Ecclesiastes 3:4

Geneva Bible (1560)

A time to weepe, and a time to laugh: a time to mourne, and a time to dance.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

עֵ֤ת לִבְכּוֹת֙ וְעֵ֣ת לִשְׂח֔וֹק עֵ֥ת סְפ֖וֹד וְעֵ֥ת רְקֽוֹד׃

Transliteration

ʿēt to-liḇkôṯ wə-ʿēt to-liśḥôq, ʿēt səp̄ôḏ wə-ʿēt rəqôḏ

Grammar Details

• *ʿēt*: noun, feminine singular construct - time of
• *li*: preposition prefix - to/for
• *ḇkôṯ*: verb, qal infinitive construct - to weep
• *wə*: conjunction - and
• *liśḥôq*: verb, qal infinitive construct - to laugh
• *səp̄ôḏ*: verb, qal infinitive construct - to mourn/lament
• *rəqôḏ*: verb, qal infinitive construct - to dance

Word Meanings

• *ḇkôṯ*: to weep/cry
• *śḥôq*: to laugh/rejoice
• *səp̄ôḏ*: to mourn/lament/wail
• *rəqôḏ*: to dance/skip about

Referenced Verses

• Exod 15:20 : 20 And Miriam the prophetesse, sister of Aaron tooke a timbrell in her hande, and all the women came out after her with timbrels and daunces.
• Rom 12:15 : 15 Reioyce with them that reioyce, & weepe with them that weepe.
• John 16:20-22 : 20 Verely, verely I say vnto you, that ye shall weepe and lament, and the worlde shall reioyce: and ye shall sorowe, but your sorowe shalbe turned to ioye. 21 A woman when she traueileth, hath sorowe, because her houre is come: but assoone as she is deliuered of the childe, she remembreth no more the anguish, for ioy that a man is borne into the world. 22 And ye nowe therefore are in sorowe: but I will see you againe, & your hearts shal reioyce, and your ioy shall no man take from you.
• Ps 30:5 : 5 For he endureth but a while in his anger: but in his fauour is life: weeping may abide at euening, but ioy commeth in the morning.
• 2 Cor 7:10 : 10 For godly sorowe causeth repentance vnto saluation, not to be repented of: but the worldly sorowe causeth death.
• Jas 4:9 : 9 Suffer afflictions, and sorrowe ye, and weepe: let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your ioy into heauinesse.
• Ps 126:5-6 : 5 They that sowe in teares, shall reape in ioy. 6 They went weeping and caried precious seede: but they shall returne with ioye and bring their sheaues.
• Isa 22:12-13 : 12 And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call vnto weeping and mourning, and to baldnes and girding with sackecloth. 13 And beholde, ioy and gladnes, slaying oxen and killing sheepe, eating flesh, & drinking wine, eating and drinking: for to morowe we shall die.
• Matt 9:15 : 15 And Iesus saide vnto them, Can the children of the marriage chamber mourne as long as the bridegrome is with them? But the daies will come, when the bridegrome shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.
• Matt 11:17 : 17 And say, We haue piped vnto you, and ye haue not daunced, we haue mourned vnto you, and ye haue not lamented.
• Luke 1:13-14 : 13 But the Angel saide vnto him, Feare not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard, and thy wise Elisabet shall beare thee a sonne, and thou shalt call his name Iohn. 14 And thou shalt haue ioy and gladnes, and many shall reioyce at his birth.
• Luke 1:58 : 58 And her neighbours, and cousins heard tell howe the Lorde had shewed his great mercie vpon her, and they reioyced with her.
• Luke 6:21-25 : 21 Blessed are ye that hunger nowe: for ye shalbe satisfied: blessed are ye that weepe now: for ye shall laugh. 22 Blessed are ye when men hate you, and when they separate you, & reuile you, & put out your name as euill, for the Sonne of mans sake. 23 Reioyce ye in that day, and be glad: for beholde, your reward is great in heauen: for after this maner their fathers did to the Prophets. 24 But wo be to you that are rich: for ye haue receiued your consolation. 25 Wo be to you that are full: for ye shall hunger. Wo be to you that now laugh: for ye shal wayle and weepe.
• 2 Sam 6:16 : 16 And as the Arke of the Lord came into the citie of Dauid, Michal Sauls daughter looked through a windowe, and sawe King Dauid leape, and dance before the Lorde, and shee despised him in her heart.
• Neh 8:9-9 : 9 Then Nehemiah (which is Tirshatha) and Ezra the Priest and scribe, and the Leuites that instructed the people, saide vnto all the people, This day is holie vnto ye Lord your God: mourne not, neither weepe: for all the people wept, whe they heard the words of the Lawe. 10 He saide also vnto the, Go, and eate of the fat, & drinke the sweete, & send part vnto them, for whome none is prepared: for this day is holie vnto our Lorde: be ye not sorie therefore: for the ioy of the Lord is your strength. 11 And the Leuites made silence throughout all the people, saying, Holde your peace: for the day is holy, be not sad therefore. 12 Then all the people went to eate and to drinke, and to send away part, and to make great ioy, because they had vnderstand the wordes that they had taught them.
• Neh 9:1-9 : 1 In the foure and twentieth day of this moneth the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackecloth, and earth vpon them. 2 (And they that were of the seede of Israel were separated from all the strangers) and they stoode and confessed their sinnes and the iniquities of their fathers. 3 And they stood vp in their place and read in the booke of the Lawe of the Lord their GOD foure times on the day, and they confessed and worshipped the Lord their God foure times. 4 Then stoode vp vpon the staires of the Leuites Ieshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, and cryed with a loud voyce vnto the Lord their God. 5 And the Leuites said, euen Ieshua and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodiiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah, Stande vp, and praise the Lorde your God for euer, and euer, and let them praise thy glorious Name, O God, which excelleth aboue all thankesgiuing and praise. 6 Thou art Lorde alone: thou hast made heauen, and the heauen of all heauens, with all their hoste, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, & al that are in them, & thou preseruest them all, and the host of the heauen worshippeth thee. 7 Thou art, O Lord, the God, that hast chosen Abram, and broughtest him out of Vr in Caldea, and madest his name Abraham, 8 And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a couenant with him, to giue vnto his seede the lande of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, and Perizzites, and Iebusites, and Girgashites, and hast performed thy wordes, because thou art iust. 9 Thou hast also considered the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the red Sea, 10 And shewed tokens & wonders vpon Pharaoh, and on all his seruants, and on all the people of his land: for thou knewest that they dealt proudely against them: therefore thou madest thee a Name, as appeareth this day. 11 For thou didest breake vp the Sea before them, and they went through the middes of the Sea on dry lande: and those that pursued them, hast thou cast into the bottomes as a stone, in the mightie waters: 12 And leddest them in the day with a pillar of a cloude, and in the night with a pillar of fire to giue them light in the way that they went. 13 Thou camest downe also vpon mount Sinai, and spakest vnto them from heauen, and gauest them right iudgements, and true lawes, ordinances and good commandements, 14 And declaredst vnto them thine holy Sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, and ordinances, and lawes, by the hande of Moses thy seruant: 15 And gauest them bread from heauen for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rocke for their thirst: and promisedst them that they shoulde goe in, and take possession of the land: for the which thou haddest lift vp thine hand for to giue them. 16 But they and our fathers behaued them selues proudely, and hardened their neck, so that they hearkened not vnto thy commandements, 17 But refused to obey, & would not remember thy marueilous works that thou haddest done for them, but hardened their neckes, and had in their heads to returne to their bondage by their rebellion: but thou, O God of mercies, gratious and full of compassion, of long suffring and of great mercie, yet forsookest them not. 18 Moreouer, when they made them a molten calfe (and said, This is thy God that brought thee vp out of the land of Egypt) and committed great blasphemies, 19 Yet thou for thy great mercies forsookest them not in the wildernesse: the pillar of the cloude departed not from them by day to leade them the way, neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way whereby they should goe. 20 Thou gauest also thy good Spirite to instruct them, & withheldest not thy MAN from their mouth, & gauest them water for their thirst. 21 Thou didest also feede them fourtie yeres in ye wildernes: they lacked nothing: their clothes waxed not old, and their feete swelled not. 22 And thou gauest them kingdomes & people, and scatteredst them into corners: so they possessed the land of Sihon & the land of ye King of Heshbon, and the land of Og King of Bashan. 23 And thou diddest multiplie their children, like the starres of the heauen, and broughtest them into the lande, whereof thou haddest spoken vnto their fathers, that they should goe, and possesse it. 24 So the children went in, and possessed the lande, and thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the lande, euen the Canaanites, and gauest them into their handes, with their Kings and the people of the lande, that they might do with them what they would. 25 And they tooke their strong cities and the fat lande, and possessed houses, full of all goods, cisternes digged out, vineyardes, and oliues, and trees for foode in abundance, and they did eate, and were filled, and became fat, and liued in pleasure through thy great goodnesse. 26 Yet they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy Lawe behinde their backes, and slewe thy Prophets (which protested among them to turne them vnto thee) and committed great blasphemies. 27 Therefore thou deliueredst them into the hande of their enemies that vexed them: yet in the time of their affliction, when they cryed vnto thee, thou heardest them from the heauen, & through thy great mercies thou gauest them sauiours, who saued them out of the hande of their aduersaries. 28 But when they had rest, they returned to doe euill before thee: therefore leftest thou them in the hande of their enemies, so that they had the dominion ouer them, yet when they conuerted and cryed vnto thee, thou heardest them from heauen, and deliueredst them according to thy great mercies many times, 29 And protestedst among them that thou mightest bring them againe vnto thy Lawe: but they behaued them selues proudely, and hearkened not vnto thy commaundements, but sinned against thy iudgements ( which a man should doe and liue in them) and pulled away the shoulder, and were stiffenecked, and woulde not heare. 30 Yet thou diddest forbeare them many yeeres, and protestedst among them by thy Spirite, euen by the hande of thy Prophets, but they woulde not heare: therefore gauest thou them into the hande of the people of the lands. 31 Yet for thy great mercies thou hast not consumed them, neither forsaken them: for thou art a gracious and mercifull God. 32 Nowe therefore our God, thou great God, mightie and terrible, that keepest couenant and mercie, let not all the affliction that hath come vnto vs, seeme a litle before thee, that is, to our Kings, to our princes, and to our Priests, and to our Prophets, and to our fathers, and to all thy people since the time of the Kings of Asshur vnto this day. 33 Surely thou art iust in all that is come vpon vs: for thou hast dealt truly, but we haue done wickedly. 34 And our kings and our princes, our Priests and our fathers haue not done thy Lawe, nor regarded thy commandements nor thy protestations, wherewith thou hast protested among them. 35 And they haue not serued thee in their kingdome, and in thy great goodnesse that thou shewedst vnto them, & in the large and fat lande which thou diddest set before them, and haue not conuerted from their euill workes. 36 Beholde, we are seruants this day, and the lande that thou gauest vnto our fathers, to eate the fruite thereof, and the goodnesse thereof, beholde, we are seruants therein. 37 And it yeeldeth much fruit vnto the kings whom thou hast set ouer vs, because of our sinnes: and they haue dominion ouer our bodyes and ouer our cattell at their pleasure, and we are in great affliction. 38 Nowe because of all this we make a sure couenant, and write it, and our princes, our Leuites and our Priestes seale vnto it.
• Ps 126:1-2 : 1 A song of degres, or Psalme of Dauid. When ye Lord brought againe the captiuitie of Zion, we were like them that dreame. 2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with ioye: then sayd they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them.
• Gen 21:6 : 6 Then Sarah said, God hath made me to reioyce: all that heare will reioyce with me.