Ecclesiastes

3 For every thing there is a season,—And a time for every pursuit under the heavens:—

2 A time to be born and a time to die,—A time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal,—A time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep and a time to laugh,—A time to wail, and a time to dance for joy;

5 A time to cast away stones and a time to heap up stones,—A time to embrace, and a time to be far from loving embrace;

6 A time to seek and a time to give up as lost,—A time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 A time to rend 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 of war, and a time of peace.

9 What profit hath he that worketh, in that wherein himself hath toiled?

10 I looked at the employment which God hath given to the sons of men to work therein:

11 Everything hath he made beautiful in its own time,—also intelligence hath he put in their heart, without which men could not find out the work which God hath wrought from the beginning even unto the end.

12 I know that there is no blessedness in them,—save to be glad, and to do well with one’s life.

13 Though indeed that any man should eat and drink, and see blessedness in all his toil it is the gift of God.

14 I know that whatsoever God doeth the same shall be age-abiding, unto it there is nothing to add, and from it there is nothing to take away,—and God hath done it, that men should stand in awe before him.

15 That which was already had been, and that which shall be already shall have been,—but God seeketh that which hath been chased away.

16 Then again I saw under the sun,—the place of justice that there was lawlessness, and the place of righteousness that there was lawlessness.

17 Said I in my heart, Both the righteous and the lawless will God judge,—for [there will be] a time for every pursuit, and concerning every work—there.

18 Said I in my heart, as concerning the sons of men That God was minded to prove them,—and that they might see that they were beasts of themselves.

19 For as regardeth the destiny of the sons of men and the destiny of beasts one fate have they, as dieth the one so dieth the other, and one spirit have they all,—and the pre-eminence of man over beast is nothing, for all were vanity:

20 all go unto one place,—all came from the dust, and all return to the dust.

21 Who knoweth the spirit of the sons of men, whether it ascendeth above,—or the spirit of the beast, whether it descendeth below to the earth?

22 So I saw that there was nothing better than that a man should be glad in his works, for that is his portion,—for who can bring him in to look upon that which shall be after him?