Ecclesiastes 3:11

The God-Given Task

9 ^aWhat profit has the worker from that in which he labors?

10 ^aI have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied.

11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that ^ano one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.

12 I know that nothing is ^abetter for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives,

13 and also that ^aevery man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.

14 I know that whatever God does,
It shall be forever.
^aNothing can be added to it,
And nothing taken from it.
God does it, that men should fear before Him.

15 ^aThat which is has already been,
And what is to be has already been;
And God¹ requires an account of what is past.

Commentaries:

Barnes' Notes

<< Ecclesiastes 3:10

Ecclesiastes 3:12 >>

Ecclesiastes 3:11

Rather, He hath made all (the travail, Ecclesiastes 3:10) beautiful (fit, in harmony with the whole work of God) in its time; also He hath set eternity in their heart (i. e., the heart of the sons of men, Ecclesiastes 3:10).

The word, translated "world" in the text, and "eternity" in this note, is used seven times in Ecclesiastes.

The interpretation "eternity," is conceived in the sense of a long indefinite period of time, in accordance with the use of the word throughout this book, and the rest of the Old Testament. God has placed in the inborn constitution of man the capability of conceiving of eternity, the struggle to apprehend the everlasting, the longing after an eternal life.

With the other meaning "the world," i. e., the material world, or universe, in which we dwell, the context is explained as referring either to the knowledge of the objects with which this world is filled, or to the love of the pleasures of the world. This meaning seems to be less in harmony with the context than the other: but the principal objection to it is that it assigns to the word in the original a sense which, although found in rabbinical Hebrew, it never bears in the language of the Old Testament.

So ... find - i. e., Without enabling man to find. Compare Ecclesiastes 7:13; Ecclesiastes 8:17.

Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Ecclesiastes 3:11:

Ecclesiastes 1:4
Ecclesiastes 3:16-22
Ecclesiastes 7:13
Ecclesiastes 8:5
Ecclesiastes 9:7-12

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Ecclesiastes 3:12 >>

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The God-Given Task

A Verse and a Thought,Every Morning

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