Ecclesiastes 3:3

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
a time to kill and a time to heal;a time to tear down and a time to build;

Hebrew Names Version
A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up;

King James Version
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

English Standard Version
a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

New American Standard Bible
A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build up.

New Century Version
There is a time to kill and a time to heal. There is a time to destroy and a time to build.

Amplified Bible
A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build up.

World English Bible
A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up;

Geneva Bible (1587)
A time to slay, and a time to heale: a time to breake downe, and a time to builde.

Legacy Standard Bible
A time to kill and a time to heal;A time to tear down and a time to build up.

Berean Standard Bible
a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build,

Contemporary English Version
for killing and healing, destroying and building,

Complete Jewish Bible
a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,

Darby Translation
A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to break down, and a time to build up;

Easy-to-Read Version
There is a time to kill and a time to heal. There is a time to destroy and a time to build.

George Lamsa Translation
A time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build up;

Good News Translation
the time for killing and the time for healing, the time for tearing down and the time for building.

Lexham English Bible
a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break down and a time to build up;

Literal Translation
a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build up;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
A tyme to slaye, and a tyme to make whole: A tyme to breake downe, and a tyme to buylde vp:

American Standard Version
a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

Bible in Basic English
A time to put to death and a time to make well; a time for pulling down and a time for building up;

JPS Old Testament (1917)
A time to kill, and a time to heal; {S}{S}{N}

King James Version (1611)
A time to kill, and a time to heale: a time to breake downe, and a time to build vp.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
A tyme to slay, and a tyme to make whole: a tyme to breake downe, and a tyme to builde vp.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to pull down, and a time to build up;

English Revised Version
a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Tyme to sle, and tyme to make hool; tyme to distrie, and tyme to bilde.

Update Bible Version
a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

Webster's Bible Translation
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

New English Translation
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

New King James Version
A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up;

New Living Translation
A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up.

New Life Bible
There is a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up.

New Revised Standard
a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
A time to kill, and a time to heal, - A time to break down, and a time to build up;

Douay-Rheims Bible
A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to destroy, and a time to build.

Revised Standard Version
a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

Young's Literal Translation
A time to slay, And a time to heal, A time to break down, And a time to build up.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build up.

Contextual Overview

¹ There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth: ²A right time for birth and another for death, A right time to plant and another to reap, A right time to kill and another to heal, A right time to destroy and another to construct, A right time to cry and another to laugh, A right time to lament and another to cheer, A right time to make love and another to abstain, A right time to embrace and another to part, A right time to search and another to count your losses, A right time to hold on and another to let go, A right time to rip out and another to mend, A right time to shut up and another to speak up, A right time to love and another to hate, A right time to wage war and another to make peace. ⁹But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I've had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he's left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he's coming or going. I've decided that there's nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life. That's it—eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It's God's gift.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

time to kill: Deuteronomy 32:39, 1 Samuel 2:6, 1 Samuel 2:25, Hosea 6:1, Hosea 6:2

a time to heal: Numbers 26:6-9, Isaiah 38:5-20, Jeremiah 33:6, Luke 9:54-56, Acts 5:15, Acts 5:16

a time to break: Isaiah 5:5, Isaiah 5:6, Isaiah 44:26, Jeremiah 31:28, Jeremiah 45:4, Ezekiel 13:14, Daniel 9:25-27, Zechariah 1:12

Cross-References

Genesis 3:12
The Man said, "The Woman you gave me as a companion, she gave me fruit from the tree, and, yes, I ate it." God said to the Woman, "What is this that you've done?"

Genesis 3:13
"The serpent seduced me," she said, "and I ate."

Genesis 3:16
He told the Woman: "I'll multiply your pains in childbirth; you'll give birth to your babies in pain. You'll want to please your husband, but he'll lord it over you."

Genesis 3:17
He told the Man: "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree That I commanded you not to eat from, ‘Don't eat from this tree,' The very ground is cursed because of you; getting food from the ground Will be as painful as having babies is for your wife; you'll be working in pain all your life long. The ground will sprout thorns and weeds, you'll get your food the hard way, Planting and tilling and harvesting, sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk, Until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried; you started out as dirt, you'll end up dirt."

Genesis 20:6
God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know your intentions were pure, that's why I kept you from sinning against me; I was the one who kept you from going to bed with her. So now give the man's wife back to him. He's a prophet and will pray for you—pray for your life. If you don't give her back, know that it's certain death both for you and everyone in your family."

Job 1:11
"But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away everything that is his? He'd curse you right to your face, that's what."

Job 19:21
"Oh, friends, dear friends, take pity on me. God has come down hard on me! Do you have to be hard on me, too? Don't you ever tire of abusing me?

1 Corinthians 7:1
Now, getting down to the questions you asked in your letter to me. First, Is it a good thing to have sexual relations?

Gill's Notes on the Bible

A time to kill, and a time to heal,.... A time to kill may be meant of a violent death, as a time to die is of a natural one; so the Targum,

"a time to kill in war;''

or else, by the hand of the civil magistrate, such who deserve death. Aben Ezra interprets it "to wound", because of the opposite "to heal"; and so there is a time when wounds and diseases are incurable, and baffle all the skill of the physician, being designed unto death; and there is a time when, by the blessing of God on means, they are healed; the wound or sickness not being unto death: so the Targum paraphrases the last clause,

"to heal one that lies sick.''

This may be applied in a civil sense to calamities in kingdoms, and a restoration of peace and plenty to them; which is the property of God alone, who in this sense kills and makes alive in his own time,

Deuteronomy 32:39; And in a spiritual sense to the ministers of the word, who are instruments of slaying souls by the law, which is the killing letter, and of healing them by the Gospel, which pours in the oil and wine of peace and pardon through the blood of Christ, and so binds up and heals the broken hearted; and there is a time for both;

a time to break down, and a time to build up; to break down a building, and build a waste, as the Targum; to break down cities and the walls of them, as the of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar; and to build them up: as in the times of Nehemiah and Zerubbabel: and so in a spiritual sense to break down the church of God, the tabernacle of David, and to raise up and repair the breaches of it; to build up Zion, and the walls of Jerusalem, or to restore the Gospel church state to its glory, for which there is a set time; see Amos 9:11.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Ecclesiastes 3:3. A time to kill, - heal, - break down, - build up —

"The healing art, when out of season used,

Pernicious proves, and serves to hasten death.

But timely medicines drooping nature raise,

And health restore. - Now, Justice wields her sword

With wholesome rigour, nor the offender spares:

But Mercy now is more expedient found.

On crazy fabrics ill-timed cost bestow'd

No purpose answers, when discretion bids

To pull them down, and wait a season fit

To build anew."