A Time for Everything

3 For everything there is a season, and ^(A)a time for every matter under heaven:

¹⁷ I said in my heart, ^(A)God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is ^(B)a time for every matter and for every work.

³ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ ^(A)You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret ^(B)the signs of the times.

⁵ Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way.^{[a] 6} For there is a time and a way ^(A)for everything, although man's trouble^[b] lies heavy on him.

^14 (A)In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, ^(B)so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.

²⁶ But he said to him, “Did not my heart go when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Was it a time to accept money and garments, olive orchards and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male servants and female servants?

³ I ^(A)searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on ^(B)folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

¹³ And I ^(A)applied my heart^[a] to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy ^(B)business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.

¹⁷ So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for ^(A)all is vanity and a striving after wind.