For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

The Gezer Calendar dates to about the time of Solomon. It lists the different types of crops that were planted and harvested by month of the year. It begins with the seventh month, Tishri, roughly the equivalent of September in the Gregorian calendar. Tishri was considered the first month of the year in some later systems of chronology in ancient Israel. This inscription was photographed at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.

A time to cast away… (Ecclesiastes 3:6)

Refuse from temples or other cultic sites was commonly thrown into a favissa. The remains commonly found in a favissa include the remains of sacrifices (mainly bones) as well as broken dishes and cult stands. The stone-lined favissa shown here was discovered in the ancient city of Arad and dates to the Early Bronze Age II.

I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good as long as they live (Ecclesiastes 3:12).

Interpreters are divided concerning the last phrase of Ecclesiastes 3:12. It could refer to doing what is right, or to having pleasure and enjoying good things. An example of doing good, in keeping with the former interpretation, appears in Jesus’s parable of the Good Samaritan. An archaeological site located between Jericho and Jerusalem, the road that was the setting of the events, has become known as the Good Samaritan Inn. Although these particular remains do not appear to have been an inn during the 1st century, the later association allows recollection of the parable.

And also that everyone should eat and drink and enjoy good in all his labor (Ecclesiastes 3:13).

This shallow-relief tomb painting depicts Setau and his wife seated at a banquet. The table before them is piled high with food and drinks are visible at the foot of the table. Setau was a nomarch (governor) during the time of Ramses III (1184–1153). His tomb is located in el-Kab in Upper Egypt, about 50 miles (80 km) south of Luxor.

All go to one place; all are from the dust, and to dust all return (Ecclesiastes 3:20).

The Preacher alludes here to Genesis 3:19, where God said to Adam, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen 3:19, ESV). Similar expressions appear in Job 34:15, Psalm 90:3, and Psalm 104:29. The scene on this bronze door, located at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, depicts Adam and Even being expelled from the Garden of Eden.