To every [thing there is] a season
A set determined time, when everything shall come into being, how
long it shall continue, and in what circumstances; all things
that have been, are, or shall be, were foreordained by God, and
he has determined the times before appointed for their being,
duration, and end; which times and seasons he has in his own
power: there was a determined time for the whole universe, and
for all persons and things in it; a settled fixed moment for the
world to come into being; for it did not exist from everlasting,
nor of itself, nor was formed by the fortuitous concourse of
atoms, but by the wisdom and power of God; nor could it exist
sooner or later than it did; it appeared when it was the will of
God it should; in the beginning he created it, and he has fixed
the time of its duration and end; for it shall not continue
always, but have an end, which when it will be, he only knows: so
there is a determined time for the rise, height, and declension
of states and kingdoms in it; as of lesser ones, so of the four
great monarchies; and for all the distinct periods and ages of
the world; and for each of the seasons of the year throughout all
ages; for the state of the church in it, whether in suffering or
flourishing circumstances; for the treading down of the holy
city; for the prophesying, slaying, and rising of the witnesses;
for the reign and ruin of antichrist; for the reign of Christ on
earth, and for his second coming to judgment, though of that day
and hour knows no man: and as there is a set time in the counsels
and providence of God for these more important events, so for
every thing of a lesser nature; and a time to every purpose
under the heaven;
to every purpose of man that is carried into execution; for some
are not, they are superseded by the counsel of God; some
obstruction or another is thrown in the way of them, so that they
cannot take place; God withdraws men from them by affliction or
death, when their purposes are broken; or by some other way; and
what are executed he appoints a time for them, and overrules them
to answer some ends of his own; for things the most contingent,
free, and voluntary, fall under the direction and providence of
God. And there is a time for every purpose of his own; all things
done in the world are according to his purposes, which are within
himself wisely formed, and are eternal and unfrustrable; and
there is a time fixed for the execution of them, for every
purpose respecting all natural and civil things in providence;
and for every purpose of his grace, relating to the redemption of
his people, the effectual calling of them, and the bringing them
to eternal glory; which are the things that God wills, that he
takes delight and pleasure in, as the word F5
signifies. The Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions render it,
"to everything under the heaven there is a time"; and Jarchi
observes that in the Misnic language the word used so signifies.
The Targum is,
``to every man a time shall come, and a season to every business under heaven.''