Ecclesiastes 3:5

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together,.... To cast stones out of a field or vineyard where they are hurtful, and to gather them together to make walls and fences of, or

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to cast away stones - as out of a garden or vineyard (Isaiah 5:2): as

A time to cast away stones; which were brought together in order to the building of a wall or house, but are now cast away, either because the man who gathered them hath changed his mind, and desists from his project, or by other causes or accidents. A time to embrace; when persons shall enter into friendship, and perform all friendly offices one to another. A time to refrain from embracing; either through alienation of affections, or grievous calamities. See

Ecclesiastes 3:5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;Ver. 5. A time to cast away stones.] As when King Henry VIII pulled down the abbeys and other religious houses (as they called them), saying, Corvorum nidos esse penitus disturbandos, ne iterum ab cohabitandum convolent, that the crows’ nests were to be pulled in pieces, that they might never nestle there any more. And herein he did but as Cardinal Wolsey did before him for he, by the Pope’ s own license, had a little before pulled down forty monasteries, and taken their stones and revenues to build and endow his two colleges at Oxford and Ipswich. Elapidation is a piece of the Church’ s happiness. And a time to gather stones together.] As in building forts, castles, colleges, bridges, causeys, such as was that in 1 Chronicles 26:16; 1 Chronicles 26:18 1 Kings 10:5 2 Chronicles 9:11; 2 Chronicles 16:6. A time to embrace.] With honest conjugal embracements (as the Chaldee paraphrast interprets it), not with those libidinous embracings of the bosom of a stranger No time for such. Diabolus capite blanditur, ventre oblectat, cauda ligat. And a time to refrain.] As in times of common calamity; for should we then make mirth? Should not the bridegroom come forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet? Some of the ancients do very much note the manner of Noah’ s going into the ark, and how the father and the sons went together, the mother and her daughters-in-law went together, God himself dividing at that time those whom himself had joined together. Others tell us that et bruta ipsa intra arcam quamdiu diluvium duravit, continuerint, the very brute creatures bred not in the ark during the deluge. There is both an intemperate and intempestive abuse of the marriage bed, which ought to be kept undefiled, and not stained and dishonoured with either unseasonable or sensual excesses and uncleannesses, which God will certainly plague (though they lie without the walk of human censure) without true and timely repentance. Lutheri nuptias amici etiam improbabant, &c. Luther’ s marrying a wife, then, when all Germany was in a hurly burly, and all Saxony in heaviness for the death of their good Elector Frederick, Luther’ s greatest friend, was no small grief to his best friends; and afterward also to himself, as Melanchthon testifieth in an epistle to Camerarius. Sander. Schism. Ang., lib. i. Acts and Mon. Rupertus. Ambros., De Noe et Arca, cap. 21. Scultet. Annal. Quoniam vero ipsum Lutherum quodammodo tristierem esse cerno et perturbatum ob vitae mutationem, omni studio et benevolentia consolari eum cupio.

(5) Gather stones.—As the collecting of stones for building purposes is included in Ecclesiastes 3:4, it is thought that what is here referred to is the clearing or marring of land (Isaiah 5:2; Isaiah 62:10; 2 Kings 3:19; 2 Kings 3:25).

Verse 5. A time to cast away stones, - to gather stones, - to embrace, - to refrain] "One while domestic cares abortive prove, And then successful. Nature now invites Connubial pleasures: but, when languid grown, No less rejects."

5. A time to cast away stones] The vagueness of the phrase has naturally given rise to conjectural interpretations. It seems obvious that the words cannot be a mere reproduction of Ecc 3:4 and therefore that the “casting away” and the “gathering” of stones must refer to something else than pulling down and building. Possibly we may think, with some interpreters, of the practice of covering fertile lands with stones as practised by an invading army (2 Kings 3:19) and clearing out the stones of a field or vineyard before planting it (Isaiah 5:2). In this case however we fail to see any link uniting the two clauses in the couplet. A possible explanation may be found (as Delitzsch half suggests) in the old Jewish practice, which has passed into the Christian Church, of flinging stones or earth into the grave at a burial, but this leaves the “gathering” unexplained, except so far as it represents the building of a house, and thus contrasts the close of a man’s home life with its beginning. In this case the ceremonial of death would be contrasted with the “embracing” of friends or lovers in the second clause.

Stones may be regarded either as materials for building, or as impediments to the fertility of land (see 2 Kings 3:19, 2 Kings 3:25; Isaiah 5:2).

5. To cast away… gather — As when one is led to change his purpose of building, or of rendering land worthless to an enemy by covering it with stones. To embrace can refer only to the conjugal act.