Ecclesiastes 3:6

6 A right time to search and another to count your losses, A right time to hold on and another to let go,

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 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Ecclesiastes 3:6 In-Context

4 A right time to cry and another to laugh, A right time to lament and another to cheer,

5 A right time to make love and another to abstain, A right time to embrace and another to part,

6 A right time to search and another to count your losses, A right time to hold on and another to let go,

7 A right time to rip out and another to mend, A right time to shut up and another to speak up,

8 A right time to love and another to hate, A right time to wage war and another to make peace.