Ecclesiastes 3–4

A Time for Everything

3Everything that happens in this world happens at the time God chooses.

²He sets the time for birth and the time for death,

the time for planting and the time for pulling up,

³the time for killing and the time for healing,

the time for tearing down and the time for building.

⁴He sets the time for sorrow and the time for joy,

the time for mourning and the time for dancing,

⁵the time for making love and the time for not making love,

the time for kissing and the time for not kissing.

⁶He sets the time for finding and the time for losing,

the time for saving and the time for throwing away,

⁷the time for tearing and the time for mending,

the time for silence and the time for talk.

⁸He sets the time for love and the time for hate,

the time for war and the time for peace.

⁹What do we gain from all our work? ¹⁰I know the heavy burdens that God has laid on us. ¹¹He has set the right time for everything. He has given us a desire to know the future, but never gives us the satisfaction of fully understanding what he does. ¹²So I realized that all we can do is to be happy and do the best we can while we are still alive. ¹³All of us should eat and drink and enjoy what we have worked for. It is God’s gift.

¹⁴I know that everything God does will last for ever. You can’t add anything to it or take anything away from it. And one thing God does is to make us stand in awe of him. ¹⁵Whatever happens or can happen has already happened before. God makes the same thing happen again and again.

Injustice in the World

¹⁶In addition, I have also noticed that in this world you find wickedness where justice and right ought to be. ¹⁷I told myself, “God is going to judge the righteous and the evil alike, because every thing, every action, will happen at its own set time.”^{a 18}I concluded that God is testing us, to show us that we are no better than animals. ¹⁹After all, the same fate awaits human beings and animals alike. One dies just like the other. They are both the same kind of creature. A human being is no better off than an animal, because life has no meaning for either. ²⁰They are both going to the same place—the dust. They both came from it; they will both go back to it. ²¹How can anyone be sure that the human spirit goes upwards while an animal’s spirit goes down into the ground? ²²So I realized then that the best thing we can do is to enjoy what we have worked for. There is nothing else we can do.^b There is no way for us to know what will happen after we die.

4Then I looked again at all the injustice that goes on in this world. The oppressed were weeping, and no one would help them. No one would help them, because their oppressors had power on their side. ²I envy those who are dead and gone; they are better off than those who are still alive. ³But better off than either are those who have never been born, who have never seen the injustice that goes on in this world.

⁴I have also learnt why people work so hard to succeed: it is because they envy their neighbours. But it is useless. It is like chasing the wind. ⁵They say that anyone would be a fool to fold his hands and let himself starve to death. ⁶Perhaps so, but it is better to have only a little, with peace of mind, than to be busy all the time with both hands, trying to catch the wind.

⁷I have noticed something else in life that is useless. ⁸Here is a man who lives alone. He has no son, no brother, yet he is always working, never satisfied with the wealth he has. For whom is he working so hard and denying himself any pleasure? This is useless, too—and a miserable way to live.

⁹Two are better off than one, because together they can work more effectively. ¹⁰If one of them falls down, the other can help him up. But if someone is alone and falls, it’s just too bad, because there is no one to help him. ¹¹If it is cold, two can sleep together and stay warm, but how can you keep warm by yourself? ¹²Two people can resist an attack that would defeat one person alone. A rope made of three cords is hard to break.

^13–14A man may rise from poverty to become king of his country, or go from prison to the throne, but if in his old age he is too foolish to take advice, he is not as well off as a young man who is poor but intelligent. ¹⁵I thought about all the people who live in this world, and I realized that somewhere among them there is a young man who will take the king’s place. ¹⁶There may be no limit to the number of people a king rules; when he is gone, no one will be grateful for what he has done. It is useless. It is like chasing the wind.