"This Too Shall Pass" — What It Means and Where It Really Comes From
"This too shall pass" is a common saying used to express that difficult or even joyful circumstances are temporary. The phrase does not appear in the Bible. Its origins are traced to medieval Persian poetry and later 19th-century English literature, including a well-known story about King Solomon. While not scriptural, the concept of human experience being temporary is thoroughly biblical — Ecclesiastes, 2 Corinthians 4:17, and James 4:14 all engage directly with the transience of present circumstances.
Someone sends it to you when you're going through something hard. You've probably said it yourself. It's one of those phrases that feels ancient, weighty, almost scriptural — the kind of thing that sounds like it came from somewhere important.
Here's the honest answer: it's not in the Bible. Not in any version. The phrase has a genuinely interesting history that's worth knowing. But what's more interesting is what the Bible actually says about the same idea — because what it says goes considerably deeper than the phrase does.
Where the Phrase Actually Comes From
The earliest known versions of "this too shall pass" appear in Persian Sufi poetry — attributed to poets like Attar of Nishapur in the 12th century. The sentiment passed through Persian and Hebrew literature and into English through various channels.
The version most people have heard involves King Solomon. The story goes: Solomon asked his advisors to create something that would make a sad man happy and a happy man sad. They returned with a ring engraved with the Hebrew phrase gam zeh ya'avor — "this too shall pass." The story is not in the Bible. It appears in Talmudic literature and later folklore. Solomon is connected to it because of his association with wisdom, but it is not a biblical text.
Abraham Lincoln used a version of the phrase in an 1859 address, which is how it became widely embedded in English-speaking culture. He attributed it to an "Eastern monarch" — a reference to the Solomon folklore. By the 20th century it had fully detached from any specific attribution and become simply one of those phrases people say.
None of that makes it wrong. The sentiment — that present circumstances, both painful and pleasant, are temporary — is genuinely true and worth holding. But knowing it's not Scripture matters, because the Bible's version of the same idea is more demanding and more comforting than the phrase manages to be.
What the Bible Actually Says About Temporary Suffering
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (NKJV) is the most direct biblical engagement with the transience of present suffering:
"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
Paul is writing from prison. He is describing his own experience — beatings, shipwrecks, stonings, rejection — as "light and momentary troubles." Not because they weren't painful. Not because he was spiritually bypassing the difficulty. But because he was comparing them to something so large that the comparison changed their weight.
That's the difference between "this too shall pass" and what Paul is saying. The phrase offers comfort by minimising: don't worry, it won't last forever. Paul offers comfort by reframing: what this is producing in you is worth more than what it's costing you, and that calculation is what makes it possible to keep going.
Romans 8:18 (NKJV): "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us." The present suffering is real. Paul doesn't dismiss it. He places it in a proportion that makes it bearable — not because it passes, but because of what it is working toward.
What the Bible Says About Seasons
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 is the most thorough biblical treatment of life's seasons — the famous "a time for everything" passage. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. The Preacher is not saying everything gets better. He's saying everything is seasonal — that the present moment, whatever it is, is not the permanent state.
Psalm 30:5 (NKJV): "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." The night is real. The weeping is real. And it will not last forever — not because circumstances are inherently temporary, but because of who God is across those circumstances.
The biblical version of this idea always has a source. It doesn't say "things tend to improve eventually." It says: God's mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:23). God is present in the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4). When you pass through the waters, God is with you (Isaiah 43:2). The comfort is grounded in a person, not a pattern.
The Problem With "This Too Shall Pass" on Its Own
The phrase works as comfort for hard times — temporary suffering, eventually ending. But notice that it applies equally to good times. This too shall pass means: your joy is also temporary. Your health is also passing. Your relationships, your success, your peace — all of it temporary.
James 4:14 (NKJV): "Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away." That is a sobering truth, not primarily a comforting one. On its own, the transience of everything points toward meaninglessness — which is exactly the conclusion Ecclesiastes wrestles with honestly before arriving somewhere else.
The something else is where the Bible goes that the phrase doesn't. Revelation 21:4 (NKJV) promises that in the new creation, "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying." The hard seasons pass. But more than that — the God who walked through them with you is making something permanent on the other side of them.
True — but Not the Whole Truth
This too shall pass is true. Present circumstances are temporary. The pain you are carrying right now will not always be this weight. That is worth knowing and worth saying to someone who needs to hear it.
But the Bible's version of that truth carries more weight than the phrase does, because it adds: and while it's here, God is in it. And where it is going is somewhere better than where you started. And what it is producing in you is worth more than what it is costing you.
The phrase offers patience. The Bible offers purpose. Both are true. Only one of them tells you what to do with the time between now and when it passes.
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Author
Shafraz Jeal
Shafraz Jeal is the founder of By Design Ministry, created to help people discover Jesus, understand the Bible, and grow in faith. After encountering Christ in 2016, his life was radically changed, and that journey continues to shape everything he shares.
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