Ecclesiastes 3
- 1
- There is a time for everything, and a season for every
activity under heaven:
- 2
- a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and
a time to uproot,
- 3
- a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down
and a time to build,
- 4
- a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a
time to dance,
- 5
- a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a
time to embrace and a time to refrain,
- 6
- a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep
and a time to throw away,
- 7
- a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent
and a time to speak,
- 8
- a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a
time for peace.
- 9
- What does the worker gain from his toil?
- 10
- I have seen the burden God has laid on men.
- 11
- He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also
set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning
to end.
- 12
- I know that there is nothing better for men than to be
happy and do good while they live.
- 13
- That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in
all his toil--this is the gift of God.
- 14
- I know that everything God does will endure forever;
nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere
him.
- 15
- Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been
before; and God will call the past to account. [1]
- 16
- And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of
judgment--wickedness was there, in the place of justice--wickedness was there.
- 17
- I thought in my heart, "God will bring to judgment
both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time for
every deed."
- 18
- I also thought, "As for men, God tests them so that
they may see that they are like the animals.
- 19
- Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate
awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath [2]; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is
meaningless.
- 20
- All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust
all return.
- 21
- Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the
spirit of the animal [3] goes down into the
earth?"
- 22
- So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to
enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen
after him?
-
[1] 15 Or God calls back the past
[2] 19 Or spirit
[3] 21 Or Who knows the spirit of man, which rises
upward, or the spirit of the animal, which |