Ecclesiastes 3:7

A time to rend, and a time to sew,.... To rend garments, in case of blasphemy, and in times of mourning and fasting, and then to sew them up when they are over; see Isaiah 37:1; This the Jews apply

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to rend - garments, in mourning (Joe 2:13).

A time to rend; when men shall rend their garments, as they did in great and sudden griefs, as . A time to keep silence; wherein men will or shall be silent, either through grief, as ,13, or by sickness or weakness, or because God denies a man ability to utter his mind.

Ecclesiastes 3:7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;Ver. 7. A time to rend, and a time to sew.] As in making a new or translating an old garment. Turks wonder at the English for pinking or cutting their clothes, and making holes in whole cloth, which time of itself would tear too soon. It was a custom among the Jews to rend their clothes in the case of sad occurrences. The prophet Ahijah rent Jeroboam’ s new garment in twelve pieces, to show that God would rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon. Schismatics rend the Church, heretics the Scriptures. God will stitch up all in his own time, and heal the breaches thereof. A time to keep silence, and a time to speak.] It is a singular skill to "time a word," to set it upon its wheels, as Abigail did for her family, as Esther did against Haman. And it is a happy thing when a man can pray, as one once did, Det Deus ut sermo meus adeo commodus sit, quam sit accommodus, God grant my speech may be as profitable as it is seasonable. He that would be able to speak when and as he ought, must first learn silence, as the Pythagoreans did of old, as the Turks do at this day, Perpetuum silentium tenent ut muti, they are not suffered to speak. Discamus prius non loqui, saith Jerome upon this text. Let us first learn not to speak, that afterwards we may open our mouths to speak wisely. Silence is fitly set here before speaking, and first takes its time and turn. It is a good rule that one gives, either keep silence, or speak that which is better than silence. Fuller. εχεμυθια Pythagorica. - Cuspin. de Caesarib., 475. H σιγανηκρεισσονασιγηςλεγειν.

Verse 7. A time to rend, - sew, - keep silence, - speak] _______________ "Intestine broils And factions rend a state: at length the breach Is heal'd, and rest ensues. Wisdom restrains The tongue, when words are vain: but now, 'Tis time to speak, and silence would be criminal."

7. A time to rent, and a time to sew] The words are commonly connected with the practice of rending the garments as a sign of sorrow (Genesis 37:29; Genesis 37:34; Genesis 44:13; Job 1:20; 2 Samuel 1:2) and sewing them up again when the season of mourning is past and men return again to the routine of their daily life. It is, however, somewhat against this view that it makes this generalisation practically identical with that of Ecc 3:4. The symbolic use of “rending a garment” to represent the division of a kingdom, as in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite (1 Kings 11:30) and therefore of “sewing” for the restoration of unity (so the “seamless garment” of John 19:23 has always been regarded as a type of the unity of Christ’s Church) seems to suggest a more satisfying sense. There are seasons when it is wise to risk or even to cause discord and division in families (Matthew 10:34-35) or schism in Church or State, other seasons when men should strive to restore unity and to be healers of the breach (Isaiah 58:12). In the parable of the New Patch upon the old Garment we have an instance of an inopportune sewing which does but make the rent worse (Matthew 9:16). a time to keep silence, and a time to speak] Here again the range of thought has been needlessly limited by interpreters to the silence which belongs to deep sorrow, of which we have an example in the conduct of the friends of Job (Job 2:12-13), of the want of which in the sons of the prophets Elisha complained bitterly (2 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 2:5). This is, of course, not excluded, but the range of the law is wider, and takes in on the one hand, the unseasonable talk of the “prating fool” of Proverbs 10:8, and on the other the “word spoken in due season” (Proverbs 15:23), to one that is weary (Isaiah 50:4), the right word at the right time, in the utterance of which we rightly see a genius akin to inspiration. If it is true at times that speech is silvern and silence golden, there are times when the converse also is true, when the word in season is like “apples of gold (= perhaps, oranges) in a basket of silver” (Proverbs 25:11).

Rend - i. e., Tear garments in sign of mourning or anger. See 2 Samuel 1:2, 2 Samuel 1:11 ff.

7. To rend… to sew… keep silence… speak — The rending of garments and sitting down in silence is token of great sorrow; the repairing of them and the recommencing of conversation is evidence of the relief of sorrow.