You Never Knew These Words Were from Bible

‘To every thing a season’

This handy aphorism is another piece of wisdom from the Book of Ecclesiastes, in which the author offers his thoughts on life, death, and what it all means. ‘To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven,’ he writes. Warming to his theme, he continues, there is ‘a time to kill and a time to heal’; ‘a time to weep and a time to laugh’; there’s even ‘a time to cast away stones.’

The full list has twenty-eight different times, and covers eight biblical verses. With its philosophical and reflective tone, it has become one of the most quoted and most popular passages in the Old Testament, a firm favorite for readings at funerals and other sad occasions. In 1959 the famous words even became a surprise hit when they were set to music by the folk musician Pete Seeger in a song called ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’

Covered by The Byrds in 1965, the track rocketed to number one on the U.S. singles chart—the iron-age lyrics are by far the oldest words ever to have become a chart-topping hit.