For there is a time and procedure for every purpose, although the misery of man is heavy on him.
Parallel translations
- KJV Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.
- BSB For there is a right time and procedure to every purpose, though a man’s misery weighs heavily upon him.
- NKJV Because for every matter there is a time and judgment, Though the misery of man increases greatly.
- NASB For there is a proper time and procedure for every delight, though a person’s trouble is heavy upon him.
- NLT for there is a time and a way for everything, even when a person is in trouble.
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
Every purpose has its proper time and manner, yet human trouble still presses heavily upon us. Wisdom about timing does not exempt us from the burdens of a fallen world.
Overview
Building on verse 5, Qoheleth affirms that there is a fitting time for everything (echoing 3:1-8), while acknowledging that misery weighs on people because they cannot fully master the future. This tension is characteristic of Ecclesiastes: wisdom helps, but it cannot remove the curse. Only in Christ is the burden ultimately lifted (Matthew 11:28-30).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Eccl 3:1For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:
- 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.”
- Luke 19:42–44saying, “If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes.
- Eccl 3:11He 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.
- Eccl 7:13–14Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight, which he has made crooked?
- Luke 17:26–30As it was in the days of Noah, even so will it be also in the days of the Son of Man.
- Eccl 11:9Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
- Heb 3:7–11Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you will hear his voice,
- Luke 13:25When once the master of the house has risen up, and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside, and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ then he will answer and tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
- Isa 3:11–14Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them; for the deeds of his hands will be paid back to him.
- Isa 22:12–14In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth:
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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 8:6 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
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