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;
And forasmuch as it is the portion of men once to die, and after this judgment;
If his days are determined, if the number of his months is with thee, [and] thou hast appointed his bounds which he must not pass,
In which time Moses was born, and was exceedingly lovely, who was nourished three months in the house of his father.
See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up, and to break down, and to destroy, and to overthrow, to build and to plant.
At the moment that I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to break down, and to destroy, if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, then I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at the moment that I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant, if it do evil in my sight, that it hearken not unto my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them.
Thus shalt thou say unto him, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, what I have built do I overthrow, and what I have planted I pluck up, even this whole land.
The Son of man shall send his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all offences, and those that practise lawlessness;
But he answering said, Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up.
and behold, thou shalt be silent and not able to speak, till the day in which these things shall take place, because thou hast not believed my words, the which shall be fulfilled in their time.
And behold, Elizabeth, thy kinswoman, she also has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month to her that was called barren:
A woman, when she gives birth to a child, has grief because her hour has come; but when the child is born, she no longer remembers the trouble, on account of the joy that a man has been born into the world.
But as the time of promise drew near which God had promised to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt,
And Jehovah visited Sarah as he had said, and Jehovah did to Sarah as he had spoken. And Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him.
And the days of Israel approached that he should die. And he called his son Joseph, and said to him, If now I have found favour in thine eyes, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me: bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt;
Aaron shall be gathered unto his peoples; for he shall not enter into the land that I have given unto the children of Israel, because ye rebelled against my commandment at the waters of Meribah. Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up unto mount Hor, and strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron shall be gathered [to his peoples], and shall die there. And Moses did as Jehovah had commanded, and they went up mount Hor before the eyes of the whole assembly. And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there upon the top of the mountain; and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.
And Jehovah said to Moses, Get thee up into this mount Abarim, and see the land that I have given unto the children of Israel. And when thou hast seen it, thou also shalt be gathered unto thy peoples, as Aaron thy brother was gathered, because ye rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin, in the strife of the congregation, as to hallowing me in the matter of the water before their eyes. (That is the water of Meribah at Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.)
And I besought Jehovah at that time, saying, Lord Jehovah, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy powerful hand; for what ùGod is in the heavens or in the earth that can do like to thy works, and like to thy might? Let me go over, I pray thee, and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. But Jehovah was wroth with me on your account, and did not hear me; and Jehovah said to me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter!
They that were full have hired themselves out for bread; and the hungry are [so] no more: Even the barren beareth seven, and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.
And he cried against the altar by the word of Jehovah, and said, O altar, altar! thus saith Jehovah: Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he sacrifice the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burned upon thee.
Hath not man a life of labour upon earth? and are not his days like the days of a hireling?
(If a man die, shall he live [again]?) all the days of my time of toil would I wait, till my change should come:
He maketh the barren woman to keep house, [as] a joyful mother of sons. Hallelujah!
And he dug it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine; and he built a tower in the midst of it, and also hewed out a winepress therein; and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes. And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard. What was there yet to do to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? -- And now, let me tell you what I am about to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be eaten up; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trodden under foot;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Ecclesiastes 3
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 3 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 3
Solomon having shown the vanity of studies, pleasures, and business, and made it to appear that happiness is not to be found in the schools of the learned, nor in the gardens of Epicurus, nor upon the exchange, he proceeds, in this chapter, further to prove his doctrine, and the inference he had drawn from it, That therefore we should cheerfully content ourselves with, and make use of, what God has given us, by showing,
Ecc 3:1-10
The scope of these verses is to show,
Ecc 3:11-15
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.
Ecc 3:16-22
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.