Chapter Three

1–15. The dependence of human life on the divine order of the world. 16–22. The death like animals of those living without God.

Ecclesiastes 3:1. There is a time for everything, and a time for every purpose under heaven: Ecclesiastes 3:2. a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot what was planted; Ecclesiastes 3:3. a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build; Ecclesiastes 3:4. a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; Ecclesiastes 3:5. a time to scatter stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; Ecclesiastes 3:6. a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; Ecclesiastes 3:7. a time to tear apart, and a time to sew together; a time to be silent, and a time to speak; Ecclesiastes 3:8. a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. At the end of the second chapter, the Preacher came to the chief reason for the impossibility of human striving for happiness. Between human desire and its fulfillment stands Someone who can take bread from one and give it to another. Now, in chapter 3, he goes deeper into this thought and extends it to the whole sphere of human life. And here the Preacher finds the same non-progressive circulation, the same inescapable influence of laws, and here all human desires and enterprises stand in constant dependence on time and circumstances and, like natural phenomena, pass in strict succession. “There is a time for everything, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” The Hebrew word (hephez) means, properly: inclination, intention, enterprise. The Preacher speaks here not of objects of nature, but of human activity, of phenomena of human life, as is evident from the further development of the thought. He wishes to say that the facts of human life are not products of the human will acting in complete freedom, but lie outside the bounds of his conscious desires.

Ecclesiastes 3:9. What profit has the worker from that over which he labors? In this dependence of human life on external influences beyond the human will lies the chief reason for the fruitlessness of human efforts, the impossibility of human striving for happiness.

Ecclesiastes 3:10. I have seen the labor which God has given to the sons of men, that they might be exercised in it. And yet man cannot extinguish the thirst within him for the highest good. His striving for happiness, implanted in him by God Himself, constantly and irresistibly drives him to new labors, to new seeking.

Ecclesiastes 3:11. He has made everything beautiful in its time, and has put eternity in the hearts of men, though man cannot grasp the deeds which God does from the beginning to the end. The world is full of harmony, and the human spirit bears upon itself the stamp of eternity; however, the divine order of the world remains incomprehensible to man and cannot be brought into harmony with human will. “He has made everything beautiful in its time,” that is, all that God created is beautiful in its time and place, in the general system of the world’s existence. “And has put eternity in their hearts.” The Hebrew word olam is rendered variously in translations: “eternity” (LXX), “world” (Vulgate and translation), “reason,” “covering,” etc. But since this word generally in the Bible and particularly in the book of Ecclesiastes (Eccl 1:10 and others) means “eternity,” then in this place too we should hold to this meaning. Only in post-biblical literature did the word olam come also to denote the world, as perpetually continuing. “To put eternity in man” means to endow him with God-like properties, to impress upon human nature the stamp of eternity, of divinity. Man’s striving for the highest good, for eternal happiness, is an expression of his God-likeness.

Ecclesiastes 3:12. I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in their life. Ecclesiastes 3:13. And if a man eats and drinks and sees good in all his labor, then this is a gift of God. The deep contradiction hidden in human nature, on one side the striving for eternity, on the other the limitation of his reason, is the chief cause of the dissatisfaction of the human spirit, its constant disappointments. In order to escape the latter more or less, man must once and for all reconcile himself to the thought that the highest happiness (Ithron) under the sun is impossible. He must, so to speak, lower his requirements for life and, casting aside the seeking of the highest good, content himself with relative good, that which is comparatively good, which is “better” (tob). If the highest good – Ithron – is impossible, then relative good – tob – is fully accessible to man. What then constitutes this tob? “I know that there is nothing better (tob) for them than to rejoice and to do good in their life.” Good labor and calm enjoyment of the earthly joys – these are the only happiness accessible to man. As long as man strives for absolute happiness on earth, he is condemned to constant disappointments. Even the best moments of his life are poisoned by the thought of the fragility of happiness, by the distressing care about the future. On the contrary, the man who has renounced the seeking of complete happiness is content with the little that life gives him, rejoices, is glad without care about tomorrow. Like a child, he gives himself to every joy sent by God, gives himself with his whole being, immediately, not destroying it by analysis, criticism, or pointless doubts. And these small joys, joined with good labor and a pure conscience, make life pleasant, relatively happy. Verses 12–13 in no way express an eudaemonistic view of life which makes the aim of life mere enjoyment. First, alongside earthly joys the Preacher places another necessary condition for a relatively happy life, namely – “doing good”; second, the use of earthly goods is joined with the consciousness of dependence on God’s will, with the grateful thought that “this is a gift of God.” Thus, the enjoyment of life to which the Preacher calls is based on a religious view of the world, presupposes as its necessary condition faith in divine providence.

Ecclesiastes 3:14. I know that everything God does will endure forever: there is nothing to add to it and nothing to take away from it, – and God does this so that men should fear before Him. At the beginning of the 3rd chapter the Preacher spoke of the constancy and immutability of the laws governing human life. Now he speaks of them more definitely. These laws are expressions of the eternal and unchanging will of God. Man is powerless to add anything to them or to take anything from them. The very purpose of divine providence is to show men their complete dependence on God and thus to teach them the fear of God.

Ecclesiastes 3:15. What was is now, and what will be has already been, – and God will bring back the past. “God will bring back the past.” The LXX and Syriac translate: God will seek out the oppressed (Church Slavonic “the hunted”). But, in accordance with the context, it is better to understand in the middle voice: what was cast out, removed, the past.

Ecclesiastes 3:16. Yet I saw under the sun: in the place of judgment there was wickedness; in the place of righteousness there was wickedness. Ecclesiastes 3:17. And I said in my heart: “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every thing and for every work there. Divine providence manifests itself not only in natural phenomena but also in the moral life of man. In human judgment live injustice and lawlessness. But above human judgment there is God’s judgment, which will render to each the righteous and the wicked their due. For this judgment, as for everything else, its time will come. “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for everything and over every work there.” The word “there” (sham) is not entirely clear. The Vulgate renders it with “then” (tune), Jerome – “at the time of judgment” (in tempore judicii), but Hebrew sham is an adverb of place, not time. Probably it means here: in God’s judgment, in parallel with the word “there” in v. 16 to designate human judgment. Some exegetes instead of scham read sam and translate: God assigned a time to all things. The thought accords entirely with the context, but whether the Hebrew voweling is actually corrupt here is difficult to say.

Ecclesiastes 3:18. I said in my heart concerning the sons of men, that God tests them, and that they may see that they are beasts in themselves; Ecclesiastes 3:19. for the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts – their fate is one: as those die, so do these die, and one breath is in all, and man has no advantage over beasts, for all is vanity! Ecclesiastes 3:20. All go to one place: all came from dust and all return to dust. Ecclesiastes 3:21. Who knows: does the spirit of the sons of men go upward, and the spirit of beasts go downward into the earth? These verses explain in more detail the purpose of divine providence, indicated briefly in the words Eccl 3:14: “so that men should fear before Him.” The dependence of man on divine providence is intended to teach men that they themselves, with their natural powers, natural will and understanding, thinking to live without God, outside of divine providence, are like beasts and cannot have any grounds for confidence in the immortality of their spirit. If the facts of natural consciousness with invincible force convince man that both man and beast equally die, lose breath and the source of life, turning to dust, then, living without God, not acknowledging divine providence, how can he know that the spirit of the beast goes downward while the spirit of man goes upward? In vv. 18–21, as we see, the Preacher does not express his own view concerning human existence, his personal doubt about the spirituality and immortality of human nature. This would contradict Eccl 12:7, where it is directly stated that not everything in man goes to one place, but only the body turns to dust, while the spirit returns to God, who gave it. In the verses cited, the Preacher explains how man living “by himself,” guided only by a natural point of view, not acknowledging divine providence, should regard himself.

Daniel 11:35. “I said – to the sons of men.” The Russian translation is not precise. It should be rendered: “I said – (this) is for the sons of men.” For the benefit of men that order of things has been established by which human life stands in constant dependence on divine providence and judgment. “That God tests them.” Barar means: to separate, to test, to cleanse (cf. Dan 11:35: “some of the understanding will suffer for the testing (lebarer) of them, cleansing and brightening until the time of the end”). The purpose of divine providence is to bring men to the consciousness of their own nothingness and thus to cleanse them. “All go to one place” – not into Sheol, as some exegetes think, but into the earth, as is evident from the words that follow.

Ecclesiastes 3:22. So I saw that there is nothing better than for a man to enjoy the works of his hands: for this is his lot; for who will bring him to see what will happen after him? Having explained the purpose of divine providence, the Preacher returns to the conclusion he had already drawn in Eccl 3:12-13. If man depends on divine providence in all things, if by himself he is powerless and insignificant, then one ought to abandon the thought of complete happiness on earth and content oneself with the joys of labor pleasing to God. “That a man should enjoy the works of his hands.” In this expression the Preacher unites two conditions of relative happiness: enjoyment of life and good activity (Eccl 3:12), for both, according to him, are inseparable. “For who will bring him to see what will happen after him.” Here the speech is not about the future, otherworldly life of man, as in Eccl 3:21, but about what will be “after him,” that is, how life on earth will develop after his death. Man should not burden himself and poison the joys available to him with excessive anxious cares about the distant future.