Ecclesiastes 3:3

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to kill - namely, judicially, criminals; or, in wars of self-defense; not in malice. Out of this time and order, killing is murder. God had His times for slaying Israel (; ; ). The evil of the people must have been desperate when God had to resort to such a terrible mode of treatment.

To heal. God has His times for "healing" (literally, ; : figuratively, ; : spiritually, ; ). To heal spiritually before the sinner feels his wound would be out of time, and so injurious. The Lord declares Himself to be the Physician that heals Israel (; ).

A time to break down - cities, as Jerusalem, by Nebuchadnezzar.

To build up - as Jerusalem, in the time of Zerubbabel; spiritually, ; "the set time" (Psalms 102:13). God has His time for breaking down the protecting walls of professing churches, and for building them up (; ; ; ; ; , in David's time, when the walls of Jerusalem were standing, can be best explained in a spiritual sense; ; Jeremiah 18:7).