Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ecclesiastes 3:6

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

6. A time to get, and a time to lose ] The getting or the losing refer primarily, we can scarcely doubt, to what we call property. There are times when it is better and wiser to risk the loss of all we have rather than to set our minds on acquiring more. Something like this lesson we have in our Lord’s paradox “whosoever will (wills to) save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Mat 16:25). In earthly, as in heavenly, things it is the note of a wise man that he knows when to be content to lose. So the Satirist condemns the folly of those who are content,

“Propter vitam vivendi perdere causas.”

“And for mere life to lose life’s noblest ends.”

Juven. Sat. viii. 84.

a time to keep, and a time to cast away ] The second couplet though closely allied with the foregoing is not identical with it. What is brought before us here is “keeping” as distinct from “getting,” and the voluntarily casting away (2Ki 7:15) what we know we have, as distinct from the loss of a profit more or less contingent. And here too, as life passes on, it presents occasions when now this, now that, is the choice of wisdom. So the sailor, in danger of shipwreck, casts out his cargo, his tackling, the “furniture” of his ship (Act 27:18-19; Act 27:38).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Get … lose – Rather, seek, and a time to give up for lost.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 6. A time to get, – to lose, – to keep, – to cast away]

___________________ “Commerce produces wealth,

Whilst time of gaining lasts; from every point

Blow prosperous gales. Now heaven begins to lower,

And all our hopes are blasted. Prudence bids,

One while, our treasure to reserve, and then

With liberal hand to scatter wide. How oft

In raging storms, the owner wisely casts

Into the deep his precious merchandise,

To save the foundering bark!

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

A time to lose; when men shall lose their estates, either by Gods providence, or by their own choice.

A time to cast away; when a man shall cast away his goods voluntarily, as in a storm to save his life, as Jon 1:5; Act 27:18,19; or out of love and obedience to God, as Mat 10:37,39; Heb 10:34.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

6. time to getfor example, togain honestly a livelihood (Eph4:23).

loseWhen God willslosses to us, then is our time to be content.

keepnot to give to theidle beggar (2Th 3:10).

cast awayin charity(Pr 11:24); or to part withthe dearest object, rather than the soul (Mr9:43). To be careful is right in its place, but not when it comesbetween us and Jesus Christ (Lu10:40-42).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

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” i; 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, Jon 1:5; 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 Ec 5:13.

i “tempus quaerendi”, Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Piscator, Mercerus, Gejerus, Rambachius.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

“To seek has its time, and to lose has its time; to lay up has its time, and to throw away has its time.” Vaihinger and others translate , to give up as lost, which the Pih. signifies first as the expression of a conscious act. The older language knows it only in the stronger sense of bringing to ruin, making to perish, wasting (Pro 29:3). But in the more modern language, , like the Lat. perdere , in the sense of “to lose,” is the trans. to the intrans. , e.g., Tahoroth; viii. 3, “if one loses ( ) anything,” etc.; Sifri, at Deu 24:19, “he who has lost ( ) a shekel,” etc. In this sense the Palest.-Aram. uses the Aphel , e.g., Jer. Meza ii. 5, “the queen had lost ( ) her ornament.” The intentional giving up, throwing away from oneself, finds its expression in .

The following pair of contrasts refers the abandoning and preserving to articles of clothing: –

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

(6) To lose.Elsewhere this word means to destroy, but in the later Hebrew it comes to mean to lose, like the Latin perdere.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

6. To keep to cast away The reference in this verse is to the change of our tastes and likings, by which we come to reject what once we sought, either carelessly losing it, or intentionally throwing it away. Koheleth regards this as not coming from mere fancy, but from law.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Ecc 3:6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

Ver. 6. A time to get. ] Heb., To seek; for men do but seek here, they do not properly get what they cannot long hold. How much better therefore were it to seek God! Cuius inventio est ipsum semper quaerere (as Nyssen hath it here), the finding of whom is always to seek him, and in seeking of whom there is so great reward. Heb 11:6 “Seek ye me and ye shall live.” Amo 5:4 “Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion.” Amo 5:8 Seek him “in a time when he may be found.” Psa 32:6 “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.” 2Co 6:2 Take the present “now,” and be serious, and then God scorns to do as heathen idols did – viz., to say to the seed of Jacob, “Seek ye me in vain.” Isa 45:19 How greedy are men of getting gain! a Get God, and you get all: Habet omnia qui habet habentem omnia. b

And a time to lose. ] There is an “uncertainty” in riches; 1Ti 6:17 a “deceitfulness”; Mar 4:19 a “lie.” Joh 8:44 They were never true to those that trusted them; subject they are to vanity or violence. Mat 6:19-21 How seldom do gamesters grow rich! Vitrea est fortuna; cum splendot, frangitur. c And as they say of the metal they make glass of: it is nearest melting when it shines brightest in the fire; so are many rich men nearest ruin when at greatest lustre, as Haman, Herod, Pythias, &c.

A time to keep. ] It is good for a man to keep somewhat by him. Bonus servatius facit bonum bonifacium, according to the Dutch blunt proverb, ‘A good saver makes a good well doer.’ See Trapp on “ Pro 6:8 “

And a time to cast away. ] To “cast bread upon the waters,” Ecc 11:1 upon those poor creatures that, pinched with penury, water their plants, feed upon tears. And although bread and other comforts cast upon such may seem cast down the waters, because no hope of recompense, yet thou shalt be “recompensed at the resurrection of the just,” saith Christ to such, and blessed in the meanwhile. Luk 14:14 Temporalia Dei servis impensa non pereunt, sed parturiunt, Alms perisheth not, but is put to use.

a K . – Naz.

b Augustine.

c Mimus.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

to get = to buy, or acquire (Compare Ecc 2:8). Gen 42:2, Gen 42:7, Gen 42:20. Rth 4:5. 2Sa 24:21. Isa 55:1. Jer 32:7. Eph 4:28.

to lose. Gen 31:39. Mat 10:39; Mat 16:25, Isa 47:9.

to keep. 1Sa 16:11. Pro 7:1. Luk 8:15. 2Ti 1:14. Joh 2:10; Joh 12:7.

to cast away. Jdg 15:17. 2Ki 7:15. Isa 31:7. Hos 9:17. Hos 11:1.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

time to get: or, time to seek, Gen 30:30-43, Gen 31:18, Exo 12:35, Exo 12:36, Deu 8:17, Deu 8:18, 2Ki 5:26, 2Ki 8:9, an a time to lose, Mat 16:25, Mat 16:26, Mat 19:29, Mar 8:35-37, Mar 10:28-30, Luk 9:24, Luk 9:25

and a time to cast: Ecc 11:1, 2Ki 7:15, Psa 112:9, Isa 2:20, Jon 1:5, Act 27:19, Act 27:38, Phi 3:7, Phi 3:8, Heb 10:34, Heb 10:35

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge