⁶ For every matter has its time and way, although the troubles of mortals lie heavy upon them.^(A)

Everything Has Its Time

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

¹⁷ I said to myself, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for he has appointed a time for every matter and for every work.”^(A)

⁴² saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ Indeed, the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you and hem you in on every side.^{(A) 44} They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”^[a](B)

²⁶ Just as it was in the days of Noah, so, too, it will be in the days of the Son of Man.^{(A) 27} They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them. ²⁸ Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building,^{(B) 29} but on the day that Lot left Sodom it rained fire and sulfur from heaven and destroyed all of them; ³⁰ it will be like that on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.

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

¹¹ He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.^(A)