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Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

传道书 3:1-8

The Passage

For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

In the other language

凡事都有定期，天下万务都有定时。生有时，死有时；栽种有时，拔出所栽种的也有时；杀戮有时，医治有时；拆毁有时，建造有时；哭有时，笑有时；哀恸有时，跳舞有时；抛掷石头有时，堆聚石头有时；怀抱有时，不怀抱有时；寻找有时，失落有时；保守有时，舍弃有时；撕裂有时，缝补有时；静默有时，言语有时；喜爱有时，恨恶有时；争战有时，和好有时。

Theme

A time for everything

Bring a question to this passage

Many readers arrive here from a real question. These are reflections for how this passage speaks to the questions people bring most often — not an answer about what will happen, but an invitation to sit with it slowly.

How do I face this season of pressure at work?

Ecclesiastes makes room for more than one kind of day: building and breaking down, speaking and keeping silence, holding on and letting go. It does not give you a timetable for your work pressure, but it does challenge the idea that every moment must be productive in the same way. You may be trying to build while something needs repair, or trying to stay silent when an honest conversation is needed. Reading these words before God invites attention rather than frantic effort. You do not have to treat every demand as equally urgent or every limit as failure. It offers no timetable for your work pressure. Which contrasts in this passage help you bring your efforts and limits honestly before God?

Carry thisNot every moment asks the same thing of you.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 40:31 · 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

I want to learn to love better in this relationship.

Love does not always ask the same thing of you. This passage names times for embracing and refraining, for silence and speech, for weeping and laughter. It does not give you a timetable for your relationship, but it makes room for attention to what this moment actually needs. You might be ready to explain when the other person needs you to listen. You might be holding back words that deserve to be spoken with care. Loving better is not simply doing more; sometimes it means noticing the difference between closeness and pressure, patience and avoidance. When you remember that this passage gives no timetable for your relationship, where might you make room for listening, speaking, closeness, or space?

Carry thisLove makes room for both closeness and honest space.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 40:31 · 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

What do I need to let go of in the coming weeks?

The repeated words, “a time,” make room for more than one way of living. Keeping is not always wiser than casting away; speaking is not always better than silence. This passage does not identify what you should release in the coming weeks, but it invites you to notice whether you are trying to make one season last forever. You may be holding a responsibility, an expectation, or even a grief as though changing your relationship to it would be disloyal. Letting go need not mean that what came before was worthless. When you sit with this passage, which does not name what you should release, where do you notice a struggle to let a season of keeping become a season of letting go?

Carry thisSomething can have mattered without needing to remain unchanged.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 40:31 · 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

How can I find stillness in a busy life?

Listen to the passage's steady rhythm of arrivals, endings, and changes. It does not prescribe a schedule for stillness, but it offers room to acknowledge life's different seasons. You are not asked to hold every activity at once. There is a time to speak and a time to keep silence. Both belong within a human life. Perhaps your busyness makes silence feel like something you must earn. You can bring that pressure into God's presence without first resolving it. For a moment, let today's unfinished tasks remain unfinished. The repeated words “a time” name life's changing rhythms; what could you stop carrying for this one quiet moment?

Carry thisSilence has a place among the seasons of life.

Other passages for this questionGenesis 1:26-28 · Isaiah 40:31 · 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

Have a different question?

Write what you are actually carrying right now, and Lectio will answer it with this passage — Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.

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Ecclesiastes 3 — in context

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.

9What profit has he who works in that in which he labors?

10I have seen the burden which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.

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.

12I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice, and to do good as long as they live.

13Also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy good in all his labor, is the gift of God.

14I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; and God has done it, that men should fear before him.

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