Ecclesiastes 3:3

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.

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;

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 is a right time for everything, and everything on earth will happen at the right time. ² There is a time to be born and a time to die. There is a time to plant and a time to pull up plants. ³ There is a time to kill and a time to heal. There is a time to destroy and a time to build. ⁴ There is a time to cry and a time to laugh. There is a time to be sad and a time to dance with joy. ⁵ There is a time to throw weapons down and a time to pick them up. There is a time to hug someone and a time to stop holding so tightly. ⁶ There is a time to look for something and a time to consider it lost. There is a time to keep things and a time to throw things away. ⁷ There is a time to tear cloth and a time to sew it. There is a time to be silent and a time to speak. ⁸ There is a time to love and a time to hate. There is a time for war and a time for peace. ⁹ Do people really gain anything from their hard work? ¹⁰ I saw all the hard work God gave us to do.

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 put here with me gave me fruit from that tree. So I ate it."

Genesis 3:13
Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What have you done?" She said, "The snake tricked me, so I ate the fruit."

Genesis 3:16
Then God said to the woman, "I will cause you to have much trouble when you are pregnant. And when you give birth to children, you will have much pain. You will want your husband very much, but he will rule over you."

Genesis 3:17
Then God said to the man, "I commanded you not to eat from that tree. But you listened to your wife and ate from it. So I will curse the ground because of you. You will have to work hard all your life for the food the ground produces.

Genesis 20:6
Then God said to Abimelech in a dream, "Yes, I know that you are innocent and that you did not know what you were doing. I saved you. I did not allow you to sin against me. I was the one who did not allow you to sleep with her.

1 Chronicles 16:22
He said, "Don't hurt my chosen people. Don't hurt my prophets."

Job 1:11
But if you were to destroy everything he has, I promise you that he would curse you to your face."

Job 2:5
I swear, if you attack his flesh and bones, he will curse you to your face!"

Job 19:21
"Pity me, my friends, pity me, because God is against me.

1 Corinthians 7:1
Now I will discuss the things you wrote me about. You asked if it is better for a man not to have any sexual relations at all.

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."