Ecclesiastes 3:6

A time to search, and a time to give something up as lost; ¹  a time to keep, and a time to throw away;

Ge 30:30-43; Ge 31:18; Ex 12:35,36; De 8:17,18; 2Ki 5:26; 2Ki 7:15; 2Ki 8:9; Ps 112:9; Ec 11:1; Isa 2:20; Jon 1:5; Mt 16:25,26; Mt 19:29; Mr 8:35-37; Mr 10:28-30; Lu 9:24,25; Ac 27:19,38; Php 3:7,8; Heb 10:34,35

¹ tn The term לְאַבֵּד (lÿ’abbed, Piel infinitive construct from אָבַד, ’avad, “to destroy”) means “to lose” (e.g., Jer 23:1) as the contrast with בָּקַשׁ (baqash, “to seek to find”) indicates (HALOT 3 s.v. I אבד; BDB 2 s.v. אבד 3). This is the declarative or delocutive-estimative sense of the Piel: “to view something as lost” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 28, §145; IBHS 403 §24.2g).