Ecclesiastes 3:9–11
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9–13But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I’ve had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he’s left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he’s coming or going.
Copyright 2005 Eugene H. Peterson.
In other versions
ESVEnglish Standard Version
What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
Copyright 2001 Crossway Bibles
NIVNew International Version (2011)
What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 Biblica, Inc.
CSBChristian Standard Bible
What does the worker gain from his struggles? I have seen the task that God has given the children of Adam to keep them occupied. He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, but no one can discover the work God has done from beginning to end.
Copyright 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
NLTNew Living Translation
What do people really get for all their hard work? I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
LEBThe Lexham English Bible
What does the worker gain in his toil?
I have seen the business God gives to humans to preoccupy them. He has made everything suitable in its time. He also has put the past in their hearts, yet no one can grasp what God does from the beginning to the end.
Copyright 2012 Lexham Press
KJV 1900King James Version
What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
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