Everything Has Its Time
1 Everything on earth
has its own time
and its own season.
2 There is a time
for birth and death,
planting and reaping,
3 for killing and healing,
destroying and building,
4 for crying and laughing,
weeping and dancing,
5 for throwing stones
and gathering stones,
embracing and parting.
6 There is a time
for finding and losing,
keeping and giving,
7 for tearing and sewing,
listening and speaking.
8 There is also a time
for love and hate,
for war and peace.
What God Has Given Us To Do
9 What do we gain by all our hard work? 10 I have seen what difficult things God demands of us. 11 God makes everything happen at the right time. Yet none of us can ever fully understand all he has done, and he puts questions in our minds about the past and the future. 12 I know the best thing we can do is to always enjoy life, 13 because God's gift to us is the happiness we get from our food and drink and from the work we do. 14 Everything God has done will last forever; nothing he does can ever be changed. God has done all this, so that we will worship him.
15 Everything that happens
has happened before,
and all that will be
has already been—
God does everything
over and over again.
The Future Is Known Only to God
16 Everywhere on earth I saw violence and injustice instead of fairness and justice. 17 So I told myself that God has set a time and a place for everything. He will judge everyone, both the wicked and the good. 18 I know God is testing us to show us that we are merely animals. 19 Like animals we breathe and die, and we are no better off than they are. It just doesn't make sense. 20 All living creatures go to the same place. We are made from earth, and we return to earth. 21 Who really knows if our spirits go up and the spirits of animals go down into the earth? 22 We were meant to enjoy our work, and that's the best thing we can do. We can never know the future.
1 To all things there is an appointed time, and a time to euery purpose vnder the heauen. 2 A time to bee borne, and a time to die: a time to plant, and a time to plucke vp that which is planted. 3 A time to slay, and a time to heale: a time to breake downe, and a time to builde. 4 A time to weepe, and a time to laugh: a time to mourne, and a time to dance. 5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones: a time to embrace, and a time to be farre from embracing. 6 A time to seeke, and a time to lose: a time to keepe, and a time to cast away. 7 A time to rent, and a time to sowe: a time to keepe silence, and a time to speake. 8 A time to loue, and a time to hate: a time of warre, and a time of peace. 9 What profite hath hee that worketh of the thing wherein he trauaileth? 10 I haue seene the trauaile that God hath giuen to ye sonnes of men to humble them thereby. 11 He hath made euery thing beautifull in his time: also he hath set the worlde in their heart, yet can not man finde out the worke that God hath wrought from the beginning euen to the end. 12 I know that there is nothing good in them, but to reioyce, and to doe good in his life. 13 And also that euery man eateth and drinketh, and seeth the commoditie of all his labour. this is the gift of God. 14 I knowe that whatsoeuer God shall doe, it shalbe for euer: to it can no man adde, and from it can none diminish: for God hath done it, that they should feare before him. 15 What is that that hath bene? that is nowe: and that that shalbe, hath now bene: for God requireth that which is past. 16 And moreouer I haue seene vnder the sunne the place of iudgement, where was wickednesse, and the place of iustice where was iniquitie. 17 I thought in mine heart, God wil iudge the iust and the wicked: for time is there for euery purpose and for euery worke. 18 I considered in mine heart the state of the children of men that God had purged them: yet to see to, they are in themselues as beastes. 19 For the condition of the children of men, and the condition of beasts are euen as one condition vnto them. As the one dyeth, so dyeth the other: for they haue all one breath, and there is no excellency of man aboue ye beast: for all is vanitie. 20 All goe to one place, and all was of the dust, and all shall returne to the dust. 21 Who knoweth whether the spirit of man ascend vpward, and the spirit of the beast descend downeward to the earth? 22 Therefore I see that there is nothing better then that a man shoulde reioyce in his affaires, because that is his portion. For who shall bring him to see what shalbe after him?