Ecclesiastes 3:1–4:3

A Time for Everything

3There is a time^g for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

²a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,^h

³a time to killⁱ and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

⁴a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

⁵a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

⁶a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

⁷a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent^j and a time to speak,

⁸a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

⁹What do workers gain from their toil?^{k 10}I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.^{l 11}He has made everything beautiful in its time.^m He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet^a no one can fathomⁿ what God has done from beginning to end.^{o 12}I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. ¹³That each of them may eat and drink,^p and find satisfaction^q in all their toil—this is the gift of God.^{r 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 people will fear him.^s

¹⁵Whatever is has already been,^t

and what will be has been before;^u

and God will call the past to account.^b

¹⁶And I saw something else under the sun:

In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,

in the place of justice—wickedness was there.

¹⁷I said to myself,

“God will bring into judgment^v

both the righteous and the wicked,

for there will be a time for every activity,

a time to judge every deed.”^w

¹⁸I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals.^{x 19}Surely the fate of human beings^y is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath^c; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. ²⁰All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.^{z 21}Who knows if the human spirit rises upward^a and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

²²So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work,^b because that is their lot.^c For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?

Oppression, Toil, Friendlessness

4Again I looked and saw all the oppression^d that was taking place under the sun:

I saw the tears of the oppressed—

and they have no comforter;

power was on the side of their oppressors—

and they have no comforter.^e

²And I declared that the dead,^f

who had already died,

are happier than the living,

who are still alive.^g

³But better than both

is the one who has never been born,^h

who has not seen the evil

that is done under the sun.ⁱ