📖 Biblical Definition
"A time for everything" comes from Ecclesiastes’ great poem of seasons: "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the 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" (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2). Twenty-eight times are paired in fourteen oppositions across vv. 1-8 — birth/death, plant/pluck up, kill/heal, weep/laugh, mourn/dance, embrace/refrain, love/hate, war/peace. The wisdom is recognizing that life moves in seasons, not steady-states, and that the wise man reads the season he is in. "He hath made every thing beautiful in his time" (v. 11). The Christian discerns seasons and acts accordingly.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Eccl 3:1-8 poem of fourteen pairs; wisdom is knowing what time it is.
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Ecclesiastes 3:1-8's famous poem: "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." Twenty-eight specific times paired in fourteen oppositions across vv 2-8: birth and death, plant and pluck up, kill and heal, break down and build up, weep and laugh, mourn and dance, cast away and gather, embrace and refrain, get and lose, keep and cast away, rend and sew, keep silence and speak, love and hate, war and peace. The wisdom is recognizing: (1) human life is structured by appointed times (Hebrew et); (2) wisdom is knowing which time it is now; (3) attempting one season's action in another season's time produces folly.
📖 Key Scripture
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 — "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the 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."
Ecclesiastes 3:7-8 — "A time to rend, 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 to war, and a time of peace."
Ecclesiastes 3:11 — "He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Often read as gentle time-management wisdom; the harder force is that wrong-time action is folly even when the action itself is good.
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Pop reading of Ecclesiastes 3 is gentle: there's a time for everything, so don't worry. The harder reading: it is folly to plant in pluck-up time, to laugh in weeping time, to be silent in speaking time. Right action in wrong time is wrong. Wisdom is knowing what time it is.
Recover the discrimination: ask not just what is good but what is good NOW. The Spirit-led life pays attention to seasons.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew et le-kol chefets.
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['Hebrew', 'H6256', 'et', 'time, appointed time']
['Hebrew', 'H2656', 'chefets', 'delight, purpose']
Usage
"Time for every purpose under heaven."
"Wisdom is knowing what time it is."
"Right action in wrong time is wrong."