Ecclesiastes 3:17

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Translations sourced from the public-domain WEB, KJV, and ASV. See all sources.

“I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.””

— WEB

“I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.”

— KJV

“I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.”

— ASV

Bible Verses About Purpose

Cross-references

Related verses via the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.

2 Corinthians 5:10 "For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things in the body, according to what he ha…"
Ecclesiastes 12:14 "For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil."
Matthew 16:27 "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will render to everyone according to his deeds."
Ecclesiastes 3:1 "For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:"
Psalms 98:9 "Let them sing before Yahweh, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity."
Romans 2:5-10 "But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the…"
Ecclesiastes 11:9 "Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart, and in the…"
2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 "Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you,"

Commentary

Solution of it. There is a coming judgment in which God will vindicate His righteous ways. The sinner's "time" of his unrighteous "work" is short. God also has His "time" and "work" of judgment; and, meanwhile, is overruling, for good at last, what seems now dark. Man cannot now "find out" the plan of God's ways (Ecc 3:11; Psa 97:2). If judgment instantly followed every sin, there would be no scope for free will, faith, and perseverance of saints in spite of difficulties. The previous darkness will make the light at last the more glorious. there-- (Job 3:17-19) in eternity, in the presence of the Divine Judge, opposed to the "there," in the human place of judgment (Ecc 3:16): so "from thence" (Gen 49:24).

— Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary (public domain)

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