the right or appointed time: the particular moment when something is due, fitting, or destined to happen.
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled
This word does not simply point to a spot on a clock. When the Bible uses it, time carries weight: it is the moment that matches the event, the season that fits the action, the occasion that has finally arrived. The question it provokes is not only "when?" but "is it the right time?" and "whose time is this?" That fitness can be built into creation (every creature has its season), announced by prophets (the time of trouble has come), or discerned by the wise (there is a time for every purpose).
The word spans a wide range from the mundane to the cosmic. A farmer waits for rain in its time; a wise person knows the right moment to speak. The prophets borrow this same language for the moment of God's judgment and rescue, and Daniel pushes it further still: the "time of the end" is the moment toward which all of history moves. In each register the word names not bare chronology but a charged moment whose character the context defines.
The Ecclesiastes poem (chapter 3) is the fullest exploration: every human activity has its counterpart time, and God has made everything beautiful in its own time. This does not imply fatalism but the conviction that created life has an order, and acting against that order misses the moment.
Nuances
1athe right or fitting time for a human activity, decision, or speech.
is the general word for time itself, the moment something happens or recurs in the ordinary course of lifeGen 8:11Gen 24:11Gen 29:7
carries the sense of the right or fitting time, the proper occasion for a thing weighed against every other thing's seasonEcc 3:1Ecc 3:11Pro 15:23
names a time of crisis, calamity, or decisive reckoning, the hour when trouble or judgment fallsJer 30:7Dan 12:1Psa 37:39
Both
both name the moment a promise or expected event comes due, and pair so naturally that the same passage uses one for the appointed date and the other for its arrivalGen 18:14
both mark the divinely set hour of God's action toward his people, whether favor or reckoningPsa 102:13
both can carry the weight of an end-time appointment fixed by God for crisis and deliveranceDan 11:35
names a time fixed in advance by agreement or decree, a date set on the calendar rather than the moment that simply arrivesGen 17:21Gen 21:2Exo 9:5
is the standing word for the sacred calendar of Israel: the appointed feasts and holy assemblies that recur at their fixed datesLev 23:2Lev 23:4Num 29:39
denotes the place of meeting as well as the time, the tent of meeting where God and people keep their appointmentExo 27:21Exo 33:7Lev 1:1
יוֹםa day, or a period defined by what fills it ("the day of the Lord"); the most common time-word, but typically anchored to a named event or a calendar unit rather than to a sense of fitness or opportunity.
Time is the fitting or appointed moment for a thing to happen, the right occasion rather than a measured length: a time to be born, a time to die.Ecc 3:1Ecc 3:2
Time names the recurring natural season proper to something, when rain comes or a tree bears, regardless of the calendar date.Deu 11:14Psa 1:3
Both
Both can mark the decisive hour of crisis or visitation when God acts, the moment everything turns: the day of trouble and the time of trouble run parallel.Zep 1:15Jer 14:8
Day is a counted calendar unit you can number and date: the seventeenth day of a month, the eighth day of a child's life, the seventh day of a feast.Gen 7:11Lev 23:34
Day names the stretch of daylight itself, the bright hours set against night, which time never does.Gen 1:5Gen 8:22
In the plural day measures the whole span of a life, a person's years totaled up as their days.Gen 47:9Psa 90:10
Points to the right or fitting moment for something, the season when a thing properly happens.Deu 11:14Gen 24:11Gen 29:7
The ordinary, all-purpose Hebrew word for a period or point in time, used hundreds of times across every part of Scripture, including plain markers like the time of day.Gen 8:11Gen 18:10
Both
Both can name an appointed, set time; in Ecclesiastes 3:1 they stand side by side, a season for everything and a time for every matter.Ecc 3:1
Names a fixed date or deadline set in advance for a specific event, the day appointed for something to happen. It is a rare word that surfaces only in the later books.Neh 2:6Est 9:27Est 9:31
et in the other biblical languages
καιρόςGreek“time/right time”the Greek word that most closely mirrors this one: a charged, fitting, or decisive moment, the right time for something to happen, as opposed to mere clock-time.
covers the full range from neutral clock-time to the right moment, so it can name the ordinary time when something happens as well as the appointed moment when it mustGen 24:11Ecc 3:1
is the word Qohelet uses for the God-appointed time built into creation for every human activity, a time whose moment a person does not fully know in advanceEcc 3:2Ecc 8:6
Both
both name the God-determined fitting time when his saving purpose arrives: Isaiah's promise of the acceptable time and Paul's citation of it as fulfilled in the present moment show the same theological claim across both testamentsIsa 49:82Co 6:2
both stand for the moment of crisis and opportunity that belongs to God, not to human calculation: a time that can be missed, a moment that calls for action before it passesEst 4:14Rom 5:6
presses the note of decisive fitness: this is the right moment, the appointed hour when something must happen or be seized, so it carries the urgency of a window that opens and closesMrk 1:15Gal 6:10Rom 13:11
the New Testament uses it for the end-time seasons and the final appointed hour when God brings history to its close, so it takes on an eschatological weight that the Hebrew word rarely carries1Th 5:1Rev 1:3
χρόνοςGreek“time”duration or elapsed time, the sequential span in which events occur; closer to the neutral English "time" or "a while" than to the sense of a charged or fitting moment.
Names time as the right or appointed moment, the fitting season for a thing to happen, the answer to "when is the time for this."Ecc 3:1Psa 1:3Jer 8:7
Pins time to a specific occasion or junction tied to its own circumstances, often "at the time of" an event rather than a measured span.Gen 8:11Ecc 8:6Psa 31:15
Both
Both are the ordinary word an English Bible renders simply "time," the Hebrew word in the Old Testament and the Greek word in the New.Ecc 3:1Act 1:7
Both can name a charged stretch or occasion of trouble or reckoning that someone must pass through.Jer 30:71Pe 1:17
Names time as measured duration: a length or span of time, the answer to "how long." Herod asks the exact time the star appeared; elsewhere it marks a long stretch.Mat 2:7Mrk 9:21Act 1:21
Counts elapsed or remaining time as a quantity that can run long or run out, rather than the fitness of a moment.Luk 8:27Heb 4:7Rev 10:6
is the ordinary noun for time as plain chronological reference, "at that time," carrying no sense of whether the moment is fitting or favorable.Gen 21:22Gen 8:11
names a recurring natural season fixed in the calendar, such as the rains that fall in their season.Lev 26:4
marks the customary or proper time for a regular activity, as when the shepherds say it is not yet "time" to gather the flock.Gen 29:7
Both
both express the idea of the fitting, appointed moment: H6256 in the phrase "in its season" denotes the due, proper time for a thing to happen, and G2121 turns that same idea into an adjective, "well-timed" or "opportune."Deu 11:14Heb 4:16
is an adjective that marks an occasion as the favorable, opportune moment to act, one that is watched and waited for. Herodias finds a "convenient" day to strike at John the Baptist.Mrk 6:21
marks help as arriving at exactly the right moment, perfectly matched to the need: the throne of grace supplies "timely" aid just when it is needed.Heb 4:16
Names the right or fitting season for a kind of action, the proper occasion when something is due, so each undertaking has its own time and there is a time for everything.Ecc 3:1Pro 15:23Psa 1:3
Covers a recurring natural season set by God, the time of rain or of harvest or of an animal's bearing, a stretch of the calendar rather than a point on a dial.Deu 11:14Jer 5:24Job 39:1
Both
Both name the appointed, God-set moment for a decisive event, the time fixed in advance when it must come to pass.Dan 11:35Mrk 14:41
Both can mark the moment of crisis, judgment, or trouble breaking in, the time of reckoning when calamity falls.Jer 8:12Rev 14:7
Marks a precise division of the day, the clock-like hour reckoned from sunrise, so events can be pinned to the third, sixth, or ninth hour. Hebrew has no such word for an hour of the day.Mat 27:45Jhn 4:6Act 3:1
Names the single appointed moment of a person's decisive destiny, above all the hour of Jesus' death and glory, a fixed point the whole story moves toward.Jhn 2:4Jhn 12:23Jhn 17:1
Names the right or fitting moment for an action, the moral heart of wisdom teaching: everything has its proper occasion, a word spoken at the right moment is good, and the wise person can tell when that moment has arrived.Ecc 3:1Ecc 3:2Pro 15:23Ecc 8:5
Covers the recurring seasons of the natural world, where the timing is built into creation rather than announced by decree: rain at its proper season, a tree yielding fruit at its season, migrating birds keeping the time of their arrival.Deu 11:14Lev 26:4Psa 1:3Jer 8:7
Marks ordinary times of day and everyday circumstance, with no weight of decree at all: toward evening, or the hour when the women go out to draw water.Gen 8:11Gen 24:11
Carries the prophets' phrasing for a period of distress or of reckoning that has fallen due, and can also mark the span of a single human life, so that a person may die before their time.Jer 30:7Ezk 7:7Ecc 7:17
Both
Both are the ordinary word for "time" in their own language, and both do the plain work of narrative dating: "at that time" such and such happened.Dan 3:7Dan 4:36Gen 21:222Ch 16:10
Both name a decisive moment that arrives at its own fixed point, on God's schedule rather than a human one. The Aramaic word reports that the time came for God's holy ones to receive the kingdom; the Hebrew word says God will hasten the promise at its time, and that the set moment to show mercy has come.Dan 7:22Isa 60:22Psa 102:13
Both are used in Daniel for the measured periods of history that run toward a fixed end, the Aramaic word in the Aramaic visions and the Hebrew word in the Hebrew ones, so together they carry the same apocalyptic weight across the two halves of the book.Dan 7:12Dan 11:35Dan 12:4
Names a stretch of time that can be granted, requested, or withheld by someone in authority. Daniel asks the king for time before he must produce the dream and its meaning, so the word here is close to "an allowance of time" rather than a moment on a calendar.Dan 2:16
Stands for the whole ordered scheme of appointed periods that God alone rearranges, and that a defiant ruler is charged with trying to alter. This is the word in the claim that God "changes the times and the seasons" and in the charge that the arrogant king intends to change "times and law".Dan 2:21Dan 7:25
Counts repeated occasions in a fixed routine, as in praying three set times a day. The Hebrew word is not used this way, since Hebrew counts occasions with a different word for "time" in the sense of "instance".Dan 6:10Dan 6:13
Belongs entirely to the Aramaic portions of the Old Testament, the court records of the Persian period and the visions of Daniel, so it always sounds official: a time fixed by decree, whether a king's or God's.Ezr 5:3Dan 3:8
Names the season built into the natural world: rain that falls when it should, animals giving birth when their term comes, a tree bearing fruit at the right point in the year, creatures fed when feeding is due. The Aramaic word never describes the rhythm of the created order.Deu 11:14Lev 26:4Job 39:1Psa 1:3Psa 104:27
Carries a whole way of thinking about knowing when to act. There is a fitting time for every human activity, a wise person recognizes it, a well timed word is a delight, and even the swift and the strong are subject to how time falls out. None of this reflection attaches to the Aramaic word, which measures terms rather than judging fitness.Ecc 3:1Ecc 3:11Ecc 8:5Ecc 9:11Pro 15:23
Announces that a charged moment has arrived. Prophets say flatly that "the time has come", speak of a distress like no other, and name a season when God answers; the emphasis falls on arrival, not on how long the period runs. The Aramaic word marks a term that runs and then ends, and never makes this kind of announcement.Ezk 7:7Jer 30:7Isa 49:8
Can mean the time allotted to one person's life, so that someone dies before it or reaches the grave when it is full. The Aramaic word is never used of a human lifespan.Ecc 7:17Job 5:26
Both
Both are the plain way each language says "when": the point at which something is to happen. The Aramaic decree fixes the cue, the moment the music sounds; the Hebrew narrative fixes it by the hour of the day or the daily errand that marks it.Dan 3:5Gen 24:11Gen 8:11
Both put time in God's hands rather than treating it as neutral duration. Daniel's hymn says God changes the times and removes and installs kings; the psalmist says his times are in God's hand, and rescue arrives at the moment God chooses.Dan 2:21Psa 31:15Isa 49:8
Both carry the weight of the last stretch of history in the book of Daniel, each in its own half. The Aramaic chapters grant the defeated powers their lives for a further span; the Hebrew chapters speak of the time of the end and of a distress like no other.Dan 7:12Dan 12:1Dan 12:4
A stretch of time you can count off. Seven of them pass over Nebuchadnezzar while he lives like an animal, and in the vision the persecuting power holds the holy ones for "a time, times, and half a time". The Hebrew word is never enumerated this way: nobody suffers a set number of them.Dan 4:16Dan 4:25Dan 4:32Dan 7:25
Time as something you can stall for and spin out. The king accuses his advisers of trying to buy it, and they keep him talking in the hope that the situation will turn while they do. The Hebrew word names a moment that comes; this one names a stretch that can be dragged out.Dan 2:8Dan 2:9
Belongs entirely to the royal court and the visions of one book. Every use stands in an Aramaic decree, an interrogation, a dream sentence, or an apocalyptic reckoning, so the word never reaches into ordinary daily life, farming, worship, or wisdom the way its Hebrew counterpart does.Dan 3:15Dan 4:16Dan 7:25
What scholars say about et
Standard lexicons treat this as a single noun with the core sense of a particular time, moment, or period, regularly accenting its quality of fitness or appropriateness. HALOT (s.v. עֵת) lists (1) point of time, (2) the right time, and notes the Daniel formula "time of the end" as a specialized eschatological idiom. BDB (s.v. עֵת) similarly distinguishes a general temporal sense from the recurring phrase expressing the fitting or appointed time. DCH adds attention to the plural עִתִּים in Daniel 9:25 and Chronicles as periods of time or seasons. The Ecclesiastes 3 poem has generated substantial commentary: Qohelet scholars generally read it as wisdom about created order rather than determinism (see R. N. Whybray, Ecclesiastes, NCB [1989]; Michael Fox, A Time to Tear Down and a Time to Build Up [1999]). For the Daniel end-time idiom, see John Collins, Daniel, Hermeneia (1993). TDOT (vol. 11, s.v. עֵת) surveys the full range and notes that the word's emphasis on appointed, fitting, or decisive time distinguishes it from the more neutral יוֹם and from the calendrically fixed מוֹעֵד.
Sources
HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. עֵתlexicon
BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. עֵתlexicon
DCH (Dictionary of Classical Hebrew), vol. 6, s.v. עֵתlexicon
TDOT, vol. 11, s.v. עֵתdictionary
TWOT, s.v. עֵת (entry 1650)dictionary
R. N. Whybray, Ecclesiastes, New Century Bible Commentary (1989)commentary
Michael V. Fox, A Time to Tear Down and a Time to Build Up: A Rereading of Ecclesiastes (1999)monograph
John J. Collins, Daniel, Hermeneia (1993)commentary