The phrase "Time to scatter stones and time to collect stones" can be heard quite often, but it is not always clear what people mean when they say these words. You can often find out the true meaning of a phrase by referring to the original source.
Biblical origins
Like many other catchphrases, the phrase about stones came into modern use from the Book of Books - the Bible. In chapter 3 of the Book of Ecclesiastes we read:
“There is a time for everything, and a time for every thing under the sky: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck out what is planted; a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to destroy, and a time to build; a time to cry and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; a time to scatter stones, and a time to collect stones; a time to embrace, and a time to avoid embracing; time to seek, and time to waste; time to save, and time to quit; a time to tear, and a time to stitch; a time to be silent and a time to speak; a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace."
From the quote it becomes clear that we are talking about the fact that everything has its time and everything has its own time. The meaning is really deep and, like many biblical quotes, philosophical.
But it is still not entirely clear why to scatter stones in order to collect them later. In fact, this phrase is only about one of the types of peasant labor. The lands on which the people of Israel lived were not distinguished by fertility, were stony, and in order to cultivate the field, it first had to be cleared of stones. This is what the peasants were doing, i.e. collected stones. But they did not scatter them, but made hedges from them for land plots.
As is often the case with quotations from the Bible, the translator was let down by his ignorance of the realities of the peasant life of the Israelites; more accurately, the quotation could be translated as "time to collect and time to lay stones."
And this is not surprising: the books were translated by clergy - people far from peasant realities.
But who knows, the phrase would become so popular in this form. Most likely not, because the mysterious meaning is lost.
The modern meaning of the phrase
It turns out that they interpret it ambiguously. There are at least three explanations for this expression, although they are close to each other, but still have a number of distinctive nuances.
The most common interpretation is the idea of the cyclical nature of life. Events in the world and in the life of each person successively replace each other: after night comes morning, after birth, development follows, and then decrepitude and death, the seasons change, stars are born and go out … Everything happens in due time and everything is transient.
The second interpretation seems to follow from the first: everything comes on time, and it is important that any deed be done on time - only then the deed will bring the desired results. Any action must have its own reasons and conditions for its implementation. Thoughtless actions, committed at the wrong time, can only harm.
And, finally, the third interpretation is the most profound, but still does not contradict the first two: everything in a person's life has its cause and its effect, every act entails "reward".
This interpretation is close to the principles of the karmic law.
If a person does good deeds, he will receive a well-deserved reward, and if his deeds are evil, evil will return to him.
