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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ecclesiastes 3:2 - 3:2
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
(Note: These seven verses, 2-8, are in Codd and Edd., like Jos 12:9., and Est 9:7., arranged in the form of a song, so that one עֵת (time) always stands under another, after the scheme described in Megilla 16b, Massecheth Sofrim xiii. 3, but without any express reference to this passage in Koheleth. J has a different manner of arranging the words, the first four lines of which we here adduce: -
'ēth lāmoth veeth lalěděth 'ēth
'ēth nathu'ǎ lǎ'ǎqor veeth lathǎ'ǎth
'ēth lirpō veeth lǎhǎrog
'ēth livnoth veeth liphrots)
“To be born has its time, and to die has its time; to plant has its time, and to root up that which is planted has its time.” The inf. לָלֶדֶת signifies nothing else than to bring forth; but when that which is brought forth comes more into view than she who brings forth, it is used in the sense of being born (cf. Jer 25:34, לִטְ = לְהִטָּבְחַ); ledah, Hos 9:11, is the birth; and in the Assyr., li-id-tu, li-i-tu, li-da-a-tu, designates posterity, progenies. Since now lālǎděth has here lāmuth as contrast, and thus does not denote the birth-throes of the mother, but the child's beginning of life, the translation, “to be born has its time,” is more appropriate to what is designed than “to bring forth has its time.” What Zöckler, after Hitzig, objects that by lěděth a הפץ an undertaking, and thus a conscious, intended act must be named, is not applicable; for לַכֹּל standing at the beginning comprehends doing and suffering, and death also (apart from suicide) is certainly not an intended act, frequently even an unconscious suffering. Instead of לָטַעַת (for which the form לַטַּעַת
(Note: This Abulwalid found in a correct Damascus ms., Michlol 81b.)
is found, cf. לַמּוֹט, Psa 66:9), the older language uses לִנְטֹעַ, Jer 1:10. In still more modern Heb. the expression used would be ליטע, i.e., לַטַּע (Shebîith ii. 1). עָקַד has here its nearest signification: to root up (denom. of עִקָּד, root), like עֲקַר, 2Ki 3:25, where it is the Targ. word for הִפִּיל (to fell trees).
From out-rooting, which puts an end to the life of plants, the transition is now made to putting to death.