CHAPTER 3
1Everything has a season, and a time for every matter under the heavens.
2A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
3A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to rip down and a time to build.
4A time to weep and a time to laugh.
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
5A time to fling stones and a time to gather stones in.
A time to embrace and a time to pull back from embracing.
6A time to seek and a time to lose.
A time to keep and a time to fling away.
7A time to tear and a time to sew.
A time to keep silent 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 is there for him who does in what he toils?
10I have seen the business that God has given to the sons of man with which to busy themselves. 11Everything He has done aptly in its time. Eternity, too, He has put in their heart, without man’s grasping at all what it is God has done from beginning to end. 12I know that there is nothing good in it but to be merry and to partake of good things in his life. 13And also every man who eats and drinks and enjoys good things in all his toil—this is a gift from God. 14I know that whatever God does will be forever. One cannot add to it and one cannot take away from it. And God has acted also that they should fear Him. 15That which was already has been, and what is to be already has been, and God seeks out the pursued. 16And further did I see under the sun: the place of judgment—wickedness there, and the place of justice—the wicked there. 17I said in my heart: The just man and the wicked God will judge, for there is a time for every matter, and every deed He assesses. 18I said in my heart in regard to the sons of man, God has sifted them out to show them they are but beasts. 19For the fate of the sons of man and the fate of the beast is a single fate. As one dies so dies the other, and all have a single spirit, and man’s advantage over the beast is naught, for everything is mere breath. 20Everything goes to a single place. Everything was from the dust, and everything goes back to the dust. 21Who knows whether man’s spirit goes upward and the beast’s spirit goes down to the earth? 22And I saw that nothing is better than that man should rejoice in his works, for that is his share, for who can bring him to see what will be after him?