Ecclesiastes 3:11

God has appointed a time that is right/correct for everything to happen. He has also caused people to realize that there are things that will endure forever. But in spite of that, no one can completely understand everything that God has done, from the time that he starts doing things until he finishes them.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

10I have seen the work that God has given people to do.

12I know that the best [LIT] thing for us people to do is to rejoice and to do good things all during the time that we are alive.

Read all of Ecclesiastes 3

Cross References

Genesis 1:31God was pleased with everything that he had made. Truly, it was all very good. Then there was another evening, that was followed by another morning. He called that period of time ‘the sixth day’.

Job 5:9He does great things, things that we cannot understand; we cannot even count the marvelous things that he does.

Job 37:23Almighty God is very powerful, and we cannot come near to him. He always acts righteously, and he will never oppress us.

Ecclesiastes 7:29But I did learn one thing: When God created people, they were righteous, but they have found many ways to do many evil things.

Ecclesiastes 11:5We do not know where the wind comes from or where it goes, and we do not know how bodies are formed in women’s wombs. Similarly [SIM], God is the one who made everything, and we cannot fully understand what God does.

Matthew 13:22Some people are like the soil that had the roots of thorny weeds in it. They hear God’s message, but they desire to be rich, so they worry only about [MTY, PRS] material things. As a result, they [PRS] forget God’s message, and they do not do [IDM] the things that God wants them to do.

Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 3:2-11

Mutability of Human Affairs. 1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; 3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 A time to get,… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Ecclesiastes 3:11