Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything

There is a time^a for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,

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

a time to kill^c and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

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

a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

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

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

What do workers gain from their toil?^e I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.^f He has made everything beautiful in its time.^g He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom^h what God has done from beginning to end.ⁱ I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink,^j and find satisfaction^k in all their toil—this is the gift of God.^l 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.^m

Whatever is has already been,ⁿ

and what will be has been before;^o

and God will call the past to account.

And I saw something else under the sun:

In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,

in the place of justice—wickedness was there.

I said to myself,

“God will bring into judgment^p

both the righteous and the wicked,

for there will be a time for every activity,

a time to judge every deed.”^q

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

So I saw that there is nothing better for people than to enjoy their work,^v because that is their lot.^w For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?