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
Ecclesiastes 3
3
The Mystery of Time
1There is an occasion for everything,
and a time for every activity under heaven:#Ec 3:17; 8:6
2a time to give birth and a time to die;#Jb 14:5; Heb 9:27
a time to plant and a time to uproot;#3:2 Lit uproot what is planted
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;#Rm 12:15
a time to mourn and a time to dance;#Ex 15:20
5a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;#2Kg 3:19,25; Is 5:2
a time to embrace and a time to avoid embracing;#1Co 7:5
6a time to search and a time to count as lost;
a time to keep and a time to throw away;
7a time to tear and a time to sew;
a time to be silent and a time to speak;#Am 5:13; 1Co 14:26–32
8a time to love and a time to hate;
a time for war and a time for peace.#Mt 5:9; 10:34
9What does the worker gain from his struggles?#Ec 1:3 10I have seen the task that God has given the children of Adam to keep them occupied.#Ec 1:13; 2:26 11He has made everything appropriate#3:11 Or beautiful in its time.#Gn 1:31 He has also put eternity in their hearts,#3:11 Or has put a sense of past and future into their minds, or has placed ignorance in their hearts but no one can discover the work God has done from beginning to end.#Jb 5:9; Ec 7:23; 8:17; Rm 11:33 12I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy the#3:12 Lit his good life. 13It is also the gift of God whenever anyone eats, drinks, and enjoys all his efforts.#Ec 2:24; 5:19 14I know that everything God does will last forever; there is no adding to it or taking from it.#Rv 22:18–19 God works so that people will be in awe of him.#Ex 7:5; Ezk 36:23 15Whatever is, has already been,#Ec 1:9; 6:10 and whatever will be, already is. However, God seeks justice for the persecuted.#3:15 Lit God seeks what is pursued
The Mystery of Injustice and Death
16I also observed under the sun: there is wickedness at the place of judgment and there is wickedness at the place of righteousness.#Ec 4:1; 5:8; 8:9 17I said to myself, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked,#Ec 11:9; Mt 16:27; Rm 2:6–10; 2Th 1:6–9 since there is a time for every activity and every work.”#Ec 3:1 18I said to myself, “This happens so that God may test the children of Adam and they may see for themselves that they are like animals.”#Ps 49:12,20; 73:22 19For the fate of the children of Adam and the fate of animals is the same.#Ec 9:12 As one dies, so dies the other; they all have the same breath. People have no advantage over animals since everything is futile. 20All are going to the same place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.#Gn 3:19; Ec 12:7 21Who knows if the spirits of the children of Adam go upward and the spirits of animals go downward to the earth? 22I have seen that there is nothing better than for a person to enjoy his activities#Ec 2:24 because that is his reward. For who can enable him to see what will happen after he dies?#3:22 Lit after him#Ec 2:18; 6:12; 8:7; 10:14
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