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.

3:2–3. The list begins with a reference to the beginning and end of a person’s life, two events over which he really has no control. Solomon continued by referring to the deliberate acts of one who begins and ends vegetable life (a time to plant and a time to uproot), takes and saves human life, and constructs and destroys buildings. Perhaps all these are suggested by the concept of birth and death.

3:4. From the concept of death and destruction, Solomon wrote of the human responses to those events. People experience weeping and mourning, and their opposites, laughing and dancing, two activities by which joy is expressed.

3:5–6. How the two opposites in verse 5 are related to each other and to those in verses 2–4 is uncertain. Many interpretations have been suggested for the meaning of the phrases a time to scatter (or “cast away,” KJV) stones and a time to gather them. Perhaps it is best to see them as referring to the gathering and rejecting of building materials. This relates these opposites both to the idea of building (v. 3) and to the thought of keeping and throwing away (v. 6).

Solomon then spoke of the display of affections (v. 5b), probably of a man to a woman and perhaps also of a woman to a man. He then wrote about searching for a thing or giving it up as lost and about keeping a thing or throwing it away (v. 6). All the opposites in verses 5–6 seem to involve man’s interest in things or affection for persons.

3:7. This verse may refer to actions associated with mourning (tearing one’s clothes and remaining silent; cf. Job 2:12–13), and its end (sewing one’s clothes and speaking out). If so, it would relate to the mourning in Ecclesiastes 3:4.

3:8. Solomon closed his list of opposites by referring to life’s two basic emotions, love and hate, and the most hostile expression of the latter, war, and its opposite, peace. It may be significant that the list closes, somewhat as it began, with a set of opposites (war and peace) over which a person has little control.

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.

3:2–3. The list begins with a reference to the beginning and end of a person’s life, two events over which he really has no control. Solomon continued by referring to the deliberate acts of one who begins and ends vegetable life (a time to plant and a time to uproot), takes and saves human life, and constructs and destroys buildings. Perhaps all these are suggested by the concept of birth and death.

3:4. From the concept of death and destruction, Solomon wrote of the human responses to those events. People experience weeping and mourning, and their opposites, laughing and dancing, two activities by which joy is expressed.

3:5–6. How the two opposites in verse 5 are related to each other and to those in verses 2–4 is uncertain. Many interpretations have been suggested for the meaning of the phrases a time to scatter (or “cast away,” KJV) stones and a time to gather them. Perhaps it is best to see them as referring to the gathering and rejecting of building materials. This relates these opposites both to the idea of building (v. 3) and to the thought of keeping and throwing away (v. 6).

Solomon then spoke of the display of affections (v. 5b), probably of a man to a woman and perhaps also of a woman to a man. He then wrote about searching for a thing or giving it up as lost and about keeping a thing or throwing it away (v. 6). All the opposites in verses 5–6 seem to involve man’s interest in things or affection for persons.

3:7. This verse may refer to actions associated with mourning (tearing one’s clothes and remaining silent; cf. Job 2:12–13), and its end (sewing one’s clothes and speaking out). If so, it would relate to the mourning in Ecclesiastes 3:4.

3:8. Solomon closed his list of opposites by referring to life’s two basic emotions, love and hate, and the most hostile expression of the latter, war, and its opposite, peace. It may be significant that the list closes, somewhat as it began, with a set of opposites (war and peace) over which a person has little control.

b. Significance: Toil is profitless (3:9)

3:9. Turning from the thesis that every activity has its time, Solomon again raised the question of the value of a person’s work, expecting rhetorically the same somber answer as before (cf. 1:3; 2:11), that there is no profit (gain, yiṯrôn; cf. comments on 1:3) in one’s toil.

c. Reason: God’s design is inscrutable (3:10–11)

3:10–11. To support the implied negative answer to his question in verse 9, Solomon referred to three observations he had drawn from his reflection on all the human activity represented in the opposites, verses 2–8. This activity is suggested by the word burden (‘inyan), which is translated “task” in the NASB. (1) Solomon observed that God … has made everything beautiful (or, “appropriate”; the same word is trans. “proper” in 5:18) in its time, that is, God in His providential plans and control has an appropriate time for every activity. (2) Solomon observed that God has put eternity in the hearts of men. People have a longing or desire to know the extratemporal significance of themselves and their deeds or activities. (3) Solomon added that people cannot know the works of God … from beginning to end, that is, they cannot know the sovereign, eternal plan of God. Human labor is without profit because people are ignorant of God’s eternal plan, the basis by which He evaluates the appropriateness and eternal significance of all their activities. Because of this ignorance there is an uncertainty and latent temporality to the value of all one’s labor.

d. Recommendation: Enjoy life as God enables (3:12–13)

3:12–13. Since man in his ignorance of God’s plan cannot be sure of the appropriateness or lasting significance of his labor, Solomon again recommended the present enjoyment of life (cf. 2:24), stating that there is nothing better for men than to be happy as long as they live (cf. 5:18; 8:15). The words do good (in the NIV and NASB) should be rendered “enjoy themselves” (RSV). No moral qualification is suggested here as a requirement for receiving God’s gift of enjoyment (as there is in 2:26). Most commentators are undoubtedly correct in pointing to the parallel words find satisfaction (lit., “see good”) in 3:13. There “good” is used in a nonethical sense (cf. 2:24; 5:18 for the same idiom).

Again Solomon indicated that this ability to enjoy life comes as a gift of God (cf. 2:25). Christian D. Ginsburg properly renders 3:13 as a conditional sentence: “If any man eats and drinks and finds satisfaction in all his toil, it is a gift of God” (The Song of Songs and Coheleth, pp. 311–2).