gain honestly a livelihood
(@Eph 4:23).
lose--When God wills losses to us, then is our time to be content.
keep--not to give to the idle beggar (@2Th 3:10).
cast away--in charity (@Pr 11:24); or to part with the dearest
object, rather than the soul (@Mr 9:43). To be careful is right in
its place, but not when it comes between us and Jesus Christ
(@Lu 10:40-42).
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 37:15,22).
silence--(@Am 5:13), in a national calamity, or that of a friend
(@Job 2:13); also not to murmur under God's visitation
(@Le 10:3 Ps 39:1,2,9).
8. hate--for example, sin, lusts (@Lu 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.
a time of war . . . peace--(@Lu 14:31).
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" (@Ec 3:2) refers to his planting (@Ec 2:5); "laugh" (@Ec 3:4), to @Ec 2:1,2. "his mirth," "laughter"; "build up," "gather stones" (@Ec 3:3,5), to his "building" (@Ec 2:4); "embrace," "love," to his "princess" (see on Ec 2:8); "get" (perhaps also "gather," @Ec 3:5,6), to his "gathering" (@Ec 2:8). All these were of "no profit," because not in God's time and order of bestowing happiness.
10. (See on Ec 1:13).
11. his time--that is in its proper season (@Ps 1:3),
opposed to worldlings putting earthly pursuits
out of their proper time and place
(see on Ec 3:9).
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 (@Ro 1:19,20). "Everything" answers to "world," in the
parallelism.
so that--that is, but in such a manner that man only sees a portion,
not the whole "from beginning to end"
(@Ec 8:17 Job 26:14 Ro 11:33 Re 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.
12. in them--in God's works (@Ec 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 (@Ga 6:9,10). Not sensual joy and self-indulgence (@Php 4:4 Jas 4:16,17).
13. Literally, "And also as to every man who eats . . . this is the gift of God" (@Ec 3:22 Ec 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 (@Ac 2:46 1Co 10:31 1Ti 4:3,4).
14. (@1Sa 3:12 2Sa 23:5 Ps 89:34 Mt 24:35 Jas 1:17).
for ever--as opposed to man's perishing labors (@Ec 2:15-18).
any thing taken from it--opposed to man's "crooked and wanting" works
(@Ec 1:15 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 (@Ec 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.
15. Resumption of @Ec 1:9. Whatever changes there be, the
succession of events is ordered by God's "everlasting" laws (@Ec 3:14),
and returns in a fixed cycle.
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 @Ec 3:16,17. The parallel clauses of the verse support
English Version.
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)?
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 (@Ec 3:11 Ps 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.
there--(@Job 3:17-19) in eternity, in the presence of the Divine
Judge, opposed to the "there," in the human place of judgment
(@Ec 3:16): so "from thence" (@Ge 49:24).
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.
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 (@Ps 49:12,20). 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
(@Da 4:27).
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 (@Ec 8:11 Ps 55:19 2Pe 3:3,4).
They are "brute beasts," morally (@Ec 3:18 Jude 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 @Ec 3:21. If
@Ec 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 @Ec 3:21 points
out the vast difference between them in respect to the future destiny;
also (@Ec 3:17) beasts have no "judgment" to come.
breath--vitality.
21. Who knoweth--Not doubt of the destination of man's spirit (@Ec 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].
22. (Compare @Ec 3:12 Ec 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 (@Ec 11:9); not as the anxious
money-seeker (@Ec 2:23 5:10-17).
his portion--in the present life. If it were made his main portion,
it would be "vanity" (@Ec 2:1 Lu 16:25).
for who, &c.--Our ignorance as to the future, which is God's "time"
(@Ec 3:11), should lead us to use the present time in the best sense
and leave the future to His infinite wisdom (@Mt 6:20,25,31-34).