a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
The scope of these verses is to show, 1. That we live in a world of changes, that the several events of time, and conditions of human life, are vastly different from one another, and yet occur promiscuously, and we are continually passing and repassing between them, as in the revolutions of every day and every year.
Commenting on Ecclesiastes 3:1-10
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 Isa 37:1; This the Jews apply to the rending of the ten tribes from Rehoboam, signified by the rending of Jeroboam's garment, Kg1 11:30; the sewing up or uniting of which is foretold, Eze 37:22.
rend--garments, in mourning (Joe 2:13); figuratively, nations, as Israel from Judah, already foretold, in Solomon's time (Kg1 11:30-31), to be "sewed" together hereafter (Eze 37:15, Eze 37:22). silence-- (Amo 5:13), in a national calamity, or that of a friend (Job 2:13); also not to murmur under God's visitation (Lev 10:3; Psa 39:1-2, Psa 39:9).