To Everything There Is a Season

1To everything there is a season,

and a time for every thing desired under the heavens:

2A time to give birth and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to pluck up the 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,

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 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.

God’s Works Remain Forever

9What is the profit of the one making in that which he toils? 10I have seen the task that God has given to the sons of man, to be occupied with it. 11He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also eternity put in their heart, without which a man cannot find out the work that God has done from beginning even to end.

12I know that there is nothing good for them, but than to rejoice and to do good during their lives, 13and also that every man should eat and drink and see good in all his toil—it is a gift of God. 14I know that everything that God does, it will be forever; to it nothing can be added, and from it nothing can be diminished; and God has done it that they should fear from before His face. 15That which has been already, it is; and that which is to be, it has already been—and God requires that which is pursued.

From Dust to Dust

16And again I saw under the sun that in the place of judgment there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, there was wickedness. 17I said in my heart, “The righteous and the wicked, God will judge, because a time is to every activity, and for every work there.”

18I said in my heart concerning the manner of the sons of man, “God is testing them, that they might see that they are beasts—they themselves.” 19For an event is to the sons of man, and an event is to the beasts, one is and an event for them: As the death of this one, so is the death of this one; and one breath† is to all, and the advantage of the man over the beast is nothing—for all is vapor. 20All are going to one place; all are from the dust, and all return to the dust.

21Who knows if the spirit of the sons of man, it is ascending upward, and the spirit of the beast, it is desending downward into the earth? 22And I saw that nothing is better than that the man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his portion. For who can bring him to see what will come after him?