Ecclesiastes 3

A time for everything

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:a ²a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,b ³a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,c ⁴a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,d 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,e ⁷a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,f ⁸a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.g

God set eternity in the heart

⁹What do workers gain from their toil? ¹⁰I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. ¹¹He 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.h

¹²I 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, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. ¹⁴I 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.i

¹⁵Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.j

All go to the same place

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 both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time to judge every deed.” ¹⁸I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals.k

¹⁹Surely the fate of human beings 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. ²⁰All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. ²¹Who knows if the human spirit rises upward 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, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?