The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 77

" SPMOn" and ''time" ore rendered by the is not elsewhere found used in lbe pruiaive LX X. 1<a1p&r o.nd xp&vor, The word fo1· sense, thongh other verbs are so need some- "•seo.sou" (zemctn), denotes e. fixed, definite times, as in Jer. xxv. 34. In the first portion of time; while cth, "time," signifies case the catalogue commences with the rnther -the beginning of a period, or ie beginning of life; in the second, with tl.Je used e.s a geneml Bppelle.tion. 'fhe two season of full maturity : " Those who nt one ideae are sometimes occun·ent in tho New time give life to others, at another have Testament; e.g. Acts i. 7; 1 These. v. 1 themselves to yield to the law of cleath" (comp. nlso Dan. ii. 21, where the Septua- (Wright). The contrast points to the passive gint hns 1Ca1pour ICIU xpovour; nod Dan. vii. rendering. There is no question of un- 12, where we find the singular 1Ct1.1pov 1Cal timely birth or snicide; in the common ,ccupov in Theodotion, and xp&vou Kai 1Ca1pov order of events birth and death have each in the Septuagint). So in Wisd. viii. 8," Sho their appointed season, which comes to pass [wisdom] foreseeth eigns and wonders, and without man's interference, being directed the events of seasons and times (l1t{Jd(J'm by a higher law. "It is appointed onto men 1ta1pwv ICC!! xp&110111)." EveTy thing refers once to die" (Heb. ix. 27). Koheletb's e9pecially to men's movements and actions, teaching was perverted by sensualists, as we ancl to what concerns them. Purpose; read in Wisd. ii. 2, 3, 5. A time to plant. chephets, originally meaning "delight," After speaking of human life it is natural to " pleasure," in the le.ter Hebrew came to turn to vegetable life, which runs in parallel signify "business," "thing,"" matter." The lines with man's existence. Thus Job, proposition is-In humo.n affairs Providence having intimated the shortness of life and uno.nges the moment when everything shall the certainty of death, proceeds to speak of happen, the duration of its operation, and the tree, contrastillg its revivifying powers the time appropriate thereto. The view of with the hopelessness of man's decay (Job the writer takes in the whole circumstances xiv. 5, etc.). And .. . to pluck up that which of men's life from its commencement to its is planted. This last operation may refer to close. But the thought is not, as some have the transplanting of trees and shrubs, or to opined, that there is naught but uncertainty, the gathering of the fruits of the earth in fluctuation, and imperfection in human order to make room for new e.gricnltural nffuirs, nor, a.a Plumptre conceives, "It is works. But having regard to the opposition wisdom to do the right thing a.t the right in all the members of the series, we should time, that inopportuneness is the bane of rather consider the "plucking up" as life," for many of the circumstances men- equivalent to destroying. If we plant trees, tioned, e.g. birth e.nd death, are entirely a time oomee when we cut them down, and beyond men's will and control, and the this is their final co.use. Some commentators maxim, Ka1pb11 'Y";;,9,, co.nnot apply to man in see in thie clo.use an o.llusion to the settling such co.see. Koheleth is confirming his and uprooting of kingdoms and nu.tions, e.s assertion, made in the last chapter, that Jer. i. 10; xviii. 9, etc.: bot this conld not wisdom, wealth, snccess, happiness, etc., have been the idea in Koheleth's mind. ore not in man's hands, that his own efforts Ver. 3.-A time to kill, and a time to heal can secure none of them-they are dis- The time to kill might refer to war, only tributecl at the will of God. He establishes that occurs in ver. 8. Some endeavour to this dictum by entering into details, and limit the notion to severe snrgice.l operations showing the orclering of Providence and the performed with a view of saving life ; but suprcmu.cy of God in all men's concerns, the the verb harag does uot admit of the mean- most trivio.l u.s well us the most important. ing " to wound" or" cut." It most probably The Vulgnte gives a paraphrase, and not a refers to thEI execution of criminals, or to very rxact one, Omnia tempus habent, et suis the defence of the oppressed; such emer- spatiis transeunt universa sub crelo. Koheleth gencies ancl necessities oocur providentinlly intimates, without attempting to reconcile, without man's prescience. So sickness is the great c,•ux of man's free-will and God's a visitation beyond man's control, while it decree. calla into exercise the art of healing, which Ver. 2.-A time to be born, and a time to ie o. gift of God (see Ecclus. x. 10 ; xxxviii. die. Throughout the succeeding catalogue 1, eto.). A time to break down, and a time marked contro.sts ore exhibited in pairs, to build up. The removo.1 of clece.ying or beginning with the entrance and close of unsuitu.ble buildings is meant, and the sub- life, the rest of the list being occnpied with stitution of new aud improved structures. events and circumstances which intervene A reoollection of Solomon's own extensive between those two extremities. The words architectural works is here introduced. rendered, "a time to be born," might more Ver. 4.-A time to weep, and a time to naturally mean "o. time to bear; " 1Ca1p~r Tou laugh, grouped natumlly with a time to 7E1Cei11, Septuagint; as the yerb is in the in- mourn, and a time to danoe. 'fhe funeml finiti1·e active, which, in this pnrticnlAr verb, nncl the wedding, the hired mourners and GO ECCLESIASTES; OR, 'l'HE PUEACillm. [on. m. 1-22,