A familiar Bible saying, checked in context
To every thing there is a season
Word for word
The KJV opens Ecclesiastes 3:1 with this exact phrase, then unfolds a poem of paired times.
By @The..Mustard..Seed · Updated
Read the relevant KJV passage
Ecclesiastes 3:1To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
Compare the evidence
The next verse begins the poem’s paired times—birth and death, planting and uprooting—showing its literary form.
Ecclesiastes 3:2A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
The series closes with love and hate, war and peace. The range is broader than a comforting line about change.
Ecclesiastes 3:8A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
What the context adds
Ecclesiastes 3:1 is exact KJV wording and opens a long poem of paired times. The pairs include experiences people welcome and experiences they dread. Reading through verse 8 prevents the first line from being reduced to a promise that an uncomfortable season will end quickly. The Teacher’s poem is attentive to the limits of control and the varied shape of life under heaven. Second Corinthians 4 offers a different contrast between the temporary and the eternal. Reading it alongside Ecclesiastes helps keep the two arguments distinct despite their shared theme of time.
A question to carry forward
Which pair in Ecclesiastes 3:2–8 complicates a simple comforting use of the opening line?
Keep reading
Read Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 and notice which pairs are hardest to hold together.
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