Ecclesiastes 3:9

What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth? WHAT PROFIT HATH HE THAT WORKETH? But these earthly pursuits, while lawful in their season, are 'unprofitable' when made by man, what God never intended them to be, the chief good. Solomon had tried to create an artificial, forced joy, at times when he ought rather to have been serious: the result, therefore of his labour to be happy out of God's order was disappointment. "A time to plant" () refers to his planting (); "laugh" (), to Ecclesiastes 2:1; his "mirth," "laughter," "build up," "gather stones ...

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 of the world will be found altogether wise, just, and good. Then let us seize the favourable opportunity for every good purpose and work. The time to die is fast approaching. Thus labour and sorrow fill the world. This is given us, that we may always have something to do; none were sent into the world to be idle....

Verse Ecclesiastes 3:9. _WHAT PROFIT HATH HE_] What real good, what solid pleasure, is derived from all the labours of man? _Necessity_ drives him to the principal part of his _cares_ and _toils_; he _labours_ that he may _eat_ and _drink_; and he _eats_ and _drinks_ that he may be preserved _alive_, and kept from _sickness_ and _pain_. Love of _money_, the basest of all passions, and _restless ambition_, drive men to many labours and expedients, which perplex and often destroy them. He, then, who lives without God, travails in pain all his days....

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; that man can alter nothing, must make the best of things as they are, bear with anomalies, bounding his desires by this present life._ ECCLESIASTES 3:1 The providence of God disposes and arranges every detail of man's life. This proposition is stated first generally, and then worked out in particular by means of antithetical sentences. In Hebrew manuscripts and most printed texts Ecclesiastes 3:2 are arranged in two parallel col

WHAT PROFIT HATH HE THAT WORKETH IN THAT WHEREIN HE LABOURETH?] That is, he has none. This is an inference drawn from the above premises, and confirms what has been before observed, Ecclesiastes 1:3; Man has no profit of his labour, since his time is so short to enjoy it, and he leaves it to another, he knows not who; and, while he lives, is attended with continual vicissitudes and changes; sometimes it is a time for one thing, and sometimes for its contrary, so that there is nothing certain, and to be depended on; and a man can promise himself nothing in this world pleasant or profitable to him, and much less that will be of any advantage to him hereafter. The Targum adds, "to make treasures and gather mammon, unless he is helped by Providence above;'' though it is man's duty to labour, yet all his toil and labour will be fruitless without a divine blessing;

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 (Ecclesiastes 3:16) Ecclesiastes 3:1. There is a time for everything. Twenty-eight “times” are mentioned, beginning with the time of birth and ending with the time for peace. Everything has a fixed time: Life-death; seeding-harvesting; killing-healing; breaking-down building-up; weeping-laughing; mourning-dancing, etc. These are the times of the entire race; that is what human life

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 that he has found this season? God's plan can be known only in part, hence man's efforts to succeed are always liable to fail; nothing remains but to enjoy the present. ECCLESIASTES 3:1. PURPOSE: read business or affair. In the Heb. the antitheses that follow are in parallel columns like a Greek _sustoichia_ or Table of Contrasts. Ecclesiastes 3:2. Untimely birth and untimely death are both abhorrent; human entrances and exits have their parallel in the agricultural operations of sowing and reaping. There is no need to compare...

LABOURETH. toileth....

_What profit hath he that worketh?_ The long induction is completed, and yet is followed by the same despairing question as that of ch. Ecclesiastes 1:3, asked as from a stand-point that commands a wider horizon. Does not this very thought of a right season for every action increase the difficulty of acting? Who can be sure that he has found the season? The chances of failure are greater than the chances of success....

WHAT PROFIT HATH HE THAT WORKETH, &C.— _What remaineth to him that worketh from that upon which he bestoweth his labour?_ The consequence of the preceding proof is obvious. It is not in the power of men to get by that which is properly their own work, and the result of their choice, any thing that they have a right to call a solid advantage; since they do not know but the time is coming, when that which they look upon shall appear to them in a quite different light. This and the foregoing proof were both taken from the same subject: viz. the occupations of men in this world, or the methods they take in the pursuit of happiness. These were considered, _first,_ in themselves, and with respect to the end proposed: _secondly,_ with respect to the choice which determines us to follow different methods at different times. Now, having done with those proofs, considered as such, our author resum...