Ecclesiastes - Chapter 3 | New International Version

  • 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.
  • 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; 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 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?
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