Ecclesiastes 3:1 — Bible Verse Meaning & Context

Ecclesiastes 3:1 reads: "For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:" — from the Old Testament, Ecclesiastes (Wisdom literature). The full verse is shown above with both the World English Bible (WEB) and King James Version (KJV) translations side by side.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 is in the book of Ecclesiastes, traditionally attributed to Solomon (traditional) and written around c. 935 BC. Ecclesiastes is wisdom literature in the Old Testament, originally addressed to Israel under the monarchy. Best known for "vanity of vanities, all is vanity" and "a time for everything".

Ecclesiastes 3:1 is primarily a Bible verse about Life, with related themes including Wisdom. Within Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes is the searching meditation of "the Preacher" who tried every pleasure, project, and pursuit "under the sun" and found them all hevel — vapour, breath, fleeting. Read the full passage above with surrounding context.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 in the World English Bible (WEB) reads: "For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:". The King James Version (KJV) reads: "To every thing there is a season2165, and a time6256 to every purpose2656 under the heaven8064:". The WEB is a modern public-domain translation that updates the KJV's 1611 English while keeping a similar formal-equivalence style. Both render the same underlying Greek or Hebrew text.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 is 14 words in the WEB translation (76 characters), broken into 2 clauses. It is short and well-suited to memorisation. Estimated reading time is about 4 seconds.

To memorise Ecclesiastes 3:1, split it into its 2 natural clauses and learn one at a time. Repeat the full verse out loud five times, then write it from memory. Saving the verse as a photo wallpaper using our verse image studio helps daily review — the visual association with a memorable background dramatically improves recall.

Ecclesiastes is the searching meditation of "the Preacher" who tried every pleasure, project, and pursuit "under the sun" and found them all hevel — vapour, breath, fleeting. The book's honest realism about death, injustice, and limit pushes the reader toward its closing conclusion: "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man" (12:13). Ecclesiastes 3:1 sits within this larger story — Ecclesiastes as a whole emphasises vanity, meaning, time.

Many readers use Ecclesiastes 3:1 as a daily reminder verse — saving it as a phone wallpaper, sharing it on Pinterest, or memorising it for prayer. The verse studio on this page lets you download Ecclesiastes 3:1 on 52 different backgrounds for free. Pair the verse with the surrounding chapter context shown above to understand its full meaning before applying it.