Ecclesiastes 3:6

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} Kερδαινοντες ου κοπιωμεν. - Naz.

{b} Augustine.

{c} Mimus.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

time to get--for example, to gain honestly a livelihood (Eph 4:23).

lose--When God wills losses to us, then is our time to be content.

keep--not to give to the idle beggar (Th2 3:10).

cast away--in charity (Pro 11:24); or to part with the dearest object, rather than the soul (Mar 9:43). To be careful is right in its place, but not when it comes between us and Jesus Christ (Luk 10:40-42).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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!

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 Ecc 5:13.

(i) "tempus quaerendi", Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Piscator, Mercerus, Gejerus, Rambachius.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

A time to lose; when men shall lose their estates, either by God’s 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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A time to get (seek), and a time to lose. The verb abad, in piel, is used in the sense of "to destroy", (Ecc_7:7) and it is only in late Hebrew that it signifies, as here, "to lose." The reference is doubtless to property, and has no connection with the last clause of the preceding verse, as Delitzsch would opine. There is a proper and lawful pursuit of wealth, and there is a wise and prudent submission to its inevitable loss. The loss here is occasioned by events over which the owner has no control, differing from that in the next clause, which is voluntary. The wise man knows when to exert his energy in improving his fortune, and when to hold his hand and take failure without useless struggle. Loss, too, is sometimes gain, as when Christ"s departure in the flesh was the prelude and the occasion of the sending of the Comforter; (Joh_16:7) and there are many things of which we know not the real value till they are beyond our grasp. A time to keep, and a time to cast away. Prudence will make fast what it has won, and will endeavor to preserve it unimpaired. But there are occasions when it is wiser to deprive one"s self of some things in order to secure more important ends, as when sailors throw a cargo, etc., overboard in order to save their ship. (comp. Act_27:18, Act_27:19, Act_27:38) And in higher matters, such as almsgiving, this maxim holds good: "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth.... The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered also himself". (Pro_11:24, Pro_11:25) Plumptre refers to Christ"s so-called paradox," Whosoever would (onv a qelh) save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it". (Mat_16:25)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To life - When men lose their estates, either by God's providence, or by their own choice. To cast away - When a man casts away his goods voluntarily, as in a storm, to save his life, or out of love and obedience to God.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

"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 לאבּד, 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, אבד, like the Lat. perdere, in the sense of "to lose," is the trans. to the intrans. אבד, e.g., Tahoroth; viii. 3, "if one loses (המאבּד) anything," etc.; Sifri, at Deu 24:19, "he who has lost (מאבּד) a shekel," etc. In this sense the Palest.-Aram. uses the Aphel אובד, e.g., Jer. Meza ii. 5, "the queen had lost (אובדת) her ornament." The intentional giving up, throwing away from oneself, finds its expression in להשׁ.

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

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

General Information:

The writer continues with merisms to describe various aspects of life from one extreme to the other. (See: Merism)

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

A time to seek As it is stated (Ezek. 34:16): “I will seek the lost,” concerning those of Israel gone astray.

and a time to lose and a time when He lost them in exile, as it is said (Lev. 26:38): “And you will become lost among the nations.”

a time to keep (Num. 6:24): “May the Lord bless you and keep you,” when you do His will.

and a time to cast away (Deut. 29:27): “and cast them into another land.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.