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;
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
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).
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."
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 build houses with; and may be understood both of throwing down buildings, as the temple of Jerusalem, so that not one stone was left upon another; of pouring out the stones of the sanctuary, and of gathering them again and laying them on one another; which was done when the servants of the Lord took pleasure in the stones of Zion, and favoured the dust thereof. Some understand this of precious stones, and of casting them away through luxury, wantonness, or contempt, and gathering them again: and it may be applied, as to the neglect of the Gentiles for a long time, and the gathering of those stones of which children were raised to Abraham; so of the casting away of the Jews for their rejection of the Messiah, and of the gathering of them again by conversion, when they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign on his land, Zac 9:16;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing: or "to be far from" (g) it; it may not only design conjugal embraces (h), but parents embracing their children, as Jacob did his; and one brother embracing another, as Esau Jacob, and one friend embracing another; all which is very proper and agreeable at times: but there are some seasons so very calamitous and distressing, in which persons are obliged to drop such fondnesses: it is true, in a spiritual sense, of the embraces of Christ and believers, which sometimes are, and sometimes are not, enjoyed, Proverbs 4:8.
(g) "tempus elongandi se", Pagninus, Montanus; "tempus longe fieri", V. L. (h) "Optatos dedit amplexus", Virgil. Aeneid. 8. v. 405.
cast away stones--as out of a garden or vineyard (Isaiah 5:2).
gather--for building; figuratively, the Gentiles, once castaway stones, were in due time made parts of the spiritual building (Ephesians 2:19-20), and children of Abraham (Matthew 3:9); so the restored Jews hereafter (Psalm 102:13-14; Zac 9:16).
refrain . . . embracing-- (Joel 2:16; 1-Corinthians 7:5-6).
"To throw stones has its time, and to gather together stones has its time; to embrace has its time, and to refrain from embracing has its time." Did the old Jewish custom exist at the time of the author, of throwing three shovelfuls of earth into the grave, and did this lead him to use the phrase השׁ אבּ? But we do not need so incidental a connection of the thought, for the first pair accords with the specific idea of life and death; by the throwing of stones a field is destroyed, 2-Kings 3:25, or as expressed at 2-Kings 3:19 is marred; and by gathering the stones together and removing them (which is called סקּל), it is brought under cultivation. Does לה, to embrace, now follow because it is done with the arms and hands? Scarcely; but the loving action of embracing stands beside the hostile, purposely injurious throwing of stones into a field, not exclusively (2-Kings 4:16), but yet chiefly (as e.g., at Proverbs 5:20) as referring to love for women; the intensive in the second member is introduced perhaps only for the purpose of avoiding the paronomasia lirhhoq mahhavoq.
The following pair of contrasts is connected with the avoiding or refraining from the embrace of love: -
Stones - Which were brought together in order to the building of a wall or house. To embrace - When persons perform all friendly offices one to another.
*More commentary available at chapter level.