Bible Commentaries
Ecclesiastes 3

Introduction

It follows from Ecclesiastes 2:26 that the works of people are subject in their results to another will (God’s) besides that of the doer. Here is the germ of the great question of later times - how to reconcile man’s free will with God’s decrees. Solomon’s way of stating it is that to every separate work, which goes to make up the great aggregate of human activity (the “travail,” Ecclesiastes 3:10), there is a season, an appropriate time which God appoints for its being done Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. To the question Ecclesiastes 3:9 What profit? he answers that the works of people, if done according to God’s appointment, are a part of that beautifully arranged scheme of Divine Providence which, as a whole, is, by reason of its extent and duration, incomprehensible to us Ecclesiastes 3:11. Man’s good is to rejoice and do good in his lifetime, which he can do only as God appoints Ecclesiastes 3:12-13. God’s work, of which this would be a part, is forever, is perfect (and so not subject to vanity), and is calculated to teach people to revere Him Ecclesiastes 3:14. His work, which was begun long ago, is now going on to completion; His work hereafter will be a complement of something which was done previously; and He recalls the past in order to add to it what shall make it complete and perfect Ecclesiastes 3:15. The principle of divine government - that every work in order to be permanent and successful must be God’s work as well as man’s work - is also declared in Psalms 127:1-2 (attributed to Solomon).

Verse 1

Everything - More particularly, the actions of people (e. g. his own, Ecclesiastes 2:1-8) and events which happen to people, the world of Providence rather than the world of creation. It would seem that most of his own works described in Ecclesiastes 2:1-8 were present to his mind. The rare word translated “season” means emphatically “fitting time” (compare Nehemiah 2:6; Esther 9:27, Esther 9:31).

Verse 5

Stones may be regarded either as materials for building, or as impediments to the fertility of land (see 2 Kings 3:19, 2 Kings 3:25; Isaiah 5:2).

Verse 6

Get ... lose - Rather, seek, and a time to give up for lost.

Verse 7

Rend - i. e., Tear garments in sign of mourning or anger. See 2 Samuel 1:2, 2 Samuel 1:11 ff.

Verse 11

Rather, He hath made all (the travail, Ecclesiastes 3:10) beautiful (fit, in harmony with the whole work of God) in its time; also He hath set eternity in their heart (i. e., the heart of the sons of men, Ecclesiastes 3:10).

The word, translated “world” in the text, and “eternity” in this note, is used seven times in Ecclesiastes.

The interpretation “eternity,” is conceived in the sense of a long indefinite period of time, in accordance with the use of the word throughout this book, and the rest of the Old Testament. God has placed in the inborn constitution of man the capability of conceiving of eternity, the struggle to apprehend the everlasting, the longing after an eternal life.

With the other meaning “the world,” i. e., the material world, or universe, in which we dwell, the context is explained as referring either to the knowledge of the objects with which this world is filled, or to the love of the pleasures of the world. This meaning seems to be less in harmony with the context than the other: but the principal objection to it is that it assigns to the word in the original a sense which, although found in rabbinical Hebrew, it never bears in the language of the Old Testament.

So ... find - i. e., Without enabling man to find. Compare Ecclesiastes 7:13; Ecclesiastes 8:17.

Verse 12

In them - i. e., in the sons of men.

To do good - In a moral sense. Physical enjoyment is referred to in Ecclesiastes 3:13.

Verse 14

The last clause of this verse goes beyond a declaration of the fact of God’s government of the world Ecclesiastes 2:26 by adding the moral effect which that fact is calculated to produce on those who see it. It is the first indication of the practical conclusion Ecclesiastes 12:13 of the book.

Verse 15

Rather, What has been - what was before, and what shall be has been before. The word “is” in our the King James Version is erroneously printed in Roman letters: it does not exist in the Hebrew (it should have been italicized); and the word there translated “now” is the same which is translated as “already.”

Requireth - i. e., requireth for judgment, as the word specially means in 2 Samuel 4:11; Ezekiel 3:18...It is obvious from the context of the last clause of Ecclesiastes 3:14, and Ecclesiastes 3:16-17, that this is the meaning here.

Past - literally, “put to flight.”

The meaning of the verse is that there is a connection between events - past, present and future - and that this connection exists in the justice of God who controls all.

Verses 16-22

What shall be after him - i. e., What shall become of the results of his work after he is dead. Compare Ecclesiastes 2:19; Ecclesiastes 6:12.