a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build,
The scope of these verses is to show, 1. That we live in a world of changes, that the several events of time, and conditions of human life, are vastly different from one another, and yet occur promiscuously, and we are continually passing and repassing between them, as in the revolutions of every day and every year.
Commenting on Ecclesiastes 3:1-10
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.
time to kill--namely, judicially, criminals; or, in wars of self-defense; not in malice. Out of this time and order, killing is murder. to heal--God has His times for "healing" (literally, Isa 38:5, Isa 38:21; figuratively, Deu 32:39; Hos 6:1; spiritually, Psa 147:3; Isa 57:19). To heal spiritually, before the sinner feels his wound, would be "out of time," and so injurious. time to break down--cities, as Jerusalem, by Nebuchadnezzar.