1 Qohelet begins this, his most memorable poem, with the statement that everything and every activity on earth has its time. The following seven verses will particularize this opening statement.
Qohelet intends to cover everything, leaving no exceptions. The second colon is more specific in that it refers to every activity.18 The Hebrew word for activity (ḥēpeṣ) has an interesting etymology. In certain contexts it means “pleasure,” and that meaning actually occurs elsewhere in Ecclesiastes (5:3 [English 5:4]; 12:10), but in other contexts it clearly means “activity” (here and in 3:17; 5:7 [English 5:8]; 8:6). We know little about the exact relationship between these two meanings of the same root. There may be a semantic development from one meaning to the next, or perhaps they are homonyms. In either case, it is dubious to marshal such etymological information to posit that this passage is “upbeat,” in the sense that the activity is pleasurable.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to draw a distinction between the two “time” words in this verse. season (zᵊmān) occurs in late Hebrew and Aramaic passages in the Bible. Franz Delitzsch21 and Daniel Fredericks remind us that the word has an ancient Akkadian cognate, indicating that it is an older word than one might at first believe.
The more common Hebrew term for time (ʿēt) occurs uncharacteristically in the second colon of the line, where we usually find the rarer term. We cannot be sure why the poet chose to reverse the normal order, but it is probably due to the fact that time (ʿēt) is the term that is repeated throughout the whole poem. Both words, according to most commentators, “indicate specific points in time rather than continuity.”
What follows is a list of activities that are not prescriptive, but rather descriptive, of what actually happens under heaven (Qohelet’s alternative phrase to the more common “under the sun,” for which see 1:3). After all, it would be hard to say that there is a good time to be born, to die, or to lose something.1
Ver. 1.—To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. “Season” and “time” are rendered by the LXX. καιρός and χρόνος. The word for “season” (zeman), denotes a fixed, definite portion of time; while eth, “time,” signifies rather the beginning of a period, or is used as a general appellation. The two ideas are sometimes occurrent in the New Testament; e.g. Acts 1:7; 1 Thess. 5:1 (comp. also Dan. 2:21, where the Septuagint has καιροὺς καὶ χρόνους; and Dan. 7:12, where we find the singular καιροῦ καὶ καιροῦ in Theodotion, and χρόου καὶ καιροῦ in the Septuagint). So in Wisd. 8:8, “She [wisdom] foreseeth signs and wonders, and the events of seasons and times (ἐκβάσεις καιρῶν καὶ χρόνων).” Every thing refers especially to men’s movements and actions, and to what concerns them. Purpose; chephets, originally meaning “delight,” “pleasure,” in the later Hebrew came to signify “business,” “thing,” “matter.” The proposition is—In human affairs Providence arranges the moment when everything shall happen, the duration of its operation, and the time appropriate thereto. The view of the writer takes in the whole circumstances of men’s life from its commencement to its close. But the thought is not, as some have opined, that there is naught but uncertainty, fluctuation, and imperfection in human affairs, nor, as Plumptre conceives, “It is wisdom to do the right thing at the right time, that inopportuneness is the bane of life,” for many of the circumstances mentioned, e.g. birth and death, are entirely beyond men’s will and control, and the maxim, Καιρὸν γνῶθι, cannot apply to man in such cases. Koheleth is confirming his assertion, made in the last chapter, that wisdom, wealth, success, happiness, etc., are not in man’s hands, that his own efforts can secure none of them—they are distributed at the will of God. He establishes this dictum by entering into details, and showing the ordering of Providence and the supremacy of God in all men’s concerns, the most trivial as well as the most important. The Vulgate gives a paraphrase, and not a very exact one, Omnia tempus habent, et suis spatiis transeunt universa sub cœlo. Koheleth intimates, without attempting to reconcile, the great crux of man’s free-will and God’s decree.2
1. The Old Testament commonly sees purposefulness in life coming from God’s providential oversight of its occasions and seasons. Each aspect of life has its ‘time’: rain (Lev. 26:4), the downfall of God’s enemies (Deut. 32:35), conception (2 Kgs 4:16f.). Hence the great need of ‘insight into times’ (1 Chr. 12:32; cf. Eccl. 8:5). Wisdom involves knowing ‘the times’ (Esth. 1:13); godliness says ‘My times are in your hands’ (Ps. 31:15). The Preacher holds a similar viewpoint: the ‘times’ of life cannot be fully known (9:11f.). but ‘in all time’ (9:8) one should be content.
‘Every event’, says von Rad, ‘has its definite place in the time-order; the event is inconceivable without its time, and vice-versa.’ ‘God is intimately connected with time,’ says H. W. Robinson; ‘… His relation to men itself requires the time-order for the fulfillment of His purposes.’66 This approach to time which permeates the Old Testament is taken up by the Preacher and made the basis of his optimism. The fourteen couplets of 3:2–8 cover the whole range of human activity. Over it all the Preacher sees God in complete control. It is a warrant at the same time for both humility and confidence.
Time simply means an ‘occasion’ or a ‘season’ of time; purpose pinpoints what one wants to do. Elsewhere it is used of one’s pleasure (5:4; 12:1 and the Hebrew of 12:10). The pairing of the varying aspects of human life indicates the universality of God’s control. For the expression of totality in pairs is a common Old Testament idiom. Thus ‘man and woman’ (Exod. 36:6) or ‘great and small’ (Jer. 6:13) is used to say emphatically ‘everybody’; ‘sea and land’ (Jon. 1:9) is an emphatic way of saying ‘everywhere’.3
3:1. The wise man not only knows the principles of wisdom, but he also knows when they apply (cf. Pr 26:4–5). Wisdom is thus about proper timing. Qohelet recognizes that the same is true of life under the sun. Every event under the sun has its proper time, as is seen in the poem that follows.4
3:1. Solomon said, There is a time … for every activity under heaven (cf. 8:6). By the word “activity” Solomon meant people’s deliberate, willful acts. The Hebrew word for “activity,” always used of people, literally means “desire,” and then by metonymy “what one desires” (cf. Isa. 58:13). For these willful acts people are held accountable (cf. Ecc. 3:17). Each activity, wrote Solomon, has its proper “time” (point in time) and season (duration).
(2) Thesis illustrated (3:2–8). Solomon followed his general statement with a poem on 14 opposites, each of which happens in its time. The fact that Solomon utilized polar opposites in a multiple of seven and began his list with birth and death is highly significant. The number seven suggests the idea of completeness and the use of polar opposites—a well-known poetical device called merism—suggests totality (cf. Ps. 139:2–3). Though the exact meaning of some of these “activities” is uncertain, Solomon intended to affirm that all a person’s activities, both constructive and destructive, and all his responses to people, objects, and events happen in their times.5
3:1 As a research student of life and of human behavior, Solomon observed that there is a predetermined season for everything and a fixed time for every happening. This means that God has programmed every activity into a gigantic computer, and, as Hispanics say, “Que será, será”: What will be, will be! It also means that history is filled with cyclical patterns, and these recur with unchangeable regularity. So man is locked into a pattern of behavior which is determined by certain inflexible laws or principles. He is a slave to fatalism’s clock and calendar.
In verses 1–8, the Preacher enumerates twenty-eight activities which are probably intended to symbolize the whole round of life. This is suggested by the number twenty-eight, which is the number of the world (four) multiplied by the number of completeness (seven).
The list is made up of opposites. Fourteen are positives and fourteen negatives. In some ways, they seem to cancel out each other so that the net result is zero.6
1 Longman, T. (1998). The Book of Ecclesiastes (pp. 113–114). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
2 Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. (1909). Ecclesiastes (pp. 58–59). Funk & Wagnalls Company.
3 Eaton, M. A. (1983). Ecclesiastes: An introduction and commentary (Vol. 18, pp. 91–92). InterVarsity Press.
4 Finkbeiner, D. (2014). Ecclesiastes. In M. A. Rydelnik & M. Vanlaningham (Eds.), The moody bible commentary (p. 976). Moody Publishers.
5 Glenn, D. R. (1985). Ecclesiastes. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 983). Victor Books.
6 MacDonald, W. (1995). Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments (A. Farstad, Ed.; p. 890). Thomas Nelson.
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