Ecclesiastes 3:8

Ecc 3:8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Ver. 8. A time to love, and a time to hate.] Yet I like not his counsel that said, Ama tanquam osurus, odi tanquam amaturus, {a} Let a man choose whom he may love, and then love whom he hath chosen. "Let love be without dissimulation; abhor the evil, cleave to the good." {Rom 12:9} Hate we may, but then it must be, non virum, sed vitium, not the man, but his evil qualities; whereof also we must seek to bereave him, that he may be totus desiderabilis, "altogether lovely." {Son 5:16}

A time of war, and a time of peace.] Time, saith an interpreter, is a circle; and the Preacher shutteth up this passage of time in a circle. For having begun with "a time to be born," and "a time to die," he endeth with "a time of war," which is a time of dying, and with "a time of peace," which is a time wherein people, by bringing forth, are multiplied.

{a} Cicero De Amicit.

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.

hate--for example, sin, lusts (Luk 14:26); that is, to love God so much more as to seem in comparison to hate "father or mother," when coming between us and God.

a time of war . . . peace-- (Luk 14:31).

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 8. A time to love, - hate, - of war, - of peace.]

"Love turns to hatred; interest or caprice

Dissolves the firmest knot by friendship tied.

O'er rival nations, with revenge inflamed,

Or lust of power, fell Discord shakes awhile

Her baleful torch: now smiling Peace returns.

The above paraphrase on the verses cited contains a general view of the principal occurrences of time, in reference to the human being, from his cradle to his grave, through all the operations of life.

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

8. A time to love, and a time, to hate] Greek thought again supplies us with a parallel,

ἡμεῖς δὲ πῶς οὐ γνωσόμεσθα σωφρονεῖν;

ἐγὼ δʼ, ἐπίσταμαι γὰρ ἀρτίως ὅτι

ὅ τʼ ἐχθρὸς ἡμῖν ἐς τοσόνδʼ ἐχθαρτέος,

ὡς καὶ φιλήσων αὖθις, ἔς τε τὸν φίλον

τοσαῦθʼ ὑπουργῶν ὠφελεῖν βουλήσομαι,

ὡς αἰὲν οὑ μενοῦντα.

“Shall not we too learn

Our lesson of true wisdom? I indeed

Have learnt but now that we should hate a foe

Only so far as one that yet may love,

And to a friend just so much help I’ll give

As unto one that will not always stay.”

Soph. Aias, 680–686.

a time of war, and a time of peace] The change in the Hebrew, as in the English, from verbs in the infinitive to substantives is probably intended to emphasize the completion of the list. The words are of course closely connected with the “love” and “hate” of the preceding clause, but differ in referring to the wider range of national relations. Here also the wisdom of a king or statesman lies in discerning the opportuneness of war or peace, in seeing when the maxim “si vis pacem para bellum” is applicable or inapplicable.

It may be well to repeat here what was said at the outset in reference to this list of times and seasons, that the idea of a Necessity, Fate, Predestination, which many interpreters, bent on finding traces of a Stoic fatalism, have read into the teaching of the section, is really foreign to the writer’s thoughts. That which he insists on is the thought that the circumstances and events of life form part of a Divine Order, are not things that come at random, and that wisdom, and therefore such a measure of happiness as is attainable, lies in adapting ourselves to the order and accepting the guidance of events in great things and small, while shame and confusion come from resisting it. The lesson is in fact identical with one very familiar to us at once in the commonest of all proverbs, “Take time by the forelock;” “Time and tide wait for no man,” and in a loftier strain,

“There is a tide in the affairs of men

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the remnant of their lives

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.”

Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, iv. 3.

It is well to remember such counsels of prudence. It is well also to remember that a yet higher wisdom bids us in the highest work “to be instant, in season, out of season” (εὐκαίρως, ἀκαίρως, 2Ti_4:2).

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 love, and a time to hate,.... For one to love his friend, and to hate a man, a sinner, as the Targum; to love a friend while he continues such, and hate him, or less love him, when he proves treacherous and unfaithful; an instance of a change of love into hatred may be seen in the case of Amnon, Sa2 13:15. A time of unregeneracy is a time of loving worldly lusts and sinful pleasures, the company of wicked men, and all carnal delights and recreations; and a time of conversion is a time to hate what was before loved, sin, and the conversion of sinners, the garment spotted with the flesh, the principles and practices, though not the persons, of ungodly men; and even to hate, that is, less love, the dearest friends and relations, in comparison of, or when in competition with, Christ;

a time of war, and a time of peace; for nations to be engaged in war with each other, or to be at peace, which are continually revolving; and there is a time when there will be no more war. In a spiritual sense, the present time, or state of things, is a time of war; the Christian's life is a warfare state, though it will be soon accomplished, in which he is engaging in fighting with spiritual enemies, sin, Satan, and the world: the time to come, or future state, is a time of peace, when saints shall enter into peace, and be no more disturbed by enemies from within or from without. In the Midrash, all the above times and seasons are interpreted of Israel, and applied to them.

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

A time to love; when God will stir up the affection of love, or give occasion for the exercise or discovery of it to others.

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

8. To love… to hate — Even the movements of human passion are recognised as subject to the inevitable order. Men now “love” and now “hate” each other.

War… peace — Nations are now at “war,” and again in “peace.” The writer does not commit himself to the approval of any of the things here named. He simply takes twenty-eight illustrations from common life to show how the course of the world goes, and urges that this course is irresistible.

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 love, and a time to hate. This reminds one of the gloss to which our Lord refers, (Mat_5:43) "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy," the first member being found in the old Law, (Lev_19:18) the second being a misconception of the spirit which made Israel God"s executioner upon the condemned nations. It was the maxim of Bias, quoted by Aristotle, "Rhet.," 2:13, that we should love as if about some day to hate, and hate as if about to love. And Philo imparts a still more selfish tone to the gnome, when he pronounces ("De Carit.," 21, p. 401, Mang.), "It was well said by them of old, that we ought to deal out friendship without absolutely renouncing enmity, and practice enmity as possibly to turn to friendship. A time of war, and a time of peace. In the previous couplets the infinitive mood of the verb has been used; in this last hemistich substantives are introduced, as being more concise and better fitted to emphasize the close of the catalogue. The first clause referred specially to the private feelings which one is constrained to entertain towards individuals. The second clause has to do with national concerns, and touches on the statesmanship which discovers the necessity or the opportuneness of war and peace, and acts accordingly. In this and in all the other examples adduced, the lesson intended is this that man is not independent; that under all circumstances and relations he is in the hand of a power mightier than himself, which frames time and seasons according to its own good pleasure. God holds the threads of human life; in some mysterious way directs and controls events; success and failure are dependent upon his will. There are certain laws which, regulate the issues of actions and events, and man cannot alter these; his free-will can put them in motion, but they become irresistible when in operation. This is not fatalism; it is the mere statement of a fact in experience. Koheleth never denies man"s liberty, though he is very earnest in asserting God"s sovereignty. The reconciliation of the two is a problem unsolved by him.

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

To love - When God stirs up love, or gives occasion for the exercise of it.

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

"To love has its time, and to hate has its time; war has its time, and peace has its time." In the two pairs of contrasts here, the contents of the first are, not exclusively indeed (Psa 120:7), but yet chiefly referred to the mutual relations of peoples. It is the result of thoughtful intention that the quodlibet of 2 x 7 pairs terminates this for and against in "peace;" and, besides, the author has made the termination emphatic by this, that here "instead of infinitives, he introduces proper nouns" (Hitz.).

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 concludes using merisms to describe various aspects of life from one extreme to the other. (See: Merism)

What profit does the worker gain in his labor?

This is a thought provoking question to focus the reader on the next discussion topic. Translate "what profit does ... gain" as you did in Ecclesiastes 1:3. AT: "The worker gains no profit for his labor." (See: Rhetorical Question)

translationWords

time

love

peace

profit

labor

God

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 love (Deut. 7:13): “and He will love you.”

and a time to hate (Hos. 9:15): “All their evil is in Gilgal; therefore (sic) I hated them.”

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.