3 ¶ For all things there is a season, and every will under the heaven has its time determined.

² A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

³ a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

⁴ a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

⁵ a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

⁶ a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

⁷ a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

⁹ What profit does the one that works have in that in which he labours?

¹⁰ I have seen the travail which God has given to the sons of men that they may be occupied in it.

¹¹ ¶ He has made every thing beautiful in his time: even the world he has given over to their will, in such a way that no man can attain to this work that God makes from the beginning to the end.

¹² I have learned that there is nothing better for them, but to rejoice and to do good in his life.

¹³ And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labour; it is the gift of God.

¹⁴ I have understood that whatever God does, it shall be for ever; nothing can be added to it, nor any thing taken from it because God does it that men should fear before him.

¹⁵ That which has been is now, and that which is to be has already been and God shall seek that which is past.

¹⁶ ¶ And moreover I saw under the sun that instead of judgment, there was wickedness; and instead of righteousness, that iniquity was there.

¹⁷ I said in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time determined to judge every will and regarding everything that is done.

¹⁸ I said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men that God might manifest them and that they might see that they themselves are beasts one to another.

¹⁹ For that which befalls the sons of men befalls beasts; even one thing befalls them: as the one dies, so dies the other; and they all have one breath; so that a man has no more breath than a beast: for all is vanity.

²⁰ All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all shall turn to dust again.

²¹ Who knows that the spirit of the sons of men goes upward and that the spirit of the beast goes downward to the earth?

²² Therefore I perceive that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion; for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?