field, not exclusively (2Ki 4:16), but yet chiefly (as e.g., at Pro 5:20) as referring to love for women; the intensive in the second member is introduced perhaps only for the purpose of avoiding the paronomasia lirhhoq mahhavoq.
The following pair of contrasts is connected with the avoiding or refraining from the embrace of love: -
Verse 6
Ecc 3:6 “To seek has its time, and to lose has its time; to lay up has its time, and to throw away has its time.” Vaihinger and others translate לאבּד, to give up as lost, which the Pih. signifies first as the expression of a conscious act. The older language knows it only in the stronger sense of bringing to ruin, making to perish, wasting (Pro 29:3). But in the more modern language, אבד, like the Lat. perdere, in the sense of “to lose,” is the trans. to the intrans. אבד, e.g., Tahoroth; viii. 3, “if one loses (המאבּד) anything,” etc.; Sifri, at Deu 24:19, “he who has lost (מאבּד) a shekel,” etc. In this sense the Palest.-Aram. uses the Aphel אובד, e.g., Jer. Mezîa ii. 5, “the queen had lost (אובדת) her ornament.” The intentional giving up, throwing away from oneself, finds its expression in להשׁ.
The following pair of contrasts refers the abandoning and preserving to articles of clothing: -
Verse 7
Ecc 3:7 7a. “To rend has its time, and to sew has its time.” When evil tidings come, when the tidings of death come, then is the time for rending the garments (2Sa 13:31), whether as a spontaneous outbreak of sorrow, or merely as a traditionary custom. - The tempest of the affections, however, passes by, and that which was torn is again sewed together.
Perhaps it is the recollection of great calamities which leads to the following contrasts: - 7b. “To keep silence has its time, and to speak has its time.” Severe strokes of adversity turn the mind in quietness back upon itself; and the demeanour most befitting such adversity is silent resignation (cf. 2Ki 2:3, 2Ki 2:5). This mediation of the thought is so much the more probable, as in all these contrasts it is not so much the spontaneity of man that comes into view, as the pre-determination and providence of God.
The following contrasts proceed on the view that God has placed us in relations in which it is permitted to us to love, or in which our hatred is stirred up: -
Verse 8
Ecc 3:8 “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),
