(1.) To all (human life, that is) is a season (זמן, this word occurs here and Nehemiah ii. 6, Esther xi. 27, 31, only, and the participle past of the verb Ezra x. 14, Nehemiah x. 34 (35) 13, 21; it will be seen by an examination of passages that this word differs from מועד, which both Ezra and Nehemiah also use, and which is the common word in the older books for ‘a sacred season’ or ‘feast.’ זמן is a ‘settled time,’ ‘a date.’ Fuerst considers the primary idea of the root is ‘to count.’ It is clear that מועד would not have suited this context; this of course so far weakens any argument for the late date of this work as derived from the use of this word), and a time (general, the common word) to all (repeated, and therefore emphatic, equal ‘that is to all’) providences (חפץ, which, however, has the signification desire as well, ‘a satisfactory undertaking therefore;’ Koheleth uses the word technically with a reference to the divine providences of God. The word occurs chapter iii. 1, 17, v. 4 (3), 8 (7), viii. 6, xii. 1, 10. The LXX. here render πρᾶγμα, but chapter xii. θέλημα) under the heavens (this meaning of חפץ may account for one use of this phrase here instead of the more usual ‘under the sun,’——heaven being perhaps employed as we sometimes use it, for God’s providence under heaven).
2 A time [¹]to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
[¹] Hebrew to bear.
(1.) A time to be born, and a time to die;
(2.) A time to plant, and a time to root up that which is planted;
(2.) A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up the planted.