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Mark Dunagan Commentaries

Ecclesiastes 3:6

"A time to search, and. time to give up as lost;"

There are things worth searching for (Luke 13:24; 2 Timothy 2:15; Ephesians 2:3). And then there are times to give up, to cut your loses and admit failure. Solomon had to admit failure (Ecclesiastes 2:11). There will be wealth, things, friendships, loved ones, and opportunities which will never be seen again.

Ecclesiastes 3:6 "A time to keep, and. time to throw away."

The Bible gives us good advice concerning what qualities and other things in life we need to hold on to and what to get rid of (Colossians 3:5-14). The same is true of various friendships (1 Corinthians 15:33).

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See also Ecclesiastes 3:6 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Ecclesiastes 3:6. _A TIME TO GET, - TO LOSE, - TO KEEP, - TO CAST AWAY_] ___________________ "_Commerce_ produces wealth, Whilst _time of gaining_ lasts; from every point Blow prosperous gale...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    GET ... LOSE - Rather, seek, and a time to give up for lost....

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    2. FURTHER RESULTS OF THE SEARCH CHAPTER 3 _ 1. The times of man under the sun (Ecclesiastes 3:1)_ 2. When then is the good? (Ecclesiastes 3:12) 3. Concerning judgment and the future ...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    From one point of view this section may be entitled _In Praise of Opportunism,_ from another _Human Helplessness._ Every action in which man can engage has its allotted season, but who can be sure tha...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    TO GET. to buy, or acquire (Compare Ecclesiastes 2:8). Genesis 42:2; Genesis 42:7; Genesis 42:20. Rth 4:5....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _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 h...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    B. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS THAT WE WORK UNDER THE RULE OF GOD'S PROVIDENCE Ecclesiastes 3:1-22 1. Man should adjust to live his life within the framework of God's providence. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 TEXT 3:1-8...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    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 (); Hebrew, seek. LOSE - when God wills losses to us, then is our tim...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    THE PRACTICAL IDEAL. ACCEPTANCE OF THE UNIVERSAL SCHEME 1-15. God is a God of order. The problem which the writer has set himself is not yet solved. He has found that wisdom, culture, pleasure, are al...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    TO GET.. TO LOSE] to add to, and to forego gains....

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    THE TEACHER SEARCHES FOR THE PURPOSE OF OUR LIVES BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES _HILDA BRIGHT AND KITTY PRIDE_ CHAPTER 3 A POEM ABOUT TIME – ECCLESIASTES 3:1-8...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    TO LOSE. — Elsewhere this word means to destroy, but in the later Hebrew it comes to mean to lose, like the Latin “perdere.”...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    עֵ֤ת לְ בַקֵּשׁ֙ וְ עֵ֣ת לְ אַבֵּ֔ד

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    SECOND SECTION The Quest Of The Chief Good In Devotion To The Affairs Of Business Ecclesiastes 3:1 - Ecclesiastes 5:20 I. IF the true Good is not to be found in the School where Wisdom utters her vo...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    THE QUEST OBSTRUCTED BY DIVINE ORDINANCES. Ecclesiastes 3:1 The time of birth, for instance, and the time of death, are ordained by a Power over which men have no control; they begin to be, and they...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    AND THE CONVICTION THAT IT IS OPPOSED TO THE WILL OF GOD AS EXPRESSED IN THE ORDINANCES OF HIS PROVIDENCE, Ecclesiastes 3:1 This is one help to a wise content with our lot; but he has many more at ou...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    The vanity of life under the sun is evidenced not merely in the experience of the preacher himself, but in the wider outlook which he has been able to take. He now gives us some of the results of that...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: (2) A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; (3) A time to ki...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY COVERS CHAPTER S 1 THROUGH 12. The Book of Ecclesiastes is, up to a certain point, the converse of the Book of Proverbs. (see NOTE TO PROVERBS below) It is the experience of a...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    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 sheep o...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    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...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _A time to die_ And as there _is a time to die_, so there is a time to rise again, a set time, when they that lie in the grave shall be remembered. _A time to kill_ When men die a violent death. _A ti...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    THE DEPENDENCE OF MAN UPON THE COURSE OF NATUREV. 1. TO EVERYTHING, all that men undertake or do on earth, THERE IS A SEASON, AND A TIME TO EVERY PURPOSE UNDER THE HEAVEN, under the government and pro...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    a time to get, to obtain possession of, AND A TIME TO LOSE, deliberately to dispose of some object for some special reason, or cheerfully to give it up as the will of God indicates; A TIME TO KEEP, AN...

  • Marginal Notes in the King James Version (1611)

    GET: Or, seek...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    1-10 To expect unchanging happiness in a changing world, must end in disappointment. To bring ourselves to our state in life, is our duty and wisdom in this world. God's whole plan for the government...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    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...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Ecclesiastes 3:6 time H6256 gain H1245 (H8763) time H6256 lose H6 (H8763) time H6256 keep H8104 ...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    THERE IS A TIME FOR EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE (ECCLESIASTES 3:1). Ecclesiastes 3:1 ‘To everything there is a fixed season, and a time for every matter under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to d...

  • Sermon Bible Commentary

    Ecclesiastes 1:12-3 Koheleth now mentions the unusual advantages which he had possessed for enjoying life and making the best of it. His opportunities could not have been greater, he considers, had h...

  • Sermon Bible Commentary

    Ecclesiastes 3:1 I. Not only has God made everything, but there is a beauty in this arrangement where all is fortuitous to us, but all is fixed by Him. "He hath made everything beautiful in its time,...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: The mutability of all human affairs and the unchangeableness and unsearchableness of the divine counsels. CHARACTERS: God, Solomon. CONCLUSION: We live in a world of changes. The events of...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Ecclesiastes 3:1. _To every thing there is a season._ The seasons of the year are four. But the Zodiac, Job 9., divides the times into twelve signs. In a similar manner are the labours of the husbandm...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _To everything there is a season._ TIMES AND SEASONS IN THE CHURCH The principle which Solomon asserts, and which is of extreme importance in all matters connected with our practical life in this wor...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    ECCLESIASTES—NOTE ON ECCLESIASTES 3:1 Poem: A Time for Everything. There is an appropriate occasion for every human event or activity. ⇐

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    ECCLESIASTES—NOTE ON ECCLESIASTES 3:6 A TIME TO LOSE. To give up looking for a lost item. ⇐...

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    CRITICAL NOTES.— ECCLESIASTES 3:1. SEASON-TIME.] Season signifies a certain period or term; time denotes a division of time in general. ECCLESIASTES 3:2. A TIME TO PLANT, &C.] Used in O. T. as a met...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 3:1 Section 4. In confirmation of the truth that man's happiness depends upon the will of God, Koheleth proceeds to show how _Providence arranges even the minutest concerns;...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    Now we get into the weary, monotony of life. This has been used poetically as something that is very beautiful. "A time to love," and it's been made very beautiful, but in the Hebrew idea, it was mono...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    2 Kings 5:26; 2 Kings 7:15; 2 Kings 8:9; Acts 27:19; Acts 27:38;...

  • Wells of Living Water Commentary

    WHAT IS GOOD IN THIS LIFE Ecclesiastes 2:24; Ecclesiastes 3:1 INTRODUCTORY WORDS We come now to the second great question in the Book of Ecclesiastes. It is expressed in Chapter s 6 and 12: "Who kno...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    To life — When men lose their estates, either by God's providence, or by their own choice. To cast away — When a man casts away his goods voluntarily, as in a storm, to save his life, or out of love a...

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Old Testament