For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:
Parallel translations
- KJV To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
- BSB To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:
- ESV For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
- NKJV To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:
- NASB There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every matter under heaven—
- NLT For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
For everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. God orders the times and seasons of human life according to His sovereign plan.
Overview
This famous verse introduces a poem affirming that all of life unfolds within God's appointed times. Rather than random chaos, human experience has order and seasonality under God's providence. The truth that God governs every time and season invites trust in His wise sovereignty, fulfilled in Christ, who came in 'the fullness of time' (Galatians 4:4).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Eccl 3:17I 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.”
- Matt 16:3In the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but you can’t discern the signs of the times!
- Eccl 8:5–6Whoever keeps the commandment shall not come to harm, and his wise heart will know the time and procedure.
- Eccl 7:14In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; yes, God has made the one side by side with the other, to the end that man should not find out anything after him.
- 2 Kgs 5:26He said to him, “Didn’t my heart go with you, when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive groves and vineyards, and sheep and cattle, and male servants and female servants?
- Prov 15:23Joy comes to a man with the reply of his mouth. How good is a word at the right time!
- 2 Chr 33:12When he was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
- Eccl 2:3I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart yet guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold of folly, until I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under heaven all the days of their lives.
- Eccl 2:17So I hated life, because the work that is worked under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind.
- Eccl 1:13I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under the sky. It is a heavy burden that God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The search that finds everything 'under the sun' to be vapor exposes the emptiness of life without God and drives us to the one who alone gives meaning, the resurrection that makes our labor not in vain.
How Ecclesiastes 3:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.