A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
We live in a wheel of nature where one spoke is uppermost, then another; constant ebbing and flowing, waxing and waning. Every change concerning us is fixed by a supreme power, and we cannot alter what is appointed. So in prosperity, be easy yet not secure, humble and even-minded, neither lifted up with hopes nor cast down with fears.
AI summary
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.