Ecclesiastes 3

¹For everything there is a season , and a time for every matter under heaven :

²a time to be born , and a time to die ; a time to plant , and a time to pluck up what is planted ;

³a time to kill , and a time to heal ; a time to break 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 ; a time to keep , and a time to cast away ;

⁷a time to tear , and a time to sew ; a time to keep silence , and a time to speak ;

⁸a time to love , and a time to hate ; a time for war , and a time for peace .

⁹What gain has the worker from his toil ?

¹⁰I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.

¹¹He 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 .

¹²I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live ;

¹³also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil —this is God’s gift to man.

¹⁴I perceived that whatever God does endures forever ; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.

¹⁵That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away .

¹⁶Moreover , I saw under the sun that in the place of justice , even there was wickedness , and in the place of righteousness , even there was wickedness .

¹⁷I said in my heart , God will judge the righteous and the wicked , for there is a time for every matter and for every work .

¹⁸I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts .

¹⁹For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same ; as one dies , so dies the other . They all have the same breath , and man has no advantage over the beasts , for all is vanity .

²⁰All go to one place . All are from the dust , and to dust all return .

²¹Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth ?

²²So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work , for that is his lot . Who can bring him to see what will be after him?