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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ecclesiastes 3:3 - 3:3
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“To put to death has its time, and to heal has its time; to pull down has its time, and to build has its time.” That harog (to kill) is placed over against “to heal,” Hitzig explains by the remark that harog does not here include the full consequences of the act, and is fitly rendered by “to wound.” But “to put to death” is nowhere = “nearly to put to death,” - one who is harug is not otherwise to be healed than by resurrection from the dead, Eze 37:6. The contrast has no need for such ingenuity to justify it. The striking down of a sound life stands in contrast to the salvation of an endangered life by healing, and this in many situations of life, particularly in war, in the administration of justice, and in the defence of innocence against murder or injury, may be fitting. Since the author does not present these details from a moral point of view, the time here is not that which is morally right, but that which, be it morally right or not, has been determined by God, the Governor of the world and Former of history, who makes even that which is evil subservient to His plan. With the two pairs of γένεσις καὶ φθορά there are two others associated in Ecc 3:3; with that, having reference, 2b, to the vegetable world, there here corresponds one referring to buildings; to פְּרוֹץ (synon. הֲרוֹס, Jer 1:10) stands opposed בְּנוֹת (which is more than גְּדוֹר), as at 2Ch 32:5.
These contrasts between existence and non-existence are followed by contrasts within the limits of existence itself: -