Turn, Turn, Turn

Anthem Lights' "Turn, Turn, Turn" sets Ecclesiastes chapter three almost word for word to music, the same text Pete Seeger adapted decades earlier and The Byrds made famous — but the words themselves are scripture, not a loose paraphrase. "A time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to reap" is close to a direct quotation of the ancient wisdom book's opening list of paired opposites.

"A time to kill, a time to heal, a time to laugh, a time to weep" keeps the list's uncomfortable entries intact rather than softening them — Ecclesiastes doesn't pretend life is only the pleasant half of each pair, and neither does the song. "A time of love, a time of hate, a time of war, a time of peace" continues that same refusal to flatten the list into only easy categories.

"And a time to every purpose under heaven" is the refrain holding the whole list together — not chaos, but a season for everything, each opposite eventually having its moment. The song doesn't resolve the tension between the pairs; it just keeps insisting, the same way Ecclesiastes does, that there's a shape and a purpose underneath even the hardest entries on the list.