time · noun, common both genders singular absolute
born
לָלֶ֖דֶתla.Le.det
H3205
to bear young · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
time
וְעֵ֣תve.'Et
H6256
time · conjunction + noun, common both genders singular absolute
die
לָמ֑וּתla.Mut
H4191
to die (literally or figuratively) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
time
עֵ֣ת'et
H6256
time · noun, common both genders singular absolute
plant
לָטַ֔עַתla.Ta.'at
H5193
properly · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
time
וְעֵ֖תve.'Et
H6256
time · conjunction + noun, common both genders singular absolute
up
לַעֲק֥וֹרla.'a.Kor
H6131
to pluck up (especially by the roots) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
planted
נָטֽוּעַna.Tu.a'
H5193
properly · verb, qal passive participle, masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
Job 14:5 Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;
Matthew 15:13 But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.
Jeremiah 18:7-10 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
Job 7:1 Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?
Isaiah 38:1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Se…
Luke 1:20 And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my wo…
John 16:21 A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 3:1-10
The scope of these verses is to show, 1. That we live in a world of changes, that the several events of time, and conditions of human life, are vastly different from one another, and yet occur promiscuously, and we are continually passing and repassing between them, as in the revolutions of every day and every year. In the wheel of nature (Jam 3:6) sometimes one spoke is uppermost and by and by the contrary; there is a constant ebbing and flowing, waxing and waning; from one extreme to the other does the fashion of this world change, ever did, and ever will. 2. That every change concerning us, with the time and season of it, is unalterably fixed and determined by a supreme power; and we must…
time to die-- (Psa 31:15; Heb 9:27).
plant--A man can no more reverse the times and order of "planting," and of "digging up," and transplanting, than he can alter the times fixed for his "birth" and "death." To try to "plant" out of season is vanity, however good in season; so to make earthly things the chief end is vanity, however good they be in order and season. GILL takes it, not so well, figuratively (Jer 18:7, Jer 18:9; Amo 9:15; Mat 15:13).
John Gill on Ecclesiastes 3:2
A time to be born,.... The Targum is,
"to beget sons and daughters;''
but rather it is to bear them, there being a time in nature fixed for that, called the hour of a woman, Job 14:1;
and a time to die; the time of a man's coming into the world and going out of it, both being fixed by the Lord (f): this is true of all men in general, of all men that come into the world, for whom it is appointed that they shall die; and particularly of Christ, whose birth was at the time appointed by the Father, in the fulness of time; and whose death was in due time, nor could his life be taken away before his hour was come, John 7:30; and this holds good of every individual man; his birth is at the time…
This is written in the Scriptures and is manifest to all. For although it be hidden and unknown to all, what period of time is allotted to each, and how it is allotted; yet every one knows this, that as there is a time for spring and for summer, and for autumn and for winter, so, as it is written, there is a time to die, and a time to live.
"A time to live and a time to die": you can see, therefore, beloved brothers, that this was said concerning the time of the Lord's birth and death. Thus you must accept his virgin birth if we are to believe not only that the Word in the beginning who was called "is" was born, but, as I said, also that the humanity which he adopted and put on was born, both Lord and man. For it says, "what is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the spirit is spirit." Yet, what suffered, died, was buried, and resurrected was not God but man, since he raised man to God, not God to man.
He does well to mention right away the binding union between birth and death; death necessarily follows birth, and each generation passes away. To show the connection between death and birth, the former is like a spur to arouse persons immersed in the flesh who love this present existence that they may pay attention to the future. Moses, the friend of God, quietly philosophizes over these matters as we see in the first titles of his books; he immediately writes Exodus right after Genesis. Thus these titles teach us about the order of our lives, for there is no birth [genesis] without death [exodos]. The great Ecclesiastes shows that death holds the same rank as birth: "There is a time to be born and a time to die."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Firebrand · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
on Ecclesiastes 3:2
(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 עת (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. ללדת signifies nothing els…
We have no control over when we are born or when we die (8:8), but it is our responsibility to live wisely between those events. • plant and . . . harvest: Wise agricultural decisions must be made in the natural seasons. • In ancient Israel, the times to kill included capital punishment and war. • In times of mourning, people in the Near East would often tear their clothes. • There is a time to hate, even for God (Pss 5:5; 11:5).
Rashi on Ecclesiastes 3:2
A time to be born. At nine months.
And a time to die. The limit of the years of each generation.
A time to plant. A nation and a kingdom.
And a time to uproot. A time will come for it to be uprooted.
