Read & explore together
To Everything There Is a Season
This wisdom poem says life does not stay the same. By listing opposite experiences, it teaches that human life under heaven includes different seasons and fitting times.
Understanding the passage
Listening in context
Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 opens with a general claim about seasons and times, then explains it through paired contrasts. The poem moves across life and death, work, emotions, relationships, possessions, speech and public conflict.
Ecclesiastes 3:1–8Main takeaway
This passage teaches that human life includes changing seasons, so wisdom recognises that different moments call for different responses.
Look closely at the words
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01A season and a timeVerse 1 states the poem’s main point: everything has a season, and every purpose has its time under heaven.
Explanation
Verse 1 states the poem’s main point: everything has a season, and every purpose has its time under heaven. “Under heaven” gives the saying a wide scope across ordinary human life. The verse introduces the list that follows as examples of this truth.
02Beginnings, endings and human workThe first pairs name birth and death, planting and plucking up, then killing and healing, breaking down and building up.
Explanation
The first pairs name birth and death, planting and plucking up, then killing and healing, breaking down and building up. The poem gathers strong opposites to show that life includes both starting and ending, damage and repair, removal and construction.
03Feelings and relationshipsThe next lines turn to weeping and laughing, mourning and dancing, then casting away stones and gathering them, embracing and refraining from embracing.
Explanation
The next lines turn to weeping and laughing, mourning and dancing, then casting away stones and gathering them, embracing and refraining from embracing. These pairings show that emotions and closeness are not fixed. Different moments call for different responses.
04Possessions, words and public lifeThe poem ends with seeking and losing, keeping and casting away, tearing and sewing, silence and speech, love and hate, war and peace.
Explanation
The poem ends with seeking and losing, keeping and casting away, tearing and sewing, silence and speech, love and hate, war and peace. The range is broad, from personal choices to community life. Wisdom notices that timing matters across all of it.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What opening statement explains all the opposite pairs in this poem?
Find the line that says there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.
02Which pairs show that both emotions and relationships can change with the moment?
Look at the contrasts in weeping and laughing, mourning and dancing, and embracing or refraining from embracing.
03How do the last lines widen the poem beyond private life?
Notice the move to silence and speech, then to love and hate, and war and peace.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Ecclesiastes 3:1–8
1For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:
2a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.