World English Bible
- For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:
- a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
- a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
- a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
- a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
- a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
- a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
- a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
- What profit has he who works in that in which he labors?
- I have seen the burden which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.
- He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts, yet so that man can’t find out the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end.
- I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice, and to do good as long as they live.
- Also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy good in all his labor, is the gift of God.
- I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; and God has done it, that men should fear before him.
- That which is has been long ago, and that which is to be has been long ago. God seeks again that which is passed away.
- Moreover I saw under the sun, in the place of justice, that wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, that wickedness was there.
- I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.”
- I said in my heart, “As for the sons of men, God tests them, so that they may see that they themselves are like animals.
- For that which happens to the sons of men happens to animals. Even one thing happens to them. As the one dies, so the other dies. Yes, they have all one breath; and man has no advantage over the animals, for all is vanity.
- All go to one place. All are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
- Who knows the spirit of man, whether it goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, whether it goes downward to the earth?”
- Therefore I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his works, for that is his portion; for who can bring him to see what will be after him?
Ecclesiastes 3:1–22
The famous poem about seasons is often treated as gentle reassurance: life changes, so wait patiently. But the Teacher offers something sterner. These lines are not a sentimental calendar. They are a confession that we inhabit times we did not choose.
Fourteen pairs—twice seven, the biblical number of completeness—stretch from birth to death, war to peace. Together they form a merism: opposite ends are named to encompass everything between them. Yet the poem does not approve every event it describes. A time to kill is no more a command than a time to die. The Teacher is mapping the whole wounded field of mortal life, where even love must sometimes take the severe form of opposition to evil.
We imagine freedom means controlling our circumstances. Ecclesiastes suggests that wisdom begins when we stop demanding to be sovereign over the clock.
The Hebrew word translated “time” is ’eth: not merely clock-time, but an appointed occasion—a moment whose meaning comes from its fitting place. Likewise, when God makes everything “beautiful” in its time, the Hebrew yapheh can mean fitting or appropriate. The claim is not that every event is pleasant or morally beautiful. Betrayal, injustice, and death are hideous. Yet God can place even what is broken within a final work whose pattern we cannot presently see.
Verse 11 then names our peculiar torment: God has set ’olam in the human heart. The word may suggest eternity, the distant horizon, or the whole vast course of time. We sense that each moment belongs to a larger story, but we cannot see the story from beginning to end. Eternity in the heart is therefore both gift and wound. Animals suffer the moment; human beings also ask what the moment means.
Augustine’s famous confession—that our hearts are restless until they rest in God—echoes this tension. Our hunger for permanence cannot be satisfied by anything temporary because it was awakened by the Eternal One.
The chapter descends from poetry into the courtroom: even where justice should dwell, wickedness sits enthroned. Then it descends further, into the grave. Human beings and animals share ruach—breath—and return to dust. Ecclesiastes refuses the flattery that death is natural and harmless. It humiliates every claim to self-made greatness.
Yet the Teacher does not counsel despair. Eating, drinking, working, rejoicing, and doing good are gifts. A meal cannot defeat death, but it can be received from the God who will. Faith is not possessing the whole pattern; it is receiving today’s portion without pretending it is the whole.
In Jesus Christ, God entered our appointed time. He was born, wept, kept silence, spoke, was torn, died, and rose “when the fullness of the time came” (Galatians 4:4). The Lord of all seasons did not explain suffering from a distance. He submitted himself to our hours—and opened them toward resurrection.
Cross-references: Genesis 3:19; Psalm 31:15; Romans
8:18–25; Galatians 4:4–7; 1 Corinthians 15:58
Suggested hymn: O God, Our Help in Ages
Past
Lord of every season, free me from the need to master what only You can hold. Teach me to mourn honestly, rejoice gratefully, do good courageously, and trust Christ with the pattern I cannot see. Amen.
Narrated version of this devotional on Ecclesiastes Chapter 3