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

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!

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 of the house of Israel, or God's elect, were lost, and a time to seek them again; which was, lone by Christ in redemption, and by the Spirit of God, in effectual calling;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away; to keep a thing, and to cast it away, into the sea, in the time of a great tempest, as the Targum; as did the mariners in the ship in which Jonah was, and those in which the Apostle Paul was, Jonah 1:5; It may be interpreted of keeping riches, and which are sometimes kept too close, and to the harm of the owners of them; and of scattering them among the poor, or casting them upon the waters; see Ecclesiastes 5:13.

(i) "tempus quaerendi", Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Piscator, Mercerus, Gejerus, Rambachius.

"To seek has its time, and to lose has its time; to lay up has its time, and to throw away has its time." Vaihinger and others translate לאבּד, to give up as lost, which the Pih. signifies first as the expression of a conscious act. The older language knows it only in the stronger sense of bringing to ruin, making to perish, wasting (Proverbs 29:3). But in the more modern language, אבד, like the Lat. perdere, in the sense of "to lose," is the trans. to the intrans. אבד, e.g., Tahoroth; viii. 3, "if one loses (המאבּד) anything," etc.; Sifri, at Deuteronomy 24:19, "he who has lost (מאבּד) a shekel," etc. In this sense the Palest.-Aram. uses the Aphel אובד, e.g., Jer. Meza ii. 5, "the queen had lost (אובדת) her ornament." The intentional giving up, throwing away from oneself, finds its expression in להשׁ.

The following pair of contrasts refers the abandoning and preserving to articles of clothing: -

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

3:6 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 and obedience to God.

get: or, seek

6. time to get-for example, to gain honestly a livelihood (Eph 4:23).

lose-When God wills losses to us, then is our time to be content.

keep-not to give to the idle beggar (2Th 3:10).

cast away-in charity (Pr 11:24); or to part with the dearest object, rather than the soul (Mr 9:43). To be careful is right in its place, but not when it comes between us and Jesus Christ (Lu 10:40-42).

3:1-10 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.