Ecclesiastes 3:6

A time to get, and a time to lose,.... To get substance, as the Targum, and to lose it; wealth and riches, honour and glory, wisdom and knowledge: or, "to seek, and to lose" (i); a time when the

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to get - e.g., to gain honestly a livelihood (Ephesians 4:28); Hebrew, seek. Lose - when God wills losses to us, then is our time to be content.

A time to lose; when men shall lose their estates, either by God’ s providence, or by their own choice. A time to cast away; when a man shall cast away his goods voluntarily, as in a storm to save his life, as ,19; or out of love and obedience to God, as ,39 Hebrews 10:34.

Ecclesiastes 3:6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;Ver. 6. A time to get.] Heb., To seek; for men do but seek here, they do not properly get what they cannot long hold. How much better therefore were it to seek God! Cuius inventio est ipsum semper quaerere (as Nyssen hath it here), the finding of whom is always to seek him, and in seeking of whom there is so great reward. "Seek ye me and ye shall live." "Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion." Seek him "in a time when he may be found." "Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." Take the present "now," and be serious, and then God scorns to do as heathen idols did - viz., to say to the seed of Jacob, "Seek ye me in vain." How greedy are men of getting gain! Get God, and you get all: Habet omnia qui habet habentem omnia. And a time to lose.] There is an "uncertainty" in riches; a "deceitfulness"; a "lie." They were never true to those that trusted them; subject they are to vanity or violence. How seldom do gamesters grow rich! Vitrea est fortuna; cum splendot, frangitur. And as they say of the metal they make glass of: it is nearest melting when it shines brightest in the fire; so are many rich men nearest ruin when at greatest lustre, as Haman, Herod, Pythias, &c. A time to keep.] It is good for a man to keep somewhat by him. Bonus servatius facit bonum bonifacium, according to the Dutch blunt proverb, ‘ A good saver makes a good well doer.’ And a time to cast away.] To "cast bread upon the waters," upon those poor creatures that, pinched with penury, water their plants, feed upon tears. And although bread and other comforts cast upon such may seem cast down the waters, because no hope of recompense, yet thou shalt be "recompensed at the resurrection of the just," saith Christ to such, and blessed in the meanwhile. Temporalia Dei servis impensa non pereunt, sed parturiunt, Alms perisheth not, but is put to use. Kερδαινοντεςουκοπιωμεν. - Naz. Augustine. Mimus.

(6) To lose.—Elsewhere this word means to destroy, but in the later Hebrew it comes to mean to lose, like the Latin “perdere.”

Verse 6. A time to get, - to lose, - to keep, - to cast away] ___________________ "Commerce produces wealth, Whilst time of gaining lasts; from every point Blow prosperous gales. Now heaven begins to lower, And all our hopes are blasted. Prudence bids, One while, our treasure to reserve, and then With liberal hand to scatter wide. How oft In raging storms, the owner wisely casts Into the deep his precious merchandise, To save the foundering bark!

6. A time to get, and a time to lose] The getting or the losing refer primarily, we can scarcely doubt, to what we call property. There are times when it is better and wiser to risk the loss of all we have rather than to set our minds on acquiring more. Something like this lesson we have in our Lord’s paradox “whosoever will (wills to) save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 16:25). In earthly, as in heavenly, things it is the note of a wise man that he knows when to be content to lose. So the Satirist condemns the folly of those who are content, “Propter vitam vivendi perdere causas.”“And for mere life to lose life’s noblest ends.”Juven. Sat. viii. 84. a time to keep, and a time to cast away] The second couplet though closely allied with the foregoing is not identical with it. What is brought before us here is “keeping” as distinct from “getting,” and the voluntarily casting away (2 Kings 7:15) what we know we have, as distinct from the loss of a profit more or less contingent. And here too, as life passes on, it presents occasions when now this, now that, is the choice of wisdom. So the sailor, in danger of shipwreck, casts out his cargo, his tackling, the “furniture” of his ship (Acts 27:18-19; Acts 27:38).

Get ... lose - Rather, seek, and a time to give up for lost.

6. To keep… to cast away — The reference in this verse is to the change of our tastes and likings, by which we come to reject what once we sought, either carelessly losing it, or intentionally throwing it away.