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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© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
Kohelet (Ecc) 3
3
1For everything there is a season,
a right time for every intention under heaven —
2a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear 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 throw stones and a time to gather stones,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
6a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to discard,
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 does the worker gain from his efforts? 10I have seen the task God has given humanity to keep us occupied. 11He has made everything suited to its time; also, he has given human beings an awareness of eternity; but in such a way that they can’t fully comprehend, from beginning to end, the things God does. 12I know that there is nothing better for them to do than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live. 13Still, the fact that everyone can eat and drink and enjoy the good that results from all his work, is a gift of God. 14I know that
whatever God does will last forever;
there is nothing to add or subtract from it;
and God has done it so that people will fear him.
15That which was is here already;
and that which will be has already been,
but God seeks out what people chase after.
16Another thing I observed under the sun:
There, in the same place as justice, was wickedness;
there, in the same place as righteousness, was wickedness.
17I said to myself, “The righteous and the wicked God will judge, because there is a right time for every intention and for every action.”
18Concerning people, I said to myself, “God is testing them, so that they will see that by themselves they are just animals. 19After all, the same things that happen to people happen to animals, the very same thing — just as the one dies, so does the other. Yes, their breath is the same; so that humans are no better than animals; since nothing matters, anyway. 20They all go to the same place; they all come from dust, and they all return to dust. 21Who knows if the spirit of a human being goes upward and the spirit of an animal goes downward into the earth?” 22So I concluded that there is nothing better for a person to do than take joy in his activities, that that is his allotted portion; for who can enable him to see what will happen after him?
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