What Does Ecclesiastes 3:1 Mean?
Two renderings of the same sentence, the verses it belongs to, and what the passage is doing — so you can decide what it means rather than take someone's word for it.
"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:" Ecclesiastes 3:1, King James Version
The same verse in modern English
"To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:" Ecclesiastes 3:1, Berean Standard Bible
What it sits inside
A verse quoted on its own is the commonest way one gets misread. Here it is with what comes immediately before and after, in the King James Version.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
Ecclesiastes 3:2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
Ecclesiastes 3:3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A conversation built on it
Your race was never against anyone else's. It only ever had to be run at your own pace, with Him beside you the whole way.
Questions people ask
What does Ecclesiastes 3:1 mean?
In modern English (Berean Standard Bible) it reads: “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:” The King James rendering most people know is: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:”
What is the context of Ecclesiastes 3:1?
The verses immediately around it read: (Ecclesiastes 3:1) To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: (Ecclesiastes 3:2) A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; (Ecclesiastes 3:3) A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
How is Ecclesiastes 3:1 used in a conversation about this?
Your race was never against anyone else's. It only ever had to be run at your own pace, with Him beside you the whole way.
Reading it is one thing. Saying what it stirs up is another.
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