Ecclesiastes 3:2-8 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

A time 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. A time to kill When men die a violent death. A time to heal When he who seemed to be mortally wounded is healed. A time to weep When men have just occasion for weeping, as they frequently have in the present life, both for their own sins and for the sins and miseries of mankind. “It is in vain,” says Castalio, here, “to expect our happiness in this world: for this is no more the time and the place for it, than the seed- time is the harvest. But we must stay till the next life for it; which is the proper time for complete happiness: here we must be content with a great many tears.” A time to cast away stones Which were brought together in order to the building of a wall, or house, but are now castaway, either because the person who gathered them hath changed his mind, and desists from his project, or for other causes. A time to embrace When persons enter into friendship, and perform all friendly offices one to another; and a time to refrain, &c. Either through alienation of affection, or grievous calamities. A time to get, and a time to lose “In our traffic and commerce one with another, there is a time of gaining much; but there are other times, when a man must be content to lose by his commodities.” A time to keep, &c. “Sometimes also it is fit for a man to keep and lay up what he hath gotten; but at another time it will be as fit for him to spend or to give it away to those that need.” A time to rend When men rend their garments, as they did in great and sudden griefs. A time to love When God stirs up love, or gives occasion for the exercise of it.