Ecclesiastes 3
1TIME is for all things: but there is a particular portion of time for every particular affair under heaven:
2a time to be born and a time to die—a time to plant and a time to root up what was planted—
3a time to kill and a time to heal—a time to pull down and a time to build up—
4a time to weep and a time to laugh—a time to mourn and a time to dance—
5a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together—a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing—
6a time to seek and a time to lose—
7a time to keep and a time to throw away—a time to rend and a time to sew—a time to be silent and a time to speak—
8a time to love and a time to hate—a time of war and a time of peace.
9What is the lasting advantage of the agent from the things in which he laboureth?
10I have taken a collective view of all the business which God hath assigned to the sons of men to be exercised therewith.
11All the things which He made, considered as a whole, are good in His time. But with regard to all things considered as one whole, to them He hath assigned the whole age; so that no man can find out the work which God hath done from beginning to end.
12I have found that there is no good in them
13(I mean in regard to every man who eateth and drinketh, and can see good in all his labour) if there is not a gift of God that he may be made glad and do good in his life.
14I have found that all the things which God hath made shall continue their age; there is no adding to it nor taking from it; and that God hath acted that they may be awed at His presence.
15What hath been is now; and what are to be have already been; and God will find out him who is persecuted:
16and yet I saw under the sun a place of judgment: the wicked [man] was there; and a place for the just: the pious was there.
17Then I said in my heart: God will judge the whole class of the righteous, and the whole class of the wicked. For there is a time for everything; and He is there over all the work.
18I communed with my heart concerning a saying of the sons of men, ’That God distinguisheth them.’ Now in order to shew that they themselves are beasts,
19that at least which befalleth man, befalleth them; and that which befalleth the beast befalleth man. The same event happeneth to both. As the one dieth, so doth the other. And they have all one breath. What advantage then hath man over the beast? None: for all are vanity.
20They are all for one place. They were all from dust: and to dust they shall all return.
21And who hath seen the breath of the sons of men whether it ascendeth upwards; and the breath of the beast, whether it descendeth downwards into the earth?
22So I saw that there is nothing good in the works of man, but that by which he can be made glad; for that is his portion, for who will bring him to see what will be after him?