Ecclesiastes 3:15

That which hath been. This verse presents a word picture of the completeness and permanency of God’s works. In a sense there is with Him no past and no future; eternity is ever present (see Rev. 1:8).

God requireth. Literally, “God seeks.”

That which is past. Literally, “the pursued,” from radaph, “to pursue,” “to chase,” “to persecute.” It is translated “pursue” in Joshua 8:16 and “persecute” in Jer. 29:18. The idea here may be that all things in past time are open before God as if they were present; He projects His thinking into the past as readily as He thinks in terms of the present or the future. If this be the meaning, “the pursued” would refer to the cycles of past ages, personified as if they were pursuing one another.