Ecclesiastes 3:2-8 lists 28 events grouped in contrasting pairs which are connected by the phrase עֵ֥ת...וְעֵ֣ת. Each couplet is made up of one event which can considered as positive and another which can be considered as negative. This is most true at the beginning and end of the passage:
a time to be born, and a time to die... (3:2)
...a time for war, and a time for peace. (3:8)
The sequence which begins as positive-negative ends in the reverse order negative-positive. When the couplets are considered together, the combined arrangement begins and ends with positive events and places the two negative events side-by-side:
positive: a time to be born...
negative: and time to die...a time for war
positive: and a time for peace
The 28 statements can be arranged such that a pairing with the "opposite" couplet begins in the same tenor which an initial couplet ends (either positive-negative becomes negative-positive or negative-positive becomes positive-negative) making either 14 or 12 pairs of couplets:
The beginning sequence of positive-negative is reversed at the 3rd couplet and the reverse change occurs at the corresponding couplet on the other side of the arrangement.
The "transition point" from beginning positively to beginning negatively was done by creating an "immediate" sequence which places like type events "side-by-side." The same type of disruption occurs on the opposite side at the same point, creating a type of combined "transitional" symmetry in which a complete couplet, either positive-negative or negative-positive mirrors an inverted corresponding complete couplet:
2 and 3: [positive-(negative-negative)-positive]
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; (3:2-3)3' and 2': [negative-(positive-positive)-negative]
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate (3:7-8)
Is this arrangement taken from an earlier pattern (i.e. the 12 tribes or a 14-day period)?
Is there any significance of this structure? If so, how does it help understand the cyclical nature of things which the passage seems to have as a main idea?