Ecclesiastes 3
3
A Time for Everything
1#Ecc 3:17 To everything there is a season,
a time for every purpose under heaven:
2#Heb 9:27; Job 14:5 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted;
3#1Sa 2:6; Hos 6:1–2 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4#Ex 15:20; Ro 12:15 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5#2Ki 3:25; Joel 2:16 a 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 gain, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7#Am 5:13; Ge 37:29 a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8#Lk 14:26 a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time of war, and a time of peace.
The God-Given Task
9#Ecc 1:3; 2:11What benefit does the worker have in his toil? 10#Ge 3:19; Ecc 2:26I have seen the task that God has given to sons of men to be concerned with. 11#Ecc 8:17; Ro 11:33He has made everything beautiful in its appropriate time. He has also put obscurity in their hearts#Or timelessness, or perpetuity. so that no one comes to know the work that God has done from the beginning to the end. 12#Ps 37:3; Ecc 3:22I experienced that there is nothing better for them than to be glad and do good in their life. 13#Ecc 2:24And also that everyone should eat and drink and experience good in all their labor. This is a gift of God. 14#Jas 1:17I have perceived that everything that God has done will be lasting. And to this there is nothing to be added, and from it there is nothing to be taken away. And God has done this so that in His presence men fear Him.
15That which is has already been,
and what is to come has also already been;
and God seeks out what has been driven away.
The Vanity of Injustice
16#Ecc 4:1; 5:8Moreover I saw what was under the sun:
In the place of justice, there was wickedness;
and in the place of righteousness, there was wickedness.
17#Ecc 3:1; Mt 16:27I thought in my heart:
God will bring judgment
to the righteous and the wicked,
for there is an appropriate time
for every matter and deed.
18#Ps 73:22Then I thought in my heart: Regarding the account of sons of men, God is making clear to them to show that they are but animals. 19#Ps 49:12For what befalls the sons of men befalls animals; as one dies, so dies the other. There is one breath for all of them; there is no advantage for man any more than animals, for all is vanity. 20#Ge 3:19; Job 34:15All go to one place: All are from the dust and all return to dust. 21#Ecc 12:7Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of animals goes down to the earth?
22#Ecc 2:24; 6:12So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his labor, for that is his reward. For who will bring him to see what will happen after his life?
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Military Bible Association
Ecclesiastes 3
3
A Time for Everything
1There is a right time for everything, and everything on earth will happen at the right time.
2There is a time to be born
and a time to die.
There is a time to plant
and a time to pull up plants.
3There is a time to kill
and a time to heal.
There is a time to destroy
and a time to build.
4There is a time to cry
and a time to laugh.
There is a time to be sad
and a time to dance with joy.
5There is a time to throw weapons down
and a time to pick them up.#3:5 Literally, “There is a time to throw stones away and a time to gather stones.”
There is a time to hug someone
and a time to stop holding so tightly.
6There is a time to look for something
and a time to consider it lost.
There is a time to keep things
and a time to throw things away.
7There is a time to tear cloth
and a time to sew it.
There is a time to be silent
and a time to speak.
8There is a time to love
and a time to hate.
There is a time for war
and a time for peace.
God Controls His World
9Do people really gain anything from their hard work? 10I saw all the hard work God gave us to do. 11God gave us the ability to think about his world,#3:11 the ability … world Or “a desire to know the future.” but we can never completely understand everything he does. And yet, he does everything at just the right time.
12I learned that the best thing for people to do is to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live. 13God wants everyone to eat, drink, and enjoy their work. These are gifts from God.
14I learned that anything God does will continue forever. People cannot add anything to the work of God, and they cannot take anything away from it. God did this so that people would respect him. 15What happened in the past has happened, and what will happen in the future will happen. But God wants to help those who have been treated badly.#3:15 Or “What happens now also happened in the past. What happens in the future has also happened before. God makes things happen again and again.”
16I also saw these things in this life#3:16 in this life Literally, “under the sun.”: I saw that the courts should be filled with goodness and fairness, but there is evil there now. 17So I said to myself, “God has planned a time for everything, and he has planned a time to judge everything people do. He will judge good people and bad people.”
Are People Like Animals?
18I thought about what people do to each other. And I said to myself, “God wants people to see that they are like animals. 19The same thing happens to animals and to people—they die. People and animals have the same ‘breath.’#3:19 breath Or “spirit.” Is a dead animal different from a dead person? It is all so senseless! 20The bodies of people and animals end the same way. They came from the earth, and, in the end, they will go back to the earth. 21Who knows what happens to a person’s spirit? Who knows if a human’s spirit goes up to God while an animal’s spirit goes down into the ground?”
22So I saw that the best thing people can do is to enjoy what they do, because that is all they have. Besides, no one can help another person see what will happen in the future.
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