He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
He hath made every thing beautiful in his time - i:e., in its proper season (Psalms 1:3); opposed to worldings, putting earthly pursuits out of their proper time and place (note, Ecclesiastes 3:9). Or the train of thought is, God does everything on a deliberate plan, not at random, as our ignorance of the relation of each successive event to the whole plan might tempt us to think. Many things in Ecclesiastes 2:1-26; Ecclesiastes 3:1-22; Ecclesiastes 4:1-16; Ecclesiastes 5:1-20; Ecclesiastes 6:1-12; Ecclesiastes 7:1-29; Ecclesiastes 8:1-17 seem to our finite view evil which are really good and beautiful, inasmuch as they form indispensable links in the vast chain, and occur exactly at the right time.
Set the world in their heart - given them capacities to understand the world of nature as reflecting God's wisdom in its beautiful order and times (Romans 1:19-20). "Everything" answers to "world" in the parallelism.
So that - i:e., (Hebrew, mibªliy (H1097), 'ªsher (H834)) except that-but in such a manner that man only sees a portion, not the whole 'from beginning to end' (Ecclesiastes 8:17; Job 26:14; Romans 11:33; Revelation 15:4). Hengstenberg translates the Hebrew х `owlaam (H5769)], 'eternity' for "world:" God makes everything beautiful in His time; but man is unable to see it, notwithstanding that God hath set eternity in man's heart. Psalms 90:1-5 represents man, in consciousness of his frailty, taking refuge in God's eternity. Romans 1:20 shows that God hath set in man's intellect the intuition of God's eternal power as manifested in His works of creation. It is man's privilege to discern something eternal behind the fleeting present world, and to cling to it. The Vulgate and Syriac support the English version. Eternity is the usual sense in Ecclesiastes 1:4; Ecclesiastes 2:16; Ecclesiastes 3:14, in this very Ecclesiastes 9:6. The root ( haalam (H1986)) 'to hide,' implies the duration of time as hidden from man. This incapacity for "finding out" (comprehending) God's work is chiefly the fruit of the fall, The worldling ever since, not knowing God's time and order, labours in vain, because out of time and place. Since no man knoweth beforehand the time ordained by God, our wisdom is to cast our cares and ourselves on the Lord, and to cease from profitless toils.