Ecclesiastes 3:6

6 Time to get, and time to lose; time to keep, and time to cast away. (Time to get, and time to set free; time to keep, and time to throw away.)

Ecclesiastes 3:6 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 3:6

A time to get, and a time to lose
To get substance, as the Targum, and to lose it; wealth and riches, honour and glory, wisdom and knowledge: or, "to seek, and to lose" F9; a time when the sheep of the house of Israel, or God's elect, were lost, and a time to seek them again; which was, lone by Christ in redemption, and by the Spirit of God, in effectual calling; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
to keep a thing, and to cast it away, into the sea, in the time of a great tempest, as the Targum; as did the mariners in the ship in which Jonah was, and those in which the Apostle Paul was, ( Jonah 1:5 ) ( Acts 27:38 ) ; It may be interpreted of keeping riches, and which are sometimes kept too close, and to the harm of the owners of them; and of scattering them among the poor, or casting them upon the waters; see ( Ecclesiastes 5:13 ) ( 11:1 ) ( Proverbs 11:24 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F9 (vqbl te) "tempus quaerendi", Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Piscator, Mercerus, Gejerus, Rambachius.

Ecclesiastes 3:6 In-Context

4 Time to weep, and time to laugh; time to bewail, and time to dance.
5 Time to scatter stones, and time to gather (them) together; time to embrace, and time to be far from embracings.
6 Time to get, and time to lose; time to keep, and time to cast away. (Time to get, and time to set free; time to keep, and time to throw away.)
7 Time to cut, and time to sew together; time to be still, and time to speak (time to be silent, and time to speak).
8 Time to love, and time of hatred; time of battle, and time of peace. (Time to love, and time to hate; time to fight, and time to make peace.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.