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1–15. The dependence of human life on the Divine world order. 16–22. The bestial end of people living without God. Eccl.3:1. For everything there is a time, and a time for every purpose under heaven: Eccl.3:2. a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; Eccl.3:3. a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to destroy, and a time to build; Eccl.3:4. a time to cry, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; Eccl.3:5. a time to scatter stones, and a time to gather stones; a time to hug, and a time to avoid hugs; Eccl.3:6. time to seek, and time to lose; a time to save, and a time to throw away; Eccl.3:7. a time to rend, and a time to sew together; a time to be silent and a time to speak; Eccl.3:8. a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. At the end of the second chapter, Ecclesiastes came to the main reason for the impossibility of human desire for happiness. Between human desire and its fulfillment stands Someone Who can take bread from one and give it to another. Now, in chapter 3, he goes deeper into this idea and extends it to the entire sphere of human life. And here Ecclesiastes finds the same non-progressive circulation, the same irreducible influence of laws, and here all human desires and enterprises are in constant dependence on time and circumstances and, like the phenomena of external nature, pass in strict sequence. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” Hephez means, in fact: inclination, intention, enterprise. Ecclesiastes speaks here not about objects of nature, but about human activity, about the phenomena of human life, as can be seen from the further development of thought. He wants to say that the facts of human life are not products of a person’s completely free will, they lie outside the limits of his conscious desires. Eccl.3:9. What benefit does the worker get from what he works on? In this dependence of human life on extraneous influences that cannot be eliminated by the will of man lies the main reason for the futility of human efforts, the impracticability of the human desire for happiness. Eccl.3:10. I saw this care that God gave to the sons of men, so that they would exercise themselves in this. Meanwhile, a person cannot quench his thirst for the highest good. His desire for happiness, invested in him by God Himself, constantly and irresistibly pushes him to new works, to new quests. Eccl.3:11. He made everything beautiful in its time, and put peace in their hearts, although man cannot comprehend the works that God does from beginning to end. The world is full of harmony, and the human spirit bears the stamp of eternity; however, the Divine world order remains incomprehensible to man and cannot be brought into harmony with human will. “He made everything beautiful in its time,” that is, everything created by God is beautiful in its time and in its place, in the general system of world existence. “And he put peace in their hearts.” The Hebrew word olam is translated differently: “eternity” (LXX), “peace” (Vulgate and translation), “mind”, “veil”, etc. But since this word in general in the Bible and, in particular, in the book of Ecclesiastes (Eccl. 1.10, 2.16, 3.14, 9.16, etc.) means “eternity,” then in this place one should adhere to this meaning. Only in post-biblical literature did the word olam begin to designate the world as endlessly continuing. “To put eternity into a person” means to endow him with God-like properties, to leave the imprint of eternity and Divinity on human nature. Man's striving for the highest good, for eternal happiness, serves as an expression of his Godlikeness. Eccl.3:12. I learned that there is nothing better for them than to have fun and do good in their lives. Eccl.3:13. And if a person eats and drinks and sees good in all his work, then this is a gift from God. The deep contradiction hidden in human nature, on the one hand - the desire for eternity, on the other - the limitations of his mind, are the main reason for the dissatisfaction of the human spirit, its constant disappointments. In order to more or less avoid the latter, a person must come to terms once and for all with the idea that the highest happiness (Ithron) under the sun is impossible. He must, so to speak, lower his demands on life and, abandoning the search for the highest good, be content with relative good, with what is comparatively good, with what is “better” (tob). If the highest good - Itron is impossible, then the relative good - Tob is quite accessible to man. What is this Tob? “I realized that there is nothing better for them (Tob) than to have fun and do good in their lives.” Good work and calm enjoyment of earthly joys are the only happiness available to man. While a person strives for absolute happiness on earth, he is condemned to constant disappointment. Even the best moments of his life are poisoned by the thought of the fragility of happiness, a depressing concern for the future. On the contrary, a person who has given up the search for complete happiness is satisfied with the little that life gives him, rejoices, has fun without worrying about tomorrow. He, like a child, surrenders to every joy sent by God, surrenders with his full being, directly, without destroying it with analysis, criticism, aimless doubts. And these small joys, combined with good work and a clear conscience, make life pleasant and relatively happy. Verses 12–13 do not at all express the eudaimonic view of life, which sets the goal of life as pleasure alone. Firstly, next to earthly joys, Ecclesiastes places another necessary condition for a relatively happy life, namely, “doing good”; secondly, the use of earthly goods is combined with the consciousness of dependence on the will of God, with the grateful thought that “this is a gift from God.” Thus, the enjoyment of life to which Ecclesiastes calls is based on a religious worldview and presupposes, as its necessary condition, faith in Divine providence. Eccl.3:14. I learned that everything that God does endures forever: there is nothing to add to it and nothing to take away from it, and God does it so that they will reverence before His face. At the beginning of chapter 3, Ecclesiastes spoke of the constancy and immutability of the laws governing human life. Now he talks about them more definitely. These laws are expressions of the eternal and unchangeable will of God. Man is powerless to add anything to them or take anything away from them. This is the purpose of Divine Providence, to show people their complete dependence on God and, thus, teach them the fear of God. Eccl.3:15. What was, is now, and what will be, has already happened, and God will call upon the past. "God will call back the past". LXX and Syriac translate: God will seek the persecuted (glorified “persecuted”). But, according to the context, it is better to understand in the neuter gender: driven away, distant, past. Eccl.3:16. I also saw under the sun: a place of judgment, and there was lawlessness; there is a place of truth, but there is untruth. Eccl.3:17. And I said in my heart: “God will judge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time for every thing, and a judgment for every thing.” God's providence is revealed not only in natural phenomena, but also in the moral life of man. Untruth and lawlessness live in human court. But above the judgment of men there is the judgment of God, which will give justice to the righteous and the wicked. This judgment, like every thing, will have its time. “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every thing and over every work.” The word "there" (sсham) is not entirely clear. The Vulgate renders it with the word “then” (tunc), Jerome - “during the judgment” (in tempore judiсii), but Heb. sсham is an adverb not of time, but of place. It probably means here: at the judgment of God, in parallel to the word “there” in v. 16 to denote human judgment. Some exegetes read sam (מט) instead of schara (מט) and translate: (God) has appointed his time for everything. The idea is completely consistent with the context, but it is difficult to say whether the Hebrew punctuation is really damaged here. Eccl.3:18. I spoke in my heart about the sons of men, so that God would test them, and so that they would see that they are animals in themselves; Eccl.3:19. because the fate of the sons of men and the fate of animals is the same fate: as they die, so these die, and everyone has the same breath, and man has no advantage over cattle, because everything is vanity! Eccl.3:20. Everything goes to one place: everything came from dust and everything will return to dust. Eccl.3:21. Who knows whether the spirit of the sons of men ascends upward, and whether the spirit of animals descends down to the earth? These verses clarify in more detail the purpose of Divine providence, briefly indicated already in the words of Eccl. 3:14: “so that they may fear His presence.” Man’s dependence on Divine Providence aims to teach people that on their own, with their natural powers, natural will and understanding, thinking of living without God, outside of Divine Providence, they are like animals and cannot have any basis for confidence in the immortality of their spirit. If the facts of natural consciousness with invincible force convince a person that both man and animal die alike, lose their breath and the source of life, turning into dust, then, living without God, not recognizing Divine Providence, how can he know that the spirit of an animal descends downwards, and the spirit of a person ascends upward? In Art. 18–21, as can be seen, Ecclesiastes’s own view of the human being, his personal doubt about the spirituality and immortality of human nature, is not expressed. This would contradict Eccl. 12.7, which directly states that not everything in a person goes to one place, but that only the body turns to dust, and the spirit returns to God, who gave it. In the above verses, Ecclesiastes explains how a person who lives “on his own,” guided only by a natural point of view, and who does not recognize Divine Providence, should look at himself. “I said about the sons of men.” The Russian translation is not accurate. It should be translated: “I said (this) for the sons of men.” For the benefit of people, the order of things has been established by virtue of which human life is in constant dependence on Divine providence and judgment. So that God can test them. Barar means: to set apart, to test, to purify (cf. Dan 11.35: “some of those who are wise will suffer, to test them (lebarer), to purify them and to make them white for the time of the end.”). The purpose of Divine Providence is to bring people to the consciousness of their own insignificance and, thus, purify them. “Everything goes to one place” - not to Sheol, as some exegetes think, but to the earth, as can be seen from the following words. Eccl.3:22. So I saw that there is nothing better than for a man to enjoy his deeds: because this is his portion; for who will bring him to see what will happen after him? Having clarified the purpose of Divine providence, Ecclesiastes returns to his previous conclusion, made already in Eccl. 3:12–13. If a person depends on Divine Providence in everything, if by himself he is powerless and insignificant, then he must abandon the thought of complete happiness on earth and be content with the joys of God-pleasing work. “A man should enjoy his deeds.” In this expression, Ecclesiastes combines two conditions for relative happiness: enjoyment of life and good activity (Eccl. 3:12), since both, according to him, are inseparable. “For whoever will bring him to see what will happen after him.” Here we are not talking about the future, afterlife of a person, as in Eccl. 3:21, but about what will happen “after him,” that is, how life on earth will turn out after his death. A person should not burden himself and poison the joys available to him with unnecessary restless worries about the distant future. You might be interested in: