Ecclesiastes 3
1 There is a moment for everything, and a time for every purpose under heaven.
2 A time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot what was planted.
3 A time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build.
4 A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.
5 A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to pull away from an embrace.
6 A time to search and a time to give up as lost; a time to keep and a time to throw away.
7 A time to tear and a time to sew; a time to be silent and a time to speak.
8 A time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace.
9 What benefit does the worker gain from all the toil he labors at?
10 I have seen the task God has given human beings to occupy themselves with.
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also placed eternity in their hearts, yet human beings cannot discover the work God has done from beginning to end.
12 I understood that there is nothing better for them than to be glad and do good throughout their lives.
13 And that every person who eats, drinks, and enjoys the good in all their work—this is a gift from God.
14 I understood that everything God does will endure forever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be taken away from it. God has done this so that people will stand in awe before him.
15 What has been already exists, and what is to come has already been. And God seeks what has been driven away.
16 I also saw under the sun: in the place of judgment there was wickedness, and in the place of justice there was wickedness.
17 I said to myself, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, because there is a time for every purpose and for every deed.”
18 I said to myself concerning human beings, “God tests them so they may see that, in themselves, they are animals.”
19 For human beings and animals share the same fate: as one dies, so dies the other, and they all have the same breath. A human being has no advantage over an animal, because everything is a breath.
20 Everything goes to the same place: everything came from dust, and everything returns to dust.
21 Who knows whether the breath of human beings rises upward, and whether the breath of animals descends downward to the earth?
22 I saw that there is nothing better than for a person to rejoice in their work, because that is their share. For who can bring them back to see what will happen after them?
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