Ecclesiastes 3:8 (YLT)

Passage

A time to love, And a time to hate. A time of war, And a time of peace.

Nearby Context

Ecclesiastes 3:6 A time to seek, And a time to destroy. A time to keep, And a time to cast away.

Ecclesiastes 3:7 A time to rend, And a time to sew. A time to be silent, And a time to speak.

Ecclesiastes 3:8 A time to love, And a time to hate. A time of war, And a time of peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:9 What advantage hath the doer in that which he is labouring at?

Ecclesiastes 3:10 I have seen the travail that God hath given to the sons of man to be humbled by it.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "time", "love", "hate", and "peace". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "time" and "love", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 7's "A time to rend And a time..." into verse 9's "What advantage hath the doer in that...", so "time" and "love" belong inside that flow. In Ecclesiastes context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "time" and "love" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.