Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dan Wagner <Dan.Wagner AT dstm.com>]

If my memory serves me correctly, Robert Gordis (Koheleth-The Man and His
World) postulates (or cites) a theory that it's an allusion to the sex act,
possibly cross referencing the "locked up [rock?] garden" of a virgin in
Song 4:12ff. If so, the parallelism is obvious. Sorry as i don't have his
commentary handy to check if there is much support to the view other than
the parallelism. I don't think "stone" (or any other vocab for "rock," etc.)
ever has that usage otherwise in the Hebrew MT.

Dan Wagner

-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Ens [mailto:dens AT callisto.uwinnipeg.ca]
Sent: Friday, April 07, 2000 13:25
To: Biblical Hebrew
Subject: Eccl. 3.5 - Stones


Hello there.  I am a first year Biblical Hebrew student and have been 
enjoying the dialogue on this list.  I am working on Ecclesiastes 3.1-8 and 
am puzzled by the reference to throwing and gathering stones in verse 5.  
All the other verses, with the exception of verse 8 contain parallelisms 
between parts A and B of the verse.  However, I am finding it difficult to 
make a parallel between:
                  A time to throw out stones and a time to gather stones
                  A time to embrace and a time to be distant from 
embracing

Is there something significant about the stones that I am not aware of?  
Any thoughts?

Thanks - Dave Ens
Winnipeg, MB

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