Ecclesiastes 3 Study Notes

3:1-11 These verses, the most famous text in Ecclesiastes, must be read from the context of the fundamental claim of the book: that we are mortals, doomed to perish, and that our work will perish with us. No human work is eternal, and our activities, whether building or tearing down, must change as the situation dictates. We naturally prefer to stay on the positive side of the list—to laugh rather than to weep, to love rather than to hate, and to have peace rather than war—but as long as we live in a world of change, conflict, and death, we must accept the fact that we cannot have unchanging bliss. Even so, as v. 11 says, everything is appropriate in its time. Mourning and separation are painful, but there is a time when it is right and even beautiful to mourn. We must accept the fundamental fact of mortality: we are creatures who live in time. We must respond appropriately to the seasons of life as they come.

3:5 The meaning of throwing or gathering stones is uncertain. It may refer to clearing a field for planting versus building a wall, or spoiling a field (2Kg 3:25) versus clearing it (Is 5:2). A rabbinical tradition takes it to be a euphemism for participating in or refraining from sexual relations.

3:11 The fact that God has also put eternity in their hearts tells us that although we are creatures of time, we are not like the animals, who are fully and exclusively creatures of time. God made us as hybrids, so to speak, in that we are temporal but we have an inner longing for eternity. We can never be fully at peace in this life because, although we are mortal, we yearn for immortality.

3:12-14 The fact that we are creatures of time is another reason to enjoy the days we have. Giving ourselves to excessive mourning and toil is as wrong as indulging in excessive laughter and dancing.

3:15 The phrase God seeks justice for the persecuted is literally “God seeks the pursued” or “God seeks the persecuted.” Such a translation suggests that God cares about and seeks out those who are harassed and oppressed. An alternate interpretation is that God is concerned with repeating (“seeks to do”) what has occurred in the past (“what was driven away”). The first alternative, as found in the CSB, better anticipates the text on injustice that follows (vv. 16-17).

3:16-17 An absurdity of life is that where there ought to be justice in the law courts, there is often corruption, oppression, and a perversion of justice. Even so, we may take comfort in the fact that God has appointed a final day for judging the world.

3:18-22 These verses are disturbing to Christian readers because they appear to deny the hope of eternal life. What they actually deny is that people within themselves have the power to transcend death. By contrast, Egyptian religion was so certain that people were immortal that the ancient Egyptians were obsessed with preparing their tombs for the afterlife. According to the Bible, death is an enemy (1Co 15:26); it is not merely a doorway to a new level of existence. God’s people will experience eternal life only because they are known by God and will be raised by his power. Our hope is based entirely on the resurrection of Christ. The Teacher of Ecclesiastes wanted people to take death seriously so they would use well the time they had under the sun. It does not deny that God can raise us from the dead.