Ecclesiastes 3 commentary

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.

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.

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.

CHAPTER 3

Ec 3:1-22.

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--(Psa 31:15; He 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 (Jr 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, Is 38:5, 21; figuratively, De 32:39; Ho 6:1; spiritually, Psa 147:3; Is 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" (Psa 102:13-16).

4. mourn--namely, for the dead (Ge 23:2).

dance--as David before the ark (2Sa 6:12-14; Psa 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 (Is 5:2).

gather--for building; figuratively, the Gentiles, once castaway stones, were in due time made parts of the spiritual building (Ep 2:19, 20), and children of Abraham (Mt 3:9); so the restored Jews hereafter (Psa 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 (Ep 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; Psa 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 (Psa 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; 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; Psa 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" (Jr 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; 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.

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 (Psa 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; Psa 55:19; 2Pe 3:3,4). They are "brute beasts," morally (Ec 3:18; Jude 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" (Is 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; 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).

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: -

A time to be born, and a time to die - plant - "As in its mother's womb the embryo lies

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 drop

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."

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 sword

With wholesome rigour, nor the offender spares:

But Mercy now is more expedient found.

On crazy fabrics ill-timed cost bestow'd

No purpose answers, when discretion bids

To pull them down, and wait a season fit

To build anew."

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

The heart, our tears with decent sorrow flow;

Nor less becoming, when the public mourns,

To vent the deepest sighs. But all around

When things a smiling aspect bear, our souls

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

A time to cast away stones, - to gather stones, - to embrace, - to refrain - "One while domestic cares abortive prove,

And then successful. Nature now invites

Connubial pleasures: but, when languid grown,

No less rejects."

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

Whilst time of gaining lasts; from every point

Blow prosperous gales. Now heaven begins to lower,

And all our hopes are blasted. Prudence bids,

One while, our treasure to reserve, and then

With liberal hand to scatter wide. How oft

In raging storms, the owner wisely casts

Into the deep his precious merchandise,

To save the foundering bark!

A time to rend, - sew, - keep silence, - speak - - "Intestine broils

And factions rend a state: at length the breach

Is heal'd, and rest ensues. Wisdom restrains

The tongue, when words are vain: but now, 'Tis time to speak, and silence would be criminal."

A time to love, - hate, - of war, - of peace - "Love turns to hatred; interest or caprice

Dissolves the firmest knot by friendship tied.

O'er rival nations, with revenge inflamed,

Or lust of power, fell Discord shakes awhile

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 share

The transient blessing: 'tis the gift of God.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 heaven

To cure disorders proves our deadliest bane?

When God's vicegerents, destined to protect

The weak from insolence of power, to guard

Their lives and fortunes, impious robbers turn?

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

To what asylum shall the injured fly

From her tribunal, where perverted law

Acquits the guilty, the innocent condemns?"

C.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

All go unto one place - "Man was born

To die, nor aught exceeds in this respect

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.

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, survives

The frail corporeal frame: but who regards

The difference? Those who live like beasts, as such

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

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, 1Kgs 22:21, 1Kgs 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."

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.

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. 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.

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.

To kill - When men die a violent death. To heal - When he who seemed to be mortally wounded is healed.

To weep - When men have just occasion for weeping.

Stones - Which were brought together in order to the building of a wall or house. To embrace - When persons perform all friendly offices one to another.

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

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

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

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.

Seen - I have diligently observed mens various employments, and the different successes of them. Hath given - Which God hath imposed upon men as their duty; to which therefore men ought quickly to submit. Exercised - That hereby they might have constant matter of exercise for their diligence, and patience, and submission to God's will and providence.

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. 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.

Them - In creatures or worldly enjoyments. To do good - To employ them in acts of charity and liberality.

Should eat - Use what God hath given him.

For ever - All God's counsels or decrees are eternal and unchangeable. Nothing - Men can neither do any thing against God's counsel and providence, nor hinder any work or act of it. 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.

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.

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. 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.

I said - I was sorely grieved at this, but I quieted myself with this consideration. Shall judge - Absolving the just, and condemning the wicked. A time - God will have his time to rectify all these disorders. There - At the judgment - seat of God. For - For examining not only all men's actions, but all their thoughts and purposes.

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

For - They are subject to the same diseases, pains, and calamities. So dieth - As certainly, and no less, painfully. One breath - One breath of life, which is in their nostrils by which the beasts perform the same animal operations. No pre - eminence - In respect of the present life.

One place - To the earth, out of which they were taken. All turn - All their bodies.

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.

Better - For a man's present satisfaction. Should rejoice - That he comfortably enjoys what God hath given him. His portion - This is the benefit of his labours. For - When once he is dead he shall never return to see into whose hands his estate falls.

1 TO every thing there is a season , and a time to every purpose under heaven.

A certain time appointed by God for its being and continuance, which no humane Wit or Providence can prevent or alter. And by vertue 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, Ch. 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 imbitter them, as it pleaseth him; and partly to bring the minds of men into a quiet and chearful dependance upon Gods Providence, and submission to his Will, and a state of preparation for all events.

Or, will or desire, to wit, of man. To all mens 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 time allowed by God wherein all the following things may lawfully be done, which is wholly besides his scope and business, but only of a time fixed by God, in which they would or should be done.

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 certain period unknown to Man, but fixed by God, in which a man must unavoidably die; of which see Iob. 14. 5. Iob. 13. 1.

Wherein God enclines a mans heart to planting.

Marginal references: Heb. to bear.

3 A time to kill , and a time to heal : a time to break down , and a time to build up:

When a man shall die a violent death, either by chance, as Exod. 21. 13. or by the sentence of the Magistrate, or by the hands of Murderers.

When he who seemed to be mortally wounded shall be healed and restored.

When houses shall be demolished either by the fancy of the owner, or by the rage of other men, or otherwise.

4 A time to weep , and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance:

When Men shall have just occasion for weeping and mourning.

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 :

Which were brought together in order to the building of a Wall or House, but are now [illegible: 1+ letters]ast away, either because the man who gathered them hath changed his mind, and de[illegible: 1+ letters]ists from his project, or by other causes or accidents.

When persons shall enter into friendship, and perform all friendly offices one to another.

Either through alienation of affections, or grievous calamities. See Ioel 2. 16. 1 Cor. 7. 5.

Marginal references: Heb. to be far from.

6 A time to get, and a time to lose : a time to keep, and a time to cast away :

When Men shall lose their Estates, either by Gods Providence, or by their own choice.

When a man shall cast away his Goods voluntarily, as in a storm to save his Life, as Ionah 1. 5. Act. 27. 18, 19. or out of Love and Obedience to God, as Mat. 10. 37, 39▪ Heb. 10. 34.

Marginal references: Or, seek.

7 A time to rent , and a time to sew: a time to keep silence , and a time to speak:

When men shall rend their Garments, as they did in great and sudden griefs, as Gen. 37. 29 Ioel. 2. 13.

Wherein men will or shall be silent, either through grief as Iob 2. 12, 13. or by sickness or weakness, or because God denies a man ability to utter his mind.

8 A time to love , and a time to hate: a time of war, and a time of peace.

When God will stir up the affection of Love, or give occasion for the exercise or discovery of it to others.

9 What profit hath he that worketh, in that wherein he laboureth ?

Seeing then all actions and events in the world are out of mans 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 shewed in many particulars, and it it as true and certain in all others, hence it follows, that all mens labours, of themselves, and without Gods help and blessing, are unprofitable, and utterly insufficient to make them happy.

Marginal references: Ch. 1. 3.

10 I have seen the travel which God hath given to the sons of men , to be exercised in it .

I have diligently observed and considered upon this occasion.

Or, the occupation or business, mens various employments, and the differing successes of them

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.

That hereby they might have constant matter of exercise for their diligence, and patience, and submission to Gods Will and Providence, and for all other Graces. Or, that they might be afflicted or humbled therewith; as the same Phrase is rendred by divers, Eccl. 1. 13.

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 .

This seems to be added as an Apology for Gods 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 mens 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 Enterprizes, and good men are sorely oppressed and afflicted, and that for righteousness sake; but when men shall come throughly 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 Ioseph, and David, and Mordecai, and the Iews of his time.

i. e. In the Hearts of men, as the following words shew, 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 mens 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 mens Hearts, he hath exposed the World, and all his dispensations in the World, unto the view of mens minds, both because he hath wrought his works so evidently, and publickly 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 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 onely 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 mens 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.

Marginal references: Ch. 8. 17.

12 I know that there is no good in them , but for a man to rejoyce, and to do good in his life.

By clear reason, and my own long and certain experience.

No other satisfaction or felicity which a Man can enjoy.

In Creatures or Worldly enjoyments.

Either 1. to himself, as it is fully expressed, Psal. 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.

13 And also that every man should eat and drink , and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God .

i. e. Hath power or an Heart to use what God hath given him, as it is expressed, Ch. 6. 2.

Of which see the Notes on Ch. 2. 24.

Marginal references: Heb. see, Job 7. 7. Ps. 34. 12.

14 I know that whatsoever God doth, it shall be for ever : nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it : and God doth it, that men should fear before him .

All God's counsels or decrees are eternal and unchangeable, and his providence works effectually, so as men cannot resist or hinder it.

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

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 Soveraign 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.

15 That which hath been, is now; and that which is to be, hath already been , and God requireth that which is past .

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 m[illegible: 1+ letters]tions and influences o[illegible: 1+ letters] the Heavenly Bodies, of the same seasons of the Year; and a constant succession of [illegible: 1+ letters]ew Generations of Men [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word] all of the same quality. The same thing in substance was said before. Ch. 1. 9.

i. e. Reneweth, as this word is used, Iob 3. 4.

Th[illegible: 1+ letters]t 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.

Marginal references: Heb. that which is drivers away.

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.

This is mentioned, either 1. as another vanity, to wit, the vanity of Honour and Power, which is so of[illegible: 1+ letters] an instrument of injustice and oppression. Or rather 2. as another argument of the vanity of worldly things, or an hindrance of that comfort which men expect in this life, because they are oppressed by their Rulers.

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

In the Thrones of Princes and Tribunals of Magistrates, where Judgment should be duely executed.

Judgment was perverted, the guilty acquitted, and the innocent condemned.

In which Righteousness should be found and should dwell, if it were banished from all other places.

17 I said in mine heart , God shall judg the righteous and the wicked : for there is a time there , for every purpose, and for every work .

Mine Heart was sorely grieved at this disorder, but I quieted it with this consideration.

Absolving and saving the just, and condemning the wicked.

Fixed by God's unalterable Decree. He implies that as this life is the Sinners time in which he doth whatsoever seemeth good in his own Eyes, so God will have his time to reckon with them, and rectifie all these disorders.

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 Numb. 7. 89. Esth. 9. 25. Iob 1. 21. Psal. 14. 5. & 114. 2. Or it may be rendred, then, as this Particle is used Psal. 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 the examining and judging not onely all mens 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 terrour into oppressing Potentates, and partly to satisfy the doubts, and support the Spirits of good men who are oppressed in this life.

Marginal references: Ver. 1.

18 I said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men , that God might manifest them and that they might see that they themselves are beasts .

And further I considered with my self.

Concerning their condition and deportment in this present World.

God suffers these horrible disorders among men, expressed v. 16. that he might discover men to themselves, and by permitting these actions shew what strange Creatures they are, and what vile Hearts they have▪ which men would not otherwise understand or believe. See 2. Kings 8. 13, 14.

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 onely with respect unto the present life, which is the onely 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.

Marginal references: Or, that [illegible: 1 word] might [illegible: 1 word] God and see, &c.

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.

They are subject to the same Diseases, pains, and casualties

As certainly, and no less painfully.

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.

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.

Marginal references: Ps. 49. 12. 20. Ch. 2. 16.; Heb. Spirit.

20 All go unto one place , all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again .

To the Earth, as it is expressed, v. 21. out of which they were both taken.

Which is meant onely of their Bodies, as it is explained. Eccles. 12. 7.

Marginal references: Gen. 3. 19.

21 Who knoweth the spirit of [illegible: 1 word] that [illegible: 1 word] upward, and the spirit of the [illegible: 1 word] that goeth downward to the earth:

It might be objected that the condition of men and beasts are vastly differing, because Man's Spirit goeth upward to God, Ch. 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, Ch. 12. 7. but that few know it; as the same manner of expression is understood, Prov. 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, meerly 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.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word].; Heb. [illegible: 1 word] a[illegible: 1+ letters] cending.

22 Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better , than that a man should rejoyce in his own works ; for that is his portion : for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him ?

To wit, for a Man's present satisfaction, and the happiness of this life.

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, Ch. 2. 24. & 5. 18, 19. & 8. 15.

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.

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.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. 12.

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 Frist ..., but by 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 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).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.

Ecc 3:2These 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 לטּעתThis Abulwalid found in a correct Damascus ms., Michlol 81 b. is found, cf. למּוט, 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.

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. הרוס, 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: -

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: -

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: -

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: -

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: -

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.).

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.

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: 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 referredVid., 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 introducedGrätz 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 knownIn 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, amicro-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: -

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: -

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: -

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.

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.

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.

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,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.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: -

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;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 המּההמּה 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 = 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Mutability of Human Affairs.

1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 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; 3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 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; 6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. 9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth? 10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.

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. iii. 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, To-morrow shall be as this day (the lowest valleys join to the highest mountains), and yet to be easy, and, as he had advised (ch. ii. 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, v. 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, Acts xvii. 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 xiv. 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. xviii. 7, 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. vi. 1, 2), to comfort a people after the time that he has afflicted them, Ps. xc. 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, Ps. cii. 13, 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. xxii. 12, 13; Ezek. xxi. 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, v. 5. A time for old towers to fall, as that in Siloam (Luke xii. 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 1 Cor. vii. 3-5; Joel ii. 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 (Matt. x. 37, 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 (Amos v. 13), when our speaking would be the casting of pearl before swine, or when we are in danger of speaking amiss (Ps. xxxix. 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 (Ps. xlvi. 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 (v. 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 (v. 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, Phil. iv. 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.

Mutability of Human Affairs.

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. 12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life. 13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God. 14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him. 15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.

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 (v. 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, Deut. xxxii. 4; Ezek. i. 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, v. 12, 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 to-morrow 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, v. 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, Deut. iv. 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 (v. 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 (Ps. xxx. 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.

Immutability of God's Counsel; The Extent of Mortality.

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. 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. 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. 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. 20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. 21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth? 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?

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 vicegerent; 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, v. 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, Ps. xlix. 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 (v. 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. x. 1. With an eye of faith we may see, not only the period, but the punishment of the pride and cruelty of oppressors (Ps. xcii. 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, Ps. xxxvii. 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 xxiv. 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 (Ps. ix. 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, v. 19. Some make this to be the language of an atheist, who justifies himself in his iniquity (v. 16) and evades the argument taken from the judgment to come (v. 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 (Ps. xlix. 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 (v. 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. vii. 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. xxii. 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, v. 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, Ps. xlix. 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. liii. 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 (v. 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. vi. 4. Let him not get nor keep any thing but what he can rejoice in. See 2 Cor. i. 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, Ps. xvii. 14, and fools are those that choose it and take up with it, Luke xii. 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 xiv. 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.

CHAP. III. Verſ. 1. To every thing there is a ſeaſon.

A Set time, ſuch as we can neither alter nor order. This is one of thoſe keys that God carries under his own girdle, Act. 1.7. To ſeek, to doe or get any thing before the time, is to pull apples before they are ripe, ſaith a Father, which ſet the teeth on edge,Fom[illegible: 1 letter] importuni tempore decerpunt. Tertul. and breed ſtomack-worms. They labour in vain that would prevent the time prefixed by God, as thoſe haſty Ephraimites in Aegypt, 1 Chron. 7.22. with Pſal. 78.9. thoſe heady Iſraelites in the Wilderneſs, Numb. 14.40. Moſes would be acting the Judge before his time, Exod. 2.12. he is therefore ſent to keep ſheep in Midian, verſ. 15. David ſtaid Gods leiſure for the Kingdom; thoſe in Eſther, for deliverance, they knew that God would keep his day exactly, as he did with the Iſraelites in Aegypt, Exod. 12.40, 41. Ev[illegible: 1 letter]n the ſelf-ſame day, when the four hundred and thirty years fore-told were expired, Gods people were thruſt out of Aegypt. So Dan. 5.30. In that night was Belſhazzar ſlain; becauſe then exactly the ſeventy years were ended. And as God fails not his own time, ſo he ſeldome comes at ours, J[illegible: 1 letter]r. 8.20. for he loves not to be limited. We are ſhort-breath'd, ſhort-ſighted, apt to antedate the promiſes in regard of the accompliſhment, Hab. 2.2. And no leſs apt to out-ſtand our own markets, to let ſlip opportunities of grace, which are ever head-long, and (once paſt) irrecoverable. O if thou hadſt known at the leaſt in this thy day,Heb. 2.3. Pſal. 32.6 &c. How ſhall we eſcape, if we neglect ſo great ſalvation? Therefore ſhall every one that is godly ſeek thee in a time when thou mayſt be found. There is a certain time ſet for men to come in and be ſaved; as Alexander ſet up a Taper, when he beſieged a Town: as Tamerlan hang'd out firſt a white flag, and then a red. Many a man loſeth his ſoul as Saul did his Kingdome, by not diſcerning his time. Eſau came too late: ſo did the fooliſh Virgins. If the gate of grace be over-paſt, the gate ſhut, the draw-bridge taken up, there is no poſſibility of entrance.Heb. 4.1 [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Let us therefore fear leſt a promiſe being left us, and an overture made us of entring into Gods reſt, any of us ſhould ſeem to fall ſhort, or come late, a day after the fair, an hour after the feaſt. God, who in his eternal Counſel hath appointed things to be done, hath alſo ordained the opportunity and time wherein each thing ſhould bee done; which to neglect is ſuch a preſumption, as hee uſually puniſheth with final hardning, Ezek. 24.13.

Verſ. 2. There is a time to be born, and a time to dye] Wee doe not hear the Wiſe-man ſay, There is a time to live. What is more fleeting than time? yet life is not long enough to be worthy the title of time. Death borders upon our birth, and our cradle ſtands in our grave. Orimur, Morimur. Multos oſtendunt terris bona faeta, nec ultra Eſſe ſi[illegible: 1 letter]unt. — Finiſque ab origine pendet. How many have we ſeen carried from the Womb to the Tomb; from the birth to the burial?Ab utero ab urnam. And what a ſhort cut hath the longeſt liver from the grave of the womb, to the womb of the grave? Men chop into the earth before they are aware many times; like as he that walks in a field covered with ſnow, falls ſuddenly into a marle pit.

A time to plant, &c.] In point of good husbandry fit ſeaſons are to be obſerved, or elſe little increaſe can bee expected. God alſo, the great vine-dreſſer, plants and plucks up more Churches or particular perſons at his pleaſure, Eſay 5.1. to the 8. Mat. 15.13. Jeruſalem (that plant of renown) is now of an Eden become a Sodom; and that which Moſes threatned, Deut. 28.49. &c. fulfilled to the utmoſt. Suſa in Perſia ſignifies a Lilly, and was ſo called for the beauty and delectable ſight: Now it is called Valdac, of the poverty of the place. Niniveh that great City, that once had more people within her walls, than are now in ſome one Kingdome, is at this day become a ſepulture of it ſelf, a little Town of ſmall Trade, where the Patriarch of the Neſtorians keeps his [illegible: 1 letter]eat at the devotion of the Turks.Frid. ſecund. Imper.

Roma diu titubans variis erroribus acta Corruet, & mundi deſinet eſſe caput.

Verſ. 3. A time to kill] viz. To cut off corrupt members by the ſword of Juſtice, or of War, ne pars ſincera trahatur: There is a cruel mercy, ſaith one, there is a pious cruelty, ſaith another. But curſed is hee that doth the Lords work negligently: and curſed is hee that (in a good cauſe, and upon a good calling) keepeth back his ſword from blood, Jer. 48.10. But that ſouldier can never anſwer it before God, that ſtriketh not more as a Juſtice of Peace, than as a ſouldier of fortune.

A time to break down, and a time to build up] This and the reſt, though every one knows to be ſo in common experience, yet one and the ſame thing (in effect) is oft repeated, that it may be once remembred: viz. that this whole world is nothing elſe but a maſs of mutabilities; that every man, every State, every thing is a planet, whoſe ſpherical revolutions are ſome of longer, ſome of ſhorter continuance. Omnia verſantur in perpetuo aſcenſu & deſcenſu, there is a perpetual aſcending and deſcending of life and ſtate.

Verſ. 4. A time to weep, and a time to laugh] Onely wee muſt not invert the order, but weep with men, that wee may laugh with Angels; lay godly ſorrow as a foundation of ſpiritual joy. Surely out of this eater, comes meat; out of this ſtrong, ſweet: ſtrong and ſweet refreſhments follow upon penitential performances: theſe April ſhowers bring on May flowers. Tertullian ſaith, that he was nulli rei natus niſi poenitentiae, born for no other purpoſe, but to repent: but then, he that truly repenteth, de peccatis dolet, & de dolore gandet, is grieved for his ſins, and then is glad of ſuch a grief. Thoſe that ſo ſow in tears ſhall reap in joy: whereas thoſe that will not (in an evill time, Eſay 22.12. eſpecially when God calls to weeping and mourning, and even thruſts men down as it were with a thump on the back) weep here, where there are weeping handkerchiefs in the hands of Chriſt, are like to have their eyes whipt out in hell, and to howl with devills.

A time to mourn] Matter enough of mourning wee ſhall bee ſure of (and wee ſhould bee ſoberly ſenſible of it) whiles wee are in this vale of miſery, vally of tears, in hoc exilio, in hoc ergaſtulo, in hoc peregrinatione, (as Bernard hath it) in this Priſon-houſe, Purgatory, Pilgrimage, in this place of baniſhment and bondage, how can wee look for better? God ſet us not here, as hee did Adam in Paradiſe, to take his pleaſure, or as hee did Leviathan in the Sea, to ſport and dally. Wee muſt not think to do as the people of Tombutum in Africk, who are ſaid to ſpend their whole time in ſinging and dancing. The way of this world is like the wilderneſs of Sin, or the vale of Siddim, Camd. Eliſab. or the Pacifique Sea, which Captain Drake found tempeſtuous and troublous above meaſure. Many miſeries and moleſtations both, Satanical and ſecular, wee are ſure to meet with, to make us mourn. Hierome complains that hee had furrows in his face, and Iſicles from his lips with continual weeping. Origen is thought to have died of grief. Chryſoſtome calls the days of his life, the days of his ſorrow. Baſil was made old and unprofitable for Gods Church, before his time, with travel and trouble. Rebecca is weary of her life, ſo is Elijah; Naomi will bee Naomi no longer, but Marah-Paul veyls all his top-ſayls, and ſits down in the duſt, 1 Tim. 1.15. beſides his ſympathizing with others, 2 Cor. 11.29, 30.

And a time to dance] Or skip as young Cattel do at ſpring-tide. Here is nothing for mixt immodeſt dancings. Quid opus eſt talibus ſa[illegible: 2 letters]amentis? What need people provoke themſelves to that evill they ſo naturally encline to? Nemo ſobrius ſaltat, ſaid the Heathen Oratour, No ſober man will offer to dance.Chryſoſt. Auguſtin. Where there is dancing, there the Devill is, ſaith a Father: and cannot men bee merry, unleſs they have the Devill for their Play-fellow? Dancing (ſaith Another) is a circle, whoſe center is the Devill, but buſily blowing up the fire of luſt, as in Herod, that old Goat.

Sander. ſchiſm. Ang. lib. 1. Verſ. 5. A time to caſt away ſtones] As when King Henry the eighth pulled down the Abbyes and other religious Houſes, (as they called them) ſaying, Corvorum nidos eſſe penitus diſturbandos, ne iterum ab cohabitandum convolent, that the Crows neſts were to be pulled in peeces,Acts and Mon. that they might never neſtle there any more. And herein hee did but as Cardinal Wolſey did before him: for hee, by the Popes own licenſe▪ had a little before, pulled down forty Monaſteries, and taken their ſtones and revenues, to build and endow his two Colledges at Oxford, and Ipſwich. Elapidation is a peece of the Churches happineſs, Eſa. 5.2.

And a time to gather ſtones together] As in building Forts, Caſtles, Colledges, Bridges, Cauſeys, ſuch as was that, 1 Chron. 26.16, 18. 1 King. 10.5. 2 Chron. 9.11. See 2 Chron. 16.6.

A time to embrace] With honeſt conjugal embracements (as the Chaldee Paraphraſt interprets it) not with thoſe libidinous embracings of the boſom of a ſtranger,R[illegible: 1 letter]pertus. Prov. 5.20. No time for ſuch, 1 Pet. 4.3. Diabolus capite blanditur, ventre oblectat, cauda ligat.

And a time to refrain] As in times of common calamity: for ſhould wee then make mirth? Ezek. 21.10. Should not the Bridegroom come forth of his chamber, and the Bride out of her Cloſet? Joel 2.16. Some of the Ancients do very much note the manner of Noahs going into the Ark,Ambroſ. de Noe & Arca, cap 21 and how the father and the ſonnes went together, the mother and her daughters in Law went together: God himſelf dividing at that time thoſe whom himſelf had joyned together. Others tell us, that & bruta ipſa intra Arcam, quamdiu diluvium duravit, continuerint, the very brute creatures coupled not in the Ark, during the deluge. There is both an intemperate and an intempeſtive abuſe of the marriage Bed, which ought to bee kept undefiled, Heb. 13.3. and not ſtained and diſhonoured with either unſeaſonable or ſenſual exceſſes, and uncleanneſſes; which God will certainly plague, (though they lye without the walk of humane cenſure) without true and timely repentance.Sculte. Annal. Lutheri nuptias amici etiam improbabant, &c. Luthers marrying a wiſe then when all Germany was in a hurly-burly,Quoniam vero ipſum Luth[illegible: 1 letter]rum quodammodo triſt[illegible: 1 letter]orem eſſe ceruo & perturbatum ob vitae mutationem, omni ſtudio & benevolentia conſolari eum cupio. and all Saxony in heavineſs for the death of their good Elector Frederick (Luthers greateſt friend) was no ſmall grief to his beſt friends; and afterward alſo to himſelf, as Melanchthon teſtifieth in an Epiſtle to Camerarius.

Verſ. 6. A time to get] Heb. to ſeek: for men do but ſeek here, they do not properly get what they cannot long hold. How much better therefore were it to ſeek God? Cujus inventio eſt ipſum ſemper quaerere, (as Nyſſen hath it here) the finding of whom is always to ſeek him, and in ſeeking of whom there is ſo great reward, Heb. 11.6. Seek yee mee, and yee ſhall live, Amos 5.4. Seek him that maketh the ſeven Stars and Orion, verſ. 8. Seek him in a time when hee may bee found, Pſal. 32.6. Now is th[illegible: 1 letter] [illegible: 1 letter]ccepted time, now is the day of Salvation, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Naz. Aug. 2 Cor. 6.2. Take the preſent Now and bee ſerious, and then God ſcorns to do as Heathen Idolls did, viz. to ſay to the ſeed of Jacob, Seek yee mee in vain, Iſa. 45.9. How greedy are men of getting gain? Get God, and you get all: Habet omnia qui habet habentem omnia.

And a time to loſe] There is an uncertainty in riches, 1 Tim. 6.27. a deceitfulneſs, Mark 4.19. alye, Joh. 2.8. they were never true to thoſe that truſted them,Mim[illegible: 2 letters]s. ſubject they are to vanity or violence, Matth. 6. How ſeldome doe Gameſters grow rich? Vitrea eſt fortuna; cum ſplende[illegible: 1 letter], frangitur. And as they ſay of the metal, they make glaſſe of; it is neareſt melting, when it ſhines brighteſt in the fire: ſo are many rich men neareſt ruine, when at greateſt luſtre, as Haman, Herod, Pythius, &c.

A time to keep] 'Tis good for a man to keep ſomewhat by him. Bonus Servatius facit bonum Bonifacium, according to the Dutch blunt Proverb,Eccleſ. 11.1. A good Saver, makes a good wel-doer. See the Note on Prov. 6.8.

And a time to caſt away] To caſt bread upon the waters, upon thoſe poor Creatures that pinched with penury, water their plants, feed upon tears. And although bread and other comforts caſt upon ſuch may ſeem caſt down the waters, becauſe no hope of recompence, yet thou ſhalt bee recompenced at the Reſurrection of the Juſt (ſaith Chriſt to ſuch) and bleſſed in the mean while, Luk. 14.14. Temporalia Dei ſervis impenſa non pereunt, ſed paer[illegible: 1 letter]uriunt, Almes periſheth not, but is put to uſe.

Verſ. 7. A time to rent, and a time to ſew] As in making a new, or tranſlating an old garment.Fuller. Turks wonder at Engliſh for pincking or cutting their cloathes, and making holes in whole cloth, which time of it ſelf would tear too ſoon. It was a cuſtom among the Jews, to rent their cloathes in caſe of ſad occurrences. The Prophet Ahijah rent Jeroboams new garment in twelve peeces, to ſhew that God would rend the Kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, 1 King. 11.31. Schiſmaticks rend the Church, Hereticks the Scriptures: God will ſtitch up all in his own time, and heal the breaches thereof, Pſal. 60.2.

A time to keep ſilence, and a time to ſpeak] It is a ſingular skill to time a word, Iſa. 50.4. to ſet it upon its wheels, Prov. 25.11. as Abigail did for her family, 1 Sam. 25. as Eſther did againſt Haman. And it is an happy thing when a man can pray as one once did, Det Deus ut ſermo meus adeo commodus ſit, quam ſit accommodus, God grant my ſpeech may bee as profitable as it is ſeaſonable. He that would be able to ſpeak when and as he ought, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Pythagorica. Cuſpin. de Coeſarib. 475. muſt firſt learn ſilence, as the Pythagoreans did of old, as the Turks doe at this day, Perpetuum ſilentium tenent ut muti, they are not ſuffered to ſpeak: Diſcamus prius non loqui, ſaith Hierome upon this text. Let us firſt learn not to ſpeak, that afterwards we may open our mouthes to ſpeak wiſely. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Cic. de Amici[illegible: 1 letter]. Silence is fitly ſet here before ſpeaking, and firſt takes its time and turn. It is a good rule that one gives, either keep ſilence, or ſpeak that that is better than ſilence.

Verſ. 8. A time to love, and a time to hate] Yet I like not his counſel that ſaid. Ama tanquam oſurus, odi tanquam amaturus. Let a man chuſe whom he may love, and then love whom he hath choſen. Let love be without diſſimulation: abhor the evil, cleave to the good, Rom. 12.9. Hate wee may (but then it muſt be) Non virum, ſed vitium, not the man, but his evil qualities; whereof alſo we muſt ſeek to bereave him, that he may bee totus deſiderabilis, altogether lovely, Cant. 5.16.

A time of war, and a time of peace] Time (ſaith an Interpreter) is a circle; and the Preacher ſhutteth up this paſſage of time in a circle. For having begun with a time to be born, and a time to dye, he endeth with a time of warre, which is a time of dying, and with a time of peace, which is a time, wherein people, by bringing forth, are multiplied.

Verſ. 9. What profit hath he that worketh, &c.] i. e. How can any man by any means he can uſe, help,Cui bono. or hinder this volubility and vanity that he meets with in every creature? What profit? ſee the Note on chap. 1.3. whereunto this verſe relateth, as being a concluſion of the principal argument.

Verſ. 10. I have ſeen the travell that God, &c.] Not Fortune, but Providence ordereth all croſſe occurrences: a wheel there is within a wheel, Ezek. 1. then when men may think things run on wheels, at ſixes and ſevens▪ as they ſay. Humble your ſelves under the mighty hand of God, 1 Pet. 5.6. His holy hand hath a ſpecial ſtroke in all our travels. Hee both ordaineth, Act. 2. and ordereth all, Gen. 50.20. altering the property, Rom. 8.28. and diſpoſing them to good, rayſing profit from all. Thus men afflicted Job for covetouſneſſe, the Devil for malice, chap. 1. God, for trial and exerciſe of his graces; to bee exerciſed therein, ſaith the text, or (as the word ſignifieth) to bee humbled therewith, to hide pride from man, Job 33. to tame and take him a link lower. Their hearts are brought down, Iſa. 29.4. ſaith the Prophet, they ſpeak out of the ground that erſt ſet their mouthes againſt Heaven, and ſaid, I am, and beſides mee there is none.

[non-Latin text not transcribed] ab or natu, Mundus a mundicie.Verſ. 11. He hath made every thing beautiful, &c.] Plato was wont to ſay, that God did always [non-Latin text not transcribed] work by Geometry. Another ſage ſaid, Pondere, me ſura, numero, Deus omnia fecit, God hath done all in number, weight, and meaſure; made and ſet all things in comely and curious order and equipage: he hath alſo prefined afore-hand a convenient and beautiful ſeaſon for every thing; ordering the diſorders of the world to his own glory and his Churches good.

Alſo he hath ſet the world in their heart] i. e. Hee hath given to men the Creature to contemplate; together with an earneſt deſire to ſearch into Natures ſecrets. [non-Latin text not transcribed] Rom. 1.22. The Vulgar renders this Text thus, Et mundum tradidit diſputationi corum, And he hath delivered the world to their diſputations. But ſo fooliſhly and impiouſly have men diſputed of God, of his Providence, of his Judgements, of the chief happineſſe, &c. that they have reaſoned, or rather wrangled away the truth: being neither able to find out the beginning nor end of the cauſes or uſes of Gods works. See Rom. 1.21, 22. Veritatem Philoſophiae quaerit, Theologia invenit, Religio poſſidet, ſaid Picus Mirandula; Philoſophy inquires after truth, Divinity findes it out, and Religion only improves it.

Gloſſa Minor.Verſ. 12. I know that there is no good in them] i. e. No other good, but for a man to rejoyce and doe good in his life, i. e. Frui praeſentibus & facere quod in futuro profit, to enjoy things preſent, and to do that that may doe him good a thouſand years hence: to expend what he hath upon himſelf, and to extend it unto others that are in neceſſity; this is to lay up in ſtore for himſelf a good foundation againſt the time to come, this is to lay hold upon eternal life, 1 Tim. 6.18, 19.

2 Theſſ. 3.Verſ. 13. And enjoy the good of all his labour] They that will not labour muſt not eat, ſaith the Apoſtle: As they that doe ſhall enjoy the good of all their labour, eat the labour of their hands, and be thrice happy, Pſal. 12.8, 12. Jabal and Jubal, Gen. 4. Valeat poſſeſſor oportes, Si comportatis rebus bone cogitat uti. Horat. Pſal. 43.5. Frugality and Muſick, good husbandry and good content, dwell together? and yet not alwayes, but where God gives the gift. Hee gives ſtrength to labour, and health to enjoy the good of our labour. This the rich fool in the Goſpel either knew not, or conſidered not: Eat, drink, and bee merry, ſaid he to himſelf: but God was not in all his thoughts. How much better David? Hope in the Lord, ſaith he to himſelf and others, and be doing good: dwell in the Land, and verily thou ſhalt be fed, Pſal. 37.3.

Verſ. 14. I know that whatſoever God doth it ſhall be for ever] i. e. That his Decree is unchangeable, that his counſel ſhall ſtand, Prov. 19. that the Sun may ſooner be ſtopt in his courſe, than God hindered of his will, or in his work: ſith his power and grace is irreſiſtable. Nature, Angels, Devils, Men, may all be reſiſted, and ſo miſs of their deſign; Not ſo God: For who hath reſiſted his will? Vain men, whiles (like proud, and yet brittle clay) they will be knocking their ſides againſt the ſolid and eternal Decree of God, break themſelves in peeces,1 King. 1. as Adoniah did. And whileſt, with Pompey, vanquiſhed by Julius Caeſar, they complain that there is a great miſt upon the eye of Divine Providence, they doe but blame the Sun, becauſe of the ſoreneſſe of their blear eyes. Certain it is, and Solomon knows it (though the beſt of Heathens doubted of it when they ſaw good men ſuffer, bad men proſper) that every Creature walks blind-fold; only he that dwels in light ſees whither they goe: and that the Charrets of all effects and actions come forth from between thoſe mountains of Braſſe, Gods provident Decrees and counſels moſt firm and immutable, Zach. 5.6.

That men ſhould fear before him] And not lay the reigns in the neck, caſting away all care upon pretence of Gods decree, as that French King did, Ludo. 11. that thus deſperately argued, Si ſalvabor, ſalvabor; ſi vero damnabor, damnabor; If I ſhall bee ſaved, I ſhall bee ſaved, and if I ſhall bee damned, I ſhall bee damned; therefore I will live as I liſt. This was to ſuck poyſon out of a ſweet flower, to daſh againſt the Rock of ages, to fall into the pit (like a profane beaſt) which was digged for better purpoſe, Exod. 21.23. to ſtumble at the word (an ill ſign, and yet an ordinary ſinne) whereunto alſo they were appointed, 1 Pet. 2.8. A bridge is made to give men ſafe paſſage over a dangerous River: but hee that ſtumbleth on the bridge is in danger to fall into the River: So here.

Verſ. 15. That which hath been, is now, &c.] viz. With God, to whom all things are preſent, Rom. 4.17. 2 Pet. 3.8. Jer. 1.5, 6, 7. Hence God is ſaid to know future things, Exod. 3.9. John 18.4. not to foreknow them. For indeed neither foreknowledge nor remembrance are properly in God, ſith his whole Eſſence is wholly an eye or a mind; it is the example or pattern of all things, ſo that hee needs but to look upon himſelf, and then hee ſeeth all things, as in a glaſs. The eye of man beholds many things at once, as Ants in a mole-hill: but if it will ſee other things at the ſame time, it muſt remove the ſight. The mind of man can take in a larger circuit, even a City, a Country, a World: but this it doth onely in the lump or whole maſſe of it; for elſe it muſt remove from form to form, and from thought to thought. But God takes all at once moſt ſtedfaſtly, and perfectly. All things without him are but as a point or ball, which with as much eaſe hee diſcerneth, as wee turn our eyes.

And God requireth that which is paſt] Or enquireth, asketh, that which is by-gone; hee beſpeaks it as preſent, calling thoſe things that are not as if they were. Non aliter ſcivit Deus creatae quam creanda, ſaith Auſtin. God knew things to be created, as if they had been before created.

Verſ. 16. The place of judgement, that wickedneſs was there] i. e. That wrong reigned in the places of Judicature, that Juſtice was ſhamefully perverted, and publick Authority abuſed to publick injury. Cato ſaw as much in the Roman States, and complained, that private robbers were laid in cold irons,A. Gell. lib. 21. cap. 16. when publick theeves went in gold chains, and were cloathed in Purple. Another, not without cauſe, complains, that even among us Chriſtians, ſome follow the adminiſtration of Juſtice as a trade onely; with an unquenchable and unconſcionable deſire of gain: which juſtifies the common reſemblance of the Courts of Juſtice to the Buſh, whereto whiles the Sheep flyes for defence in ill weather, hee is ſure to loſe part of his fleece. Such wickedneſs ſaw the Wiſeman in the place of Judgement, where hee leaſt looked for it. God himſelf looked for judgement, but behold a ſcab, Iſa. 5.7. So the Hebrew hath it.

Verſ. 17. I ſaid in my heart, God ſhall judge, &c.] Hee did not deny the Divine Providence, as Averroes for this cauſe did; much leſs did hee turn Atheiſt with Diagoras, becauſe hee could not have Juſtice done upon a fellow that had ſtollen a Poem of his, and publiſhed it in his own name. But hee concluded within himſelf, Pſal. 37. that God would ſurely take the matter into his own hand, Judge thoſe unrighteous Judges, right and relieve the oppreſſed, bring forth their righteouſneſs as the light, and their innocency as the noon-day, if not in this world, yet certainly at that great Aſſizes to bee held by his ſonne. (Becauſe hee hath appointed a day in the which hee will judge the world in righteouſneſs, whereof hee hath given aſſurance to allmen, &c.) Act. 17 31. His petty Seſſions he keepeth now, letting the Law paſs upon ſome few corrupt Judges by untimely death, diſgraces, baniſhment, remorſe of conſcience, &c. (as hee did upon Judge Morgan, that condemned the Lady Jane Gray, Judge Hales, Belknap, Empſon, Dudley, that I ſpeak not of Pilate, Felix, &c.] reſerving the reſt till the great Aſſizes, 1 Tim. 5.24. Some hee puniſheth here, leſt his Providence, but not all, leſt his patience and promiſe of Judgement ſhould be called into queſtion; as Auſtin well obſerveth. His two and twenty learned Books, De civitate Dei, were purpoſely written to clear up this truth. And ſo were Salvians eight Books, De gubernatione Dei, & de juſto praeſentique ejus judicio.

Verſ. 18. That they might ſee that they themſelves are beaſts] It is reckoned a great matter that wicked men are made to know themſelves to bee but men, and no more, Pſal. 37 22. Pſal. 9.20. But God will make good men ſee and ſay with David, Ambr. in Pſal. 72. So fooliſh was I and ignorant: I was as a Beaſt before thee. Pulchre addidit, Apúd te, ſaith Ambroſe upon thoſe words; Elegantly ſaid the Pſalmiſt, Before thee, becauſe in reſpect of God, what is man but an unreaſonable Beaſt? He that is wiſeſt among men,Socrat. apud Platon. ſaid Socrates, (who himſelf was held the wiſeſt of men) if hee bee compared to God, Simia videbitur, non ſapiens, hee will ſeem rather an Ape than a wiſe man.Eram apud te ſicut beſtia. Mercer. David calls himſelf not a Beaſt onely, but Beaſts in the plural, Behemoth; or at leaſt, a very great Beaſt, not an Ape, but an Elephant. And this is that which God would have all good men ſee, h[illegible: 1 letter]mmah lahem, (as this text hath it) themſelves to themſelves, in their humble account of themſelves, as holy Agur did, Prov: 30. 2. See the Note there.

Verſ. 19. For that which befalleth the ſons of men] As hunger, thirſt, heat, cold, diſeaſes, aches, and other ill accidents.

Noc te tua plurima Pentheu Labeutem texit pietas. As the one dieth] They are ſure to dye, both of them.

Yea they have all one breath] They breathe in the ſame ayr, and exſpire alike, in reſpect of the body.

So that a man hath no preheminence] Unleſs it bee in reaſon and ſpeech, which hee frequently abuſeth to his own utter deſtruction. But otherwiſe, Nos aper auditu praecellit, aranca tactu, Vultur odoratu, lynx viſu, ſimia guſtu.

Verſ. 20. All are of the duſt] See the Note on Gen. 3.19.

Verſ. 21. Who knoweth the Spirit] q. d. Who but a man that is ſpiritually rational, and rationally ſpiritual?1 Cor. 2.16. Who but hee that hath the mind of Chriſt? that hath ſeen the Inſides of Nature and Grace? Whether Plato and Tully beleeved themſelves in what they wrote touching the immortality of the ſoul, is a great queſtion.

Verſ. 22. Whether I perceive] Hee reſumeth his aſſertion, v. 13. and concludeth. See chap. 2.24.